Declaration of the Catalonian Parliament of the recognition of the persecution and genocide of Roma
On 29 March 2007, the Catalonian Parliament has recognised the persecution and genocide against Roma in Catalonia which has taken place until the 20th Century. All political parties agreed upon the declaration passed by the Catalonian Parliament. This political agreement was achieved through intensive lobbying of Catalonian Roma organisations, especially the Federation of Roma Organisations of Catalonia (FAGIC). It is the first time that a Spanish Parliament recognises the genocide, persecution and discrimination faced by Roma in Spain.
In its declaration the Catalonian Parliament: 1) declares and recognises that Roma that live in Spain, and specifically in Catalonia, have been the victim of historical and continued genocide; 2) deplores the racist and anti-Roma laws that Catalan institutions have passed and backed and all the situations that have produced ill-treatment, discrimination and the vulnerability of the Roma community throughout history; and, 3) commits to work for the application of inclusive, effective and determined policies with the objective of achieving equality of opportunities for the members of the Roma community in Catalonia and the recognition and maintenance of their signs of culture and identity, in accordance with the resolutions 1045/VI and 1046/VI of the Parliament, the government interventions undertaken to comply with the mentioned resolutions, with article 42.7 of the Autonomic Statute and the European Union Council Directive 2000/43/CE, implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin".
Read more on: http://www.parlament.cat/portal/page/portal/pcat/IE06/IE0604?p_format=D&p_id=12810055
The Slovak Court decided another case of racist discrimination
On 28 March 2007, the Slovak court decided another case of discrimination based on ethnic origin under the new Slovak Antidiscrimination Act. The decision was issued by the District Court in Kosice - Okolie as still one of few of this kind in Slovakia. The proceeding was brought by the Roma man who was refused services in the local pub in the town Medzev.
The incident occurred in December 2005 when the Roma man with his friend visited the pub "Gasthaus Zuka"in Medzev. After entering the pub he was refused to be served by a. She claimed to be ordered by the owner of the pub not to serve Roma. The discriminated Roma man subsequently decided, in cooperation with non-governmental organization The Center for Civil and Human Rights (Poradna pre obcianske a ludske prava) based in Košice, to initiate the civil court proceeding under the Slovak Antidiscrimination Act against the owner of the pub as for discriminatory treatment in access to services.
The District Court in Košice decided in favor of the Roma man, not taking into account claims of the pub owner that the pub is a "private club" and access is allowed only to the club members. The owner of the pub did not even deny that he had ordered the staff not to serve Roma in his pub. The court considered also the fact that discriminatory treatment against Roma in this pub was not exceptional in the past either. The court in this case ruled that the owner of the pub directly discriminated against the Roma man on the ground of his ethnic origin. The court in its judgment ordered the owner of the pub to issue a written apology that has to be sent to the Roma man and additionally exposed on the entrance of the pub for the period of 30 days. Besides, the court imposed the owner to pay the Roma man financial compensation for such a treatment. The decision of the first instance court is not effective yet. This case undoubtedly is theeffect of the new Slovak antidiscrimination legislation that is only slowly taking root in Slovak courts and in society.
Poradna pre obcianske aludské prava (Center for Civil and Human Rights) http://www.erionet.org/www.poradna-prava.sk
New housing law seriously affects Roma Status
Bucharest - A draft law on housing subject to public debate might affect the Roma communities and other disadvantaged persons, Constantin Cojocariu, Staff Attorney at the European Roma Rights Center told Divers in an interview. "Romania should reform the sector of social houses, instead of fully dissolving it as the law says. This obligation complies with the international commitments that Romania undertook, such as those originating from the European Union's Lisbon Strategy, European Social Charter or UN's International Pact for Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights. I criticized the draft law on the reform in the field of social houses. The market does not provide enough houses to meet the demand, the existent houses are too expensive for most of the poor population and the current system of construction and distribution of social houses is null and not functional. The draft law partly acknowledges the field problem but proposes the dissolution of social houses per se and settles instead a subsidizing system of the rents for low-income families. (...) This law might probably bring to the disappearance of the social houses sector and to the abandonment of the poor families at the mercy of the market forces," Cojocariu said.
