Racial discrimination against Roma in Slovakia
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Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 13:26:22 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Racial discrimination against Roma in Slovakia
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: European Roma Rights Center <[email protected]>
Racial discrimination against Roma in Slovakia
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PRESS STATEMENT - 12 MARCH 1999
STRASBOURG APPLICATION CHARGES SLOVAK TOWNS WITH RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
AGAINST ROMA
Representing three Romani Slovak citizens, the European Roma Rights
Center (ERRC), in cooperation with local counsel, today filed an
application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,
France, challenging two municipal ordinances in Slovakia which on
their face bar Roma from entry and/or residence.
In the summer of 1997, the towns of Nagov and Rokytovce in
Medzilaborce County in northeast Slovakia adopted resolutions
expressly stating that "Roma" would not be allowed in. On June 9, the
municipal council of Rokytovce published a resolution which threatened
that "Roma" who "settle" in the village "will be, with the help of the
village inhabitants, expelled...." On July 16, just over a month
later, the Nagov municipal council resolved "[n]ot to allow the Roma
citizens ... to enter the village Nagov, or to settle in shelters in
the district of the village."
Passage of the racial exclusion orders capped a campaign of almost ten
years on the part of governmental authorities to - in the words of one
area mayor - "get rid of" the local Roma. Thus, in 1989, members of
seven Romani families who were permanent residents in the affected
towns were forced from their homes when their employer - an
agricultural cooperative - ceased operations. Two years later, in
1991, no village in the County would allow Roma to park their trailer
within its territory. In 1993, temporary dwellings built by some of
the Roma were torn down, forcing them to flee. Their return to
Medzilaborce in 1997 sparked a series of meetings by local political
leaders - culminating in passage of the resolutions - to address what
they referred to as "the problem of the Roma in the County."
Legal challenges brought to the Prosecutor General and the
Constitutional Court in the fall of 1997 and the spring of 1998, on
behalf of several Romani citizens and the Kosice-based Foundation for
Legal Defence of Ethnic Minorities, were unsuccessful. As a result,
the resolutions remain in force to this day, and three Romani Slovak
citizens (two of whom are registered as permanent residents of the
affected villages) have turned for redress to the European Court of
Human Rights, the supreme legal authority on human rights in Europe.
The application filed with the Court contends that the resolutions
improperly and publicly single out for differential - and negative -
treatment a group of people (Roma) on the basis of race. It relies on
legal authority of the Strasbourg organs, which have made clear that
"a special importance should be attached to discrimination based on
race," in arguing that the resolutions' use of explicit racial
classifications constitutes "an affront to human dignity" in violation
of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
The resolutions were clearly prompted, at least in part, by racial
animus toward those Romani families who originally lived in the
affected towns. Nonetheless, the application submits that the use of
race-specific distinctions is offensive and humiliating to all Roma.
Indeed, the resolutions are worded so broadly - referring to "the
Roma" in general - as to lead all Roma reasonably to believe they are
among the targets.
The application also alleges that the adoption of the resolutions
violated the applicants' rights to respect for family life and privacy
(secured by Article 8 of the European Convention), freedom of movement
and choice of residence (secured by Article 2 of Protocol IV), and
non-discrimination in the enjoyment of each of these rights (secured
by Article 14). Finally, the application contends that, by rejecting
the above-mentioned domestic legal challenges, and by permitting these
racially discriminatory ordinances to remain publicly in force for so
long, the government of Slovakia itself has failed, in breach of
Article 13 of the Convention, to afford the applicants effective
remedies.
The application asks the European Court to find violation of the
above-noted Convention provisions and to award just compensation.
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The ERRC is an international public interest law organisation which
monitors the situation of Roma in Europe and provides legal defence
in cases of human rights abuse. For more information, visit ERRC
on the web at http://errc.org. You can also contact us at:
H-1525
Budapest 114
PO Box 10/24
Hungary
telephone: (36-1) 4282-351
fax: (36-1) 4282-356
The purpose of this service is to provide its subscribers with
information on the current Roma rights situation in Europe
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