Publisher: European Roma Rights Center

CAUSE OF ACTION. Family Life Denied: Overrepresentation of Romani Children in State Care in Serbia

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2017

Romani children in Serbia are being removed from their families at an alarming rate. The ERRC carried out in-depth research on the situation. We found there are disproportionate numbers ofRomani children in foster care – a third of children in care in Belgrade come from Romani families, for example, yet Roma make up less than two per cent ofthe city’s population. Although Serbia is closing down its institutions for residential care, Romani children are overrepresented there as well. And once Romani children are removed from their families, it’s rare that they return. Why is the right to family life being denied to so many Roma in Serbia? We don’t believe that authorities remove children maliciously. But we do believe that Romani families are victims of indirect discrimination and stereotyping. After centuries of discrimination against Roma, Romani children are more likely to live in inadequate housing, less likely to have parents in employment and may find it hard to access mainstream education. This plays a part in the decision to remove children from their families. As so many children are removed, and so few are able to return, this calls into question the support that these families receive to stay together.

CAUSE OF ACTION. Romani Children in State Care in Nógrád County (Hungary)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2017

The Chance for Children Public Benefit Association (Gyerekesély Közhasznú Egyesület) in Hungary conducted a study for the ERRC of children in Nógrád County who have been removed from the care of their families and are in the public care system.2 Nógrád County is located northeast of Budapest, on the border with Slovakia. The study specifically focuses on the county’s child welfare and child protection systems. Through both quantitative and qualitative approaches, researchers collected data on the circumstances of and reasons for taking into care. The research respected the privacy ofthe families concerned while providing a survey of how Romani children so frequently end up in care. By focusing at the county level, the study remained manageable while covering a broad enough area to demonstrate a pattern. The key finding in the study was quantitative: Romani children are vastly overrepresented in the care system. Yet there were other key findings too: in most cases taking children into care does not seem to have been justified. Interviews with key actors also revealed the prejudice that seems to be the main cause ofthe problem.

CAUSE OF ACTION: Families divided: Romani and Egyptian Children in Albanian Institutions

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2017

There’s a high percentage of Romani and Egyptian children in children’s homes in Albania – a disproportionate number. These children are often put into institutions because of poverty, and then find it impossible ever to return to their families. Because of centuries of discrimination Roma and Egyptians in Albania are less likely to live in adequate housing, less likely to be employed and more likely to feel the effects of extreme poverty. As a result, authorities may take children into care - some parents even ask for this, as they can’t support their family. But under human rights law, poverty shouldn’t be a reason to deny children their right to family life. States must step in to support families to stay together. We’ve researched the situation, and on 6 July 2016 we made our case to the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination in Albania claiming indirect discrimination against Roma and Egyptian children being taken into State care because of their economic situation and ethnicity. The case (and this report) focuses on one institution, the School Children’s Home in Shkodra, but it reflects the wider situation across the country.

COERCIVE AND CRUEL: Sterilisation and its Consequences for Romani Women in the Czech Republic (1966-2016)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2016

The present report examines one of the most serious human rights violations against women – the practice of coercive sterilisation that was aimed at and programmatically performed on Romani women and women with disabilities starting from the 1970s until the 1990s. In Communist Czechoslovakia this practice was legally sanctioned by the 1971 Decree on Sterilisation. This Decree gave public authorities a more or less free rein to systematically sterilise Romani women and women with disabilities without their full and informed consent as a means of birth control. In 1979, Czechoslovakia also initiated a programme of financial incentives for Romani women to undergo sterilisations motivated by the need “to control the highly unhealthy Roma population through family planning and contraception”. An investigation into the practices of involuntary sterilisation of Romani women by the Czech Ombudsperson in 2005 estimated that, since 1972, thousands of women may have been involuntarily sterilised throughout the former Czechoslovakia. Female sterilisation was a state policy in Czechoslovakia until 1993 when the Sterilisations Directive was abolished. However, the practice of sterilising Romani women and women with disabilities against their will did not end with the abolition of the legislation which allowed it, but continued throughout the 1990s and 2000s, with the last known case occurring as recently as 2007.