DIVERS - http://www.divers.ro/
Czech Republic and Slovakia neglecting Roma Integration
Berlin - The spokesman for Human Rights Policies in the Parliamentary Group Alliance 90/The Greens in the German Bundestag, Volker Beck, traveled to Slovakia and the Czech Republic on March 12-15, 2007, to gather information about the socio-economic situation of the Roma in the two countries. The Roma issue had already been addressed by his Group in a Major Interpellation on the Situation of the Roma in Europe to the German Bundestag. Findings show the persistence of patterns of discrimination of the Roma. Governmental officials are involved in the systematic eviction of the Roma, as in the recent case of Vsetin, described as deportation-like. School segregation continues and the engagement of the civil society in preschool promotion of Roma children finds no support by the state. No compensation for forcibly sterilized women is ensured yet. Roma Holocaust is completely neglected by the authorities, and on the site of a former concentration camp, Léty, a pig fattening is to be found. Volker Beck recommends that coherent and efficient integration strategies be undertaken by the site of the EU as well as Member States, and that transposition of the Race equality Directive be completed, as is long overdue.
Hundreds of Roma people in Harghita to be evicted
Miercurea Ciuc - Over 200 Roma in the towns of Gheorgheni and Odorheiu Secuiesc, Harghita county, central Romania, are about to be evicted of the dwellings that were given back to former owners whose houses were abusively taken during the communist regime. The head of Roma Department within Harghita Prefecture, Sandor Csilla, said the situation in Gheorgheni is serious, as a family with two children was already evicted. The Demeters' are now living in the park, and their children do no longer attend school. The director with the Communal Household Society, Vincze Janos, said the authorities try to solve this problem by assigning them a room from the state living fund. Also, other 14 families were summoned to evict the dwellings they live in by May. Heads of Roma community accuse Gheorgheni city hall of not finding solutions and of not collaborating with Roma representatives so that people do not end up in the street. Gheorgheni City Hall sent an address to Harghita Prefecture, saying it cannot solve this problem out of lack of dwellings. The state has not built any dwelling in the city since 1987. The town of Odorheiu Secuiesc experiences the same problems, and some 40 Roma families are to be evicted from the dwellings they live in.
DIVERS - http://www.divers.ro/
Hungary Closes Gypsy-Majority School
Budapest, March 29 (UPI) -- Local authorities in southeastern Hungary said they would close a middle school to avoid what they described as segregation of Gypsy students.
The Romany Minority Council and the pupils' parents submitted a petition asking authorities in the town of Szeged authorities to abolish Gypsy segregation. About 80 percent of the students in the school are Gypsies.
United Press International http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/03/29/hungary_closes_gypsymajority_school/
Overview of the situation in Poland in the area of racism and discrimination
30. 3. 2007. On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has prepared a short overview of the situation in Poland. Of the national and ethnic minorities residing in Poland, the situation of the Roma is emphasized: ".the situation of the Roma is most difficult. This group has an approximately 90% level of unemployment, which results in poverty, lack of medical care and generally bad living conditions. As a group, the Roma have the lowest level of education. Assistance programs implemented over the last few years have been improving the situation to a certain degree. However, more time is needed to bear out more quantifiable results of these programs (e.g. such as increased employment). Unfortunately, instances of impermissible discrimination against the Roma by authorities still occur. Officials of gmina (county) Limanowa used funds from the government program for the Roma community to build a water supply system. However, water was not connected to Roma homes. Officials assumed the Roma would not pay for the water, so they did not build the connections."
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights http://www.hfhrpol.waw.pl/en/
"Last of Revolutionary Gypsies"
Turkish online newspaper Turkish Daily News informs on the forced demolition of a Roma settlement to build a spastic children center, asking the question "Just because we are Gypsies, do our children deserve to die?":
More on http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=69239
The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities visits Austria
Strasbourg, 26.3.2007 - A delegation of the Advisory Committee on the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities is visiting Austria this week from 26-30 March 2007 in the context of the monitoring of the implementation of this convention in Austria. The visit is the 20th country visit conducted by the Advisory Committee in the second cycle of monitoring. The Committee is composed of 18 independent experts elected by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
Austria submitted its Second State Report under the Framework Convention in December 2006, and the delegation of the Advisory Committee will be in Austria in order to seek further information. On the basis of this and other information, the Advisory Committee will subsequently adopt an opinion on how Austria has implemented the various articles of the Framework Convention.
