ERIO's Executive Director appointed as an EU Jury member of the "For Diversity. Against Discrimination" EU Journalist Award 2006.
The "For Diversity. Against Discrimination " EU Journalist Award 2006 will be awarded to journalists whose work contributes to a better public understanding of the benefits of diversity and the fight against discrimination, especially on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age, disability and sexual orientation. This year the Journalist Award also featured a special, new prize, asking young journalists up to the age of 28 to submit their articles. While nominating a candidate for this special award was optional, many national juries decided to put forward an aspirant. The jury included Members of the European Parliament, representatives of the European Commission, professors from Belgian Universities and prominent journalists. The official EU jury met on March 07, 2007 to evaluate the national entries submitted for both award categories and to determine the overall winners. The Award will be given in an official ceremony in Brussels in mid-April of this year.
ERIO takes part in policy seminar on migration, integration, social inclusion and anti-discrimination.
On March 1-2, 2007, ERIO's Executive Director gave a speech at the policy seminar "Realizing Integration" organized by the European Network Against Racism, which took place in Brussels. The purpose of the seminar was to explore the intersections between the anti-discrimination, social inclusion and integration agendas from the perspective of migration, recognizing that these concepts are intrinsically linked. It highlighted practices and lessons learnt from civil society, local and national governments, and the European Union with regard to the integration of migrants. Four workshops were introduced to the seminar including Consultation with civil society, Participation, The Human Rights Approach and Mainstreaming Equality. Mr. Ivan Ivanov spoke about Mainstreaming of Roma in European Policy- lessons and challenges. In his speech he stated that: "The term mainstreaming has been frequently misunderstood as avoiding specifically targeted groups. Quite the contrary, mainstreaming should involve ensuring that all policies are proofed in advance and regularly assessed in progress to ensure that their impacts reach identified, marginalized groups to a level adequate to need. The European Institutions should work to foster policy approaches at the EU level as well as at the level of the Member States, ensuring that policies reach Roma and other persons perceived as Gypsies. As Commissioner Spidla stated at the Tampere Conference in Finland, and later at the EU German Presidency meeting in Berlin, Roma need more effective polices to be integrated into their societies and he urged each government to take necessary measures to protect them from discrimination and social exclusion. The EU should also ensure that all policy stakeholders understand the concept of mainstreaming and act adequately to the level of need to ensure that all policies include Roma mainstreaming components. There is a pressing need to evaluate the impact of EU and national projects and programs targeting Roma. Since what matters is change on the ground; changes in attitudes, actions and policies need to be addressed in a way that is both credible and useful in term of informing further policy developments�?��?�..". More on: http://www.erionet.org/publications.html
Promoting access to justice and social inclusion for Roma, Gypsies and Travellers.
The TRAILER Final Project Report A project funded by the European Commission Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination 2004 - 2006
The final report for the Traveller and Roma Action for the Implementation of Legal and Equality Rights (TRAILER) project, which took place between 2004- 2006, is now available on-line, on the website of European Dialogue, http://www.erionet.org/www.europeandialogue.org.
The report provides information about the main achievements of the project which was brought together by the British based NGO European Dialogue and Roma/anti-racist NGOs from Bulgaria, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia and the UK in order to promote effective access for Roma, Romany Gypsies and Traveller to their rights under national anti-discrimination legislation based on (or compliant with) the EU equality directives.
The project aimed to promote awareness and self-help amongst Roma, Romany Gypsies and Travellers, to enable them to have a greater voice in local decision- making, and to make the legal framework more meaningful and accessible. To succeed in that, the project ran trainings for NGOs, activists, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and service-providers on anti-discrimination legislation; monitored and documented incidents of discrimination; undertook cases to test the effectiveness of the new legislation; produced know your rights leaflets, practice manuals, human rights reports, and a case law database on Roma/Traveller and discrimination (also available on European Dialogue's website); and held transnational study visits to exchange experiences among the five participating countries.
The report lists recommendations based upon the experience of the project, for action by States across Europe for promoting access of Roma, Romany Gypsies and Travellers to their rights under national anti-discrimination legislation.
Commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Discrimination
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights presents its compliments to non-governmental organizations and would like to invite them to the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The theme for this year's commemoration is Racism and Discrimination - Obstacles to Development.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has the honor to inform the non-governmental organizations that a high level panel discussion will be held during which several issues, related to the theme, will be addressed: relationships between racial discrimination, poverty and development; racial discrimination, economic growth and development; racial discrimination, good governance and development; and racial discrimination, conflicts and development. The event will take place on 21 March 2007, from 13:00 to 15:00, in Palais des Nations, Room XXI. More on: http://www.ohchr.org/english/events/racism/.