DESTROYING PROGRESS / ROGRESSING DESTRUCTION: EU Romani Women and Children in France

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2014

This report specifically addresses the situation of EU Romani citizens from Romania living in informal settlements in France and does not deal with the particular human rights concerns of Roma from other EU and non-EU countries or French Roma, Sinti, Gens du Voyage, Manouche, etc. It presents the results of participatory research conducted in 2014 in six informal Romani settlements in France: Two in Seine-Saint-Denis in the Ile de France region, two in the Urban Community of Lille and two in Marseille. The research methodology was designed to ensure that Romani women played a concrete role in the work being done with respect to their situation.

Divide and Deport

Roma and Sinti in Austria

Author(s): Claude Cahn / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 1996

Between 20,000 and 30,000 Roma and Sinti live in Austria today. Some are descended from Roma and Sinti who have lived for generations in Austria, especially in the Burgenland district. Others are migrants or the children or grandchildren of migrants who came to Austria to work and live, attracted by its favorable post-World War II economic climate. Still others are persons receiving or seeking asylum as a result of poverty and ethnic pogroms in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. This report will deal with this exceedingly diverse group of people as if it were a single social phenomenon. Individual members of the Romani community might not agree with this unified treatment. However, the group as a whole has been forced in recent years to respond to a rise in right wing, racist, xenophobic, or specifically anti-Romani sentiments, actions and legislation targeting Roma as Roma, regardless of internal distinctions. Since at the end of the day all Roma must adjust in some way to the new hostile climate in Austria, this report treats the various abuses of their rights as similar, and their fate as common. The research for this report was carried out over the period of February—May, 1996, in accordance with contemporary methodology in human rights investigation. Victims and witnesses were interviewed, wherever possible, in private. All statements were subject to sceptical scrutiny, and again wherever possible, corroboration was sought from second and third parties. Comment was also sought from competent authorities, although these were, in Austria, singularly unhelpful and, with several notable exceptions, the Austrian police and Interior Ministry did not respond to queries made by the "European Eoma "Eights Center. The purpose of the report will be to show the disastrous consequences on Roma of a series of new laws on legal residence and asylum, ratified between 1991 and 1993. The report will also investigate how the ground was prepared for the systematic exclusion of Roma in Austria through the recognition of a narrow and unrepresentative group of Roma as an Austrian “ethnic group” Volksgruppe). A connection will be made between this systematic exclusion and the recent appearance in Austria of episodes of public violence specifically targeting Roma. Finally, the report will make a series of concrete recommendations to the Austrian government for improving the legal situation of Roma in Austria.

Džuvljarke. Roma Lesbian Existence

Author(s): Vera Kurtic / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2013

The topics I have chosen to discuss in this paper—the existence of women who are both Roma and lesbians, women who have emotional and sexual desires towards other women, and the issue of sexuality in itself— represent subjects which have been historically taboo, despite the fact that sexuality is one of the essential attributes to our very beings. Sexuality is a part of our personal identity; our sexuality informs our connections, relationships, our communities, and our entire society. It is a strong taboo to talk about female sexuality, not only within Romani communities but also more broadly in Serbia. In fact, no matter how ‘developed’ or ‘modern’ Serbian society is considered to be, especially when compared with other societies, or how ‘evolved’, or less patriarchal, Romani communities are now when contrasted with those in the past, women’s sexuality is still a subject that no one likes to discuss.

European Roma Rights Center - Research Papers

Frequency: irregular and other / Country: Hungary

The Roma (Gypsies) remain to date the most deprived ethnic group of Europe. Almost everywhere, their fundamental civil rights are threatened. Disturbing cases of racist violence targeting Roma have occurred in recent years. Discrimination against Roma in employment, education, health care, administrative and other services is common in many societies. Hate speech against Roma deepens the negative stereotypes which pervade European public opinion. The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest law organisation which monitors the human rights situation of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse.

European Roma Rights Center Country Reports Series

Frequency: 1 issues / Country: Hungary

The Roma (Gypsies) remain to date the most deprived ethnic group of Europe. Almost everywhere, their fundamental civil rights are threatened. Disturbing cases of racist violence targeting Roma have occurred in recent years. Discrimination against Roma in employment, education, health care, administrative and other services is common in many societies. Hate speech against Roma deepens the negative stereotypes which pervade European public opinion. The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest law organisation which monitors the human rights situation of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse.