The delegation consists Ms Arzu Aghdasi-Sisan, Member of the Advisory Committee elected in respect of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr Gjergj Sinani, Member elected in respect of Albania, Ms Regina Tavares da Silva, Member elected in respect of Portugal, and Ms Francoise Kempf of the Secretariat of the Framework Convention.
http://www.coe.int/minorities
Monitoring reports "Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma" issued for Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Serbia
EUMAP is pleased to announce the release today of a new volume of monitoring reports, "Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma" - covering Bulgaria,, Romania and Serbia. The volume of four country reports released today was produced by OSI's EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP), in cooperation with OSI's RomaProgram (RPP) and the Education Support Program (ESP) of the Open Society Institute. The volume was presented at the Conference "Educationto Support Roma Inclusion" convened by the Roma Education Fund in Budapest. Reports on the other five countries participating in the Decade of Roma(Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovakia) are due later in the year.
The reports are available online at http://www.eumap.org/topics/romaed
New European Handbook on Equality Data
The EU Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities) has recently published a new European Handbook on Equality Data. The 112-page document describes how to build a national knowledge base on equality and discrimination on the grounds of racial and ethnic origin, religion and belief, disability, age and sexual orientation, and why this is important. FRA, and its predecessor EUMC, have repeatedly emphasised the need for better and more extensive data collection on discrimination at the Member State level in providing an informed basis for the adequate development of anti-discrimination policies.
The Agency contributed to the drafting of this Handbook: http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/fundamental_rights/pdf/pubst/stud/hb07_en.pdf
FRA
Meeting with Experts on 11 April 2007 in Geneva
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presents its compliments to non-governmental organisations and at the request of the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the group of five Experts selected to prepare the study on complementary international standards has the honour to invite non-governmental organisations to participate in a meeting with the Experts. Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/1/5 of 30 June 2006 requested the Office of the High Commissioner to select five Experts to prepare a study on the content and scope of substantive gaps in existing international instruments to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The Experts are to produce a base document that contains concrete recommendations on the means or avenues to bridge these gaps.
In identifying human rights problems for which there may be normative gaps, the Experts are soliciting views and comments of various stakeholders. The Experts would be honoured if non-governmental organisations that have consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and non-governmental organizations that were accredited for the 2001 World Conference against Racism could participate in the meeting. The meeting will offer the opportunity for the Experts to update non-governmental organisations on progress regarding the study andfor the latter to share their views on the issue of gaps in existing international instruments to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The meeting will be held on 11 April 2007 in Geneva, Palais des Nations, room IX, at 15:00 pm.
Interested non-governmental organizations are invited to communicate the names of their representatives who will attend the meeting only by fax (+41 22 917 90 50) on letterhead, signed by the appropriate official of the organization.Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights avails itself of this opportunity to renew to non-governmental organisations the assurance of its highest consideration.
Marie-Dominique Perret, OHCHR
IAPSS International Seminar 2007. Youth Bridging the Gap: Reaching Out to the Roma. Ljubljana, Slovenia. 22nd - 28th of July
The International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS) is proud to invite you to a unique summer's event: Youth Bridging the Gap: Reaching Out to the Roma.This international seminar is dedicated to increase the level of acceptance of the Roma as a minority group and of the Roma culture among youth. Participants coming from both Roma and non- Roma cultures will have the opportunity to experience one week of real- life, face-to-face, constructive dialogue and become familiarize with the particularities and differences of each others' cultures.
If you are interested in the project, please have a look at the information on the website http://roma.iapss.org/. Download and fill in the application form. Send it together with your CV and a motivation letter for the reduction of the participation fee (if applicable) to project2007@iapss.org 15th of May!
The Organizing Team of the event and the Executive Committee 2007 of the International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS)
EU Funding
EU Call for Tender: Phare - access to education for disadvantaged groups in Romania
(2006/S 91-096812) Deadline: 02/05/2007 http://ted.europa.eu/Exec?DataFlow=ShowPage.dfl&Template=TED/normal_search&StatLang=EN
EU Call for proposals: Youth in the world - Cooperation with countries other than the neighbouring countries of the European Union
Deadline: 31/05/2007 The purpose of this call for proposals is to support projects which promote cooperation in the youth sector between Programme Countries and partner countries other than those which are neighbours of the EU. Read more: http://www.enar-eu.org/en/funding/calls/2007-05-31.shtml
EU Call for Proposals: Youth in Action: Call for proposals for projects encouraging innovation and quality in the youth sector
Deadline: 30/06/2007 This call for proposals aims to support projects promoting the adoption, implementation and encouragement of innovative, quality approaches in the fields of non-formal education for young people and youth work. Read more: http://www.enar-eu.org/en/funding/calls/2007-06-30.shtml