Roma accuse press in discrimination
Bucharest - Ethnic Roma leaders accuse most journalists, especially those with the local printed press, of subjective stance towards the ethnic Roma representatives, despite of the Romanian press development in the past years. Hence, Romani Criss organization and the Press Monitoring Agency organized on March 2, a "stabor" - informal trial, on "How ethnic Roma are depicted in Romanian media - stereotypes or reality?" They summoned the journalists to this 'stabor', but no verdict was passed out of the journalists' lack of involvement in the discussions. The executive director with Romani Criss organization, Magda Matache, said the journalists are accused of "lack of objectivity, negativism and discriminatory stance," in writing about the ethnic Roma community, mentioning some articles grounding these statements. Matache stressed upon the fact the central press often publishes articles about the palaces that belong to members of Roma community, ignoring incidents such as that of police abusing 36 Roma members. Divers - http://www.divers.ro/
Close to home
Look around Bucharest, Romania's capital, and it is not hard to spot the Roma children. They are the ones begging by the roadside or huddled in groups near the markets on the outskirts of the city. Romanians tend to overlook the Roma and sometimes wish outsiders would too, if only because it is a blot on Romania's rapidly improving image. The truth is, though, that it is a blot on all Europe. This week's report by UNICEF on the parlous state of Roma children in the south-east of Europe has been passed over in silence by much of the British media, but Romania and Bulgaria are part of the EU now and just as their successes are our successes, their problems are our problems. More on http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/faisal_al_yafai/2007/03/our_children_too_1.html
70% of Gypsies in Bulgaria unemployed, 18% are illiterate
In spite of the Bulgarian traditions in ethnic tolerance there are still strained attitudes to the gypsy minority. The report points out 4 of the most important questions that concerns the Gypsies integration: education, district politics, work load, unemployment and qualification training of people. 18 % of the Gypsies are completely illiterate. Round 65 % are with unfinished elementary or secondary education. Just about less than 1 % from the Gypsies completes a higher education. http://international.ibox.bg/news/id_1848927972
Travellers go to court over eviction to make way for Olympic village
· Legal challenge to use Human Rights Act · Residents may launch own action over new location
The first major contests of the 2012 Olympics are taking place not in one of the new stadiums but in the Royal Courts of Justice. Lawyers for two groups of Travellers are using human rights legislation to challenge plans to move them from their sites to make way for the Olympic Village. At the centre of the legal battle are two existing sites for Travellers in the east London boroughs of Newham and Hackney. The London Development Agency is seeking to move the Travellers to new sites so that construction work can begin. The LDA wants the Travellers in Newham to be relocated from their site in Clay's Lane, where they have been for 36 years, to a nearby park, which is currently used by locals for games and a children's playground, and is surrounded by four busy roads. The Travellers and residents near the park are unhappy at the plans. Tracie Giles, whose family has lived on the site for more than three decades, said the new site would make them "like animals in a zoo". However, Newham council has this month given planning permission to the site More on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/olympics2012/story/0,,2031602,00.html
Vatican seeks to catholicize Gypsies
The Vatican began a campaign Tuesday to attract Gypsies to Catholicism and away from Protestant groups, urging Catholic priests and others to help Gypsies in their difficult, everyday lives so that they could win their trust and evangelize them. The Vatican's office for migrants issued a set of guidelines for priests, nuns and lay groups on preaching Catholicism to Gypsies. Gypsies are also known as Roma and live predominantly in Europe. The document said that Gypsies are by nature religious but that they often adopt the main confession of the country in which they live: Lutheran, Reformed, Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim or other. It said Gypsies often turned to non- mainstream Protestant groups, which the Vatican calls "sects." "This constitutes a rather urgent call to open our arms to a population that, despite everything, constantly yearns to meet God," it said. Since Gypsies are spread out and often move around, the guidelines recommended that lay Catholic communities, rather than traditional parishes that are responsible for specific territorial areas, be mobilized to try to invite Gypsies in. "The church itself must become, in a certain sense, a Gypsy among Gypsies, so that they can participate fully in the life of the church," the document said. The guidelines noted that it was almost impossible to know how many Gypsies live in various countries, since they traditionally live on the margins of society and resist census-taking for fear of deportation. But it said their particular situation warranted special care, from the church as well as national governments and international organizations, since Gypsies are often subject to prejudice and discrimination from the non-Gypsy communities in which they live. It suggested that church personnel must live with Gypsies and establish relationships with them if they wanted to win their trust and preach Catholicism to them. "The word of God proclaimed to Gypsies in the various fields of pastoral action is more likely to be well received if it is proclaimed by someone who has concretely shown solidarity with them in everyday situations," the document said. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/28/news/vat.php
Czech Roma for new legislation on WW2 camp for Roma
The Czech Committee for the Compensation for the Romany Holocaust Victims today March 13. 2007called on Minister without Portfolio Dzamila Stehlikova(Greens) to draw a law on the arrangement of the memorials at the sites of wartime internment camp for Czech Romanies, Cenek Ruzicka, a member of the committee, told CTK. There is a pig farm in Lety, south Bohemia, and a recreational site in Hodonin, south Moravia, in the places where the internment camps had existed. The legislation should set down that a commemorative arrangement is in the public interest. This would also facilitate the property settlement with the owners and subsequent removal of the buildings there, Ruzicka told CTK. According to the committee, the state should expropriate the facilities if it is in public interest. The purpose of the expropriation must be defined by a special law. "The Czech and European societies urgently need such a special law defining the state's interest in the proper arrangement of the sites of both camps, whether anything will be expropriated or not," the committee said in a press release it will send to Stehlikova, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra. Stehlikova told CTK earlier that she would like to convince the meeting that the state should buy the pig farm from its owner, the firm AGPI.However, she said last week that due to the prohibitive price this would not be probably possible. The state negotiated with the AGPI in the past, most recently in 2005, but in vain. According to estimates, the price demanded for the premises could amount to one billion crowns, which is inadequately high, but no concrete sum has been released yet. Romany activists have in the long run demanded that the pig farm in Lety be removed. They point out that it defames the victims' memory. At the end of January, the activists asked the U.N. for support in this case. According to historical documents, some 1,308 Romanies were deported to Lety during WW2, while 326 people perished there and more than 500 of its inmates ended up in the extermination camp in Auschwitz. A similar internment was also in Hodonin, where 207 prisoners died and 800 were sent to Auschwitz. At present there is a recreational facility
More on: http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_152