ITALIA. Profilo del Paese. Rapporto del Centro Europeo per i Diritti deI Rom

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): Italian / Publication Year: 2012

There are no precise figures on the current number of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti (RSC) in Italy and the available data on their socio-economic situation are insufficient. Roma in Italy are not a homogeneous group, have different legal statuses as well as various levels of integration in Italian society. According to unofficial estimates there are about 110,000-180,000 Roma in Italy, Italian citizens and migrants (registered), and represent about 0.25% of the total population. Half of them are under 16 and only 0.3% are over 60 years old. These figures are greater if we take into account those Roma who do not have residency and are "illegally" or "irregularly" present in the country. Among the Roma in Italy there are stateless persons in fact from the former Yugoslavia, for which reliable data are lacking. It is estimated that around 70,000 Roma are Italian citizens who have been living in Italy for more than 600 years and are present throughout the country; about 90,000 are Roma who were not born in Italy or born in Italy from immigrant parents, mainly from Eastern Europe. Then there are Roma from the former Yugoslavia who have been living in Italy for over 40 years and have subsequently become Italian citizens. During the wars of the 1990s a new wave of Roma from the former Yugoslavia arrived in Italy to seek asylum; some asylum applications, but not all, were accepted. In the last ten years the Roma, mainly from Romania and Bulgaria, have migrated to an increasing number in Italy, especially after the abolition of the visa regime in 2002 and the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU in January 2007.

LA FRANCE. Rapport du European Roma Rights Centre. Profil de pays 2011-2012

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): French / Publication Year: 2012

It is estimated that about 400,000 Roma and related groups (Travelers, Sinti, Manouches, Kalés, etc.) live in France, about 0.64% of the total population of France. This number in-cludes French nationals and migrant Roma. The number of migrant Roma in France is esti-mated at between 15,000 and 20,000. There is no exact data on the number of Roma in France (including migrant Roma) because French law prohibits the recognition of ethnic and cultural minorities. This means that there are no statistics disaggregated by ethnic group.In 2011 and 2012, the ERRC focused on Roma migrants in Romania and Bulgaria. Unless otherwise indicated, the term Roma in this report refers to Roma migrants from these two countries. Roma migrants in France live mainly in the suburbs of major cities, the majority living in the Paris region (Ile de France) and major cities in Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Toulouse and Nantes. Roma often settle in abandoned houses or isolated camps that host groups ranging from a few families to 800 people.According to ERRC studies, Roma are regularly confronted with discrimination at various levels, and the prohibition to collect data on this point masks the extent of such discrimi-nation.

LIST OF CRITICAL ISSUES BY THE EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTRE CONCERNING MONTENEGRO (For Consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women at its 67th Pre-Sessional Working Group 21 to 25 November 2016)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2016

This list of critical issues is presented by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) to assist the 67th PreSession Working Group with country specific information on issues affecting Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian women in relation to Montenegro. According to Montenegrin census data from 2011, 8,305 individuals indicated that they were Roma or Egyptians, out of which men make 51.1 percent and women make 48.8 percent. The Council of Europe estimates that there are 20,000 Roma (including Ashkali and Egyptians) in Montenegro.

LIST OF ISSUES BY THE EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTRE AND ROSA PARKS FOUNDATION, CONCERNING HUNGARY (For Consideration by the Committee on the Rights of the Child at the pre-sessional Working Group of the 80th session 4 June 2018 - 8 June 2018)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2018

The European Roma Rights Centre (hereinafter also referred to as the “ERRC”) and the Rosa Parks Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the RPF)2 hereby submit this list of issues concerning Hungary to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter also referred to as “Committee”) for the consideration of the Committee on the pre-session of the Working Group prior to reporting. The submission focuses on the situation of Romani children in Hungary, in particular on their overrepresentation in state care, segregation in education, and their vulnerability to trafficking.

LIST OF ISSUES BY THE EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTRE CONCERNING MACEDONIA (For Consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women at the Pre-Sessional Working Group of the 71 Session 12 - 16 March 2018)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2018

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC)1 hereby submits this list of issues concerning the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (hereinafter also referred to as “Committee”) for the consideration of the Committee on the 71 presession for the List of Issues. The submission focuses on the situation of Romani women and girls, in particular sexual abuse of Romani children in state care institutions, access to reproductive healthcare and citizenship rights. FYROM has 2,022,547 inhabitants, of whom 53,879 (2.66%) have declared themselves Roma. However, the available unofficial estimate for Roma is 135,490 (6.77%). Roma live in 75 out of 85 municipalities across the country. According to official data, the majority of Roma live in the capital, Skopje (23,475), with 56% of Skopje’s Roma concentrated in the municipality of Šuto Orizari (13,342).

PARALLEL REPORT BY THE EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTRE CONCERNING FRANCE (To the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, for consideration at the 86th Session 27 April to 15 May 2015)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2015

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) submits this parallel report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, for consideration at the 86th session (27 April to 15 May 2015). This report highlights some of the key human rights concerns for Roma in France.

PARALLEL REPORT by the European Roma Rights Centre Concerning Italy (For Consideration by the Human Rights Committee at its 117th session 20 June – 15 July 2016)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2016

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) submits this parallel report to the Human Rights Committee reporting country-specific information on issues affecting Roma in Italy that raise questions under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The present report describes the current situation regarding two of the most serious human rights abuses of Roma in Italy – the residential segregation of Roma and hate speech and violence against Roma.

PARALLEL REPORT by the European Roma Rights Centre Concerning Italy (For Consideration by the Human Rights Committee at its 119th session 6 – 29 March 2017. Articles 12, 20 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Resident)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2017

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) submits this parallel report to the Human Rights Committee reporting country-specific information on issues affecting Roma in Italy that raise questions under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The present report describes the current situation regarding two of the most serious human rights abuses of Roma in Italy – the residential segregation of Roma and hate speech and violence against Roma.

PARALLEL REPORT BY THE EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTRE CONCERNING THE CZECH REPUBLIC (For Consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women at the 63th session 23 February 2016)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2016

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) submits this parallel report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) commenting on the Combined Fourth and Fifth Periodic Report of the Czech Republic, submitted under Article 18 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Convention). The present shadow report describes the current situation regarding one of the most serious human rights abuses of women – the practice of coercive sterilisation among Romani women – and the legal, policy and other obstacles in reaching an effective remedy for the victims. The submission focuses only on violations directly related to the practice of coercive sterilisation engaging the following articles of the Convention: Articles 5 (stereotyping and prejudice), 10 (equal access to education), 12 (equal access to health care services) and 16 (freedom from discrimination in all matters relating to marriage and family relations) of the Convention. This report aims to provide an update on the situation since 2010 when CEDAW last reviewed the Czech Republic.2 It includes an update on the legislative changes, compensation mechanism proposals, updates on court cases, comments on the information provided by the Czech government and recommendations for government action.

PARALLEL REPORT BY THE EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTRE CONCERNING THE CZECH REPUBLIC (For Consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women at the 63th Pre-sessional Working Group 27 - 31 July 2015)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2015

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) submits this parallel report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) for the attention of the PreSessional Working Group, commenting on the Combined Fourth and Fifth Periodic Report of the Czech Republic, submitted under Article 18 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Convention). The present parallel report describes the current situation regarding one of the most serious human rights abuses of women – the practice of coercive sterilisation among Romani women – and the legal, policy and other obstacles in seeking an effective remedy for the victims. The submission focuses only on issues directly related to the practice of coercive sterilisation; i.e. Articles 10 (equal access to education), 12 (equal access to health care services) and 16 (freedom from discrimination in all matters relating to marriage and family relations) of the Convention. This report aims to provide an update on the situation since 2010 when CEDAW last reviewed the Czech Republic. It includes an update on the legislative changes, compensation mechanism proposals, updates on court cases, comments on the information provided by the Czech government and recommendations for government action.

PARALLEL REPORT BY THE EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTRE CONCERNING THE CZECH REPUBLIC (To the Human Rights Council, within its Universal Periodic Review, for consideration at the 28th Session 6 – 17 November 2017)

Author(s): Specified No Author / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2017

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC)1 submits this parallel report to highlight some key human rights concerns in the Czech Republic. The submission provides a factual base and recommendations on Roma for the key issues of education, forced and coercive sterilisation, and housing.