ERRC: Letter Concerning Situation of Roma in Austria
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Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 09:17:33 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: ERRC: Letter Concerning Situation of Roma in Austria
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: European Roma Rights Center <[email protected]>
ERRC: Letter Concerning Situation of Roma in Austria
On August 28, 2000, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), a public
interest law organisation which monitors the situation of Roma in
Europe and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse, sent
a letter to the "three wise persons" appointed by the President of the
European Court of Human Rights to assess the Austrian government's
record on the rights of minorities, refugees and immigrants, as well
as the evolution of the political nature of the Freedom Party of
Austria (FP=D6). In the letter, the ERRC stated concerns including:
- There are serious causes for concern that Austrian authorities
failed regularly to act to combat racist abuse when the victims are
Roma.
- There are serious concerns that the Austrian police itself may be
infected by racism on a systematic basis.
- Individual Roma with legal status other than full citizenship in
Austria have, in recent years, effectively been driven to the extreme
margins of Austrian society.
- Even Austria's obligation to provide protection to Roma fleeing
persecution has been affected by the present anti-foreigner mood in
Austria.
- Since entering government in January 2000, members of the Freedom
Party have made explicitly anti-Romani statements.
The ERRC letter to the three wise persons concludes with a series of
recommendations for the improvement of the situation of Roma in
Austria.
The text of the ERRC letter follows:
Honourable Dr Ahtisaari, Dr Frowein, Mr Oreja,
The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), a public interest law
organisation which monitors the situation of Roma in Europe and
provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse, has learned of
your mission, as the team of "three wise persons" appointed by the
President of the European Court of Human Rights to assess the Austrian
government's record on the rights of minorities, refugees and
immigrants, as well as the evolution of the political nature of the
Freedom Party of Austria (FP=D6).
The ERRC has monitored the situation of Roma in Austria since shortly
after the Center opened offices in early 1996. ERRC field research in
Austria resulted in the 1996 Country Report Divide and Deport: Roma
and Sinti in Austria (available on the website of the European Roma
Rights Center at:
http://www.errc.org/publications/reports/austria.pdf) and the ERRC has
since remained involved in the Austrian scene through close
co-operation with partner organisations and the local human rights and
Romani communities. In accord with its mission to advocate on behalf
of Roma in Europe, the ERRC herewith respectfully submits a brief
assessment of Austria's human rights record on issues affecting Roma,
as well as several recommendations aimed at improving treatment of
Roma in Austria.
***
It is estimated that approximately 30,000 Roma presently live in
Austria, the overwhelming majority of whom are of foreign birth or
birth to foreign parents. The ERRC's 1996 report noted that this group
- up to 25,000 people (i.e., roughly 5/6 of the local Romani
population), many of whom had been in Austria for decades and some of
whom were born there - faced serious hindrances to the ability to live
with dignity; the combined effect of restrictive legislation
pertaining to the acquisition of work and residence permits, as well
as popular hostility to dark-skinned foreigners, had rendered life for
non-citizen Roma in Austria extremely difficult.
Even prior to entry into government by the Freedom Party, there were
serious causes for concern that Austrian authorities failed regularly
to act to combat racist abuse when the victims were Roma. In February
1995, a pipe bomb planted inside a sign reading "Roma Go Back to
India", placed on the edge of the Romani settlement of Oberwart in
Burgenland, Austria, exploded, killing four Romani men. In subsequent
legal proceedings, Austrian courts avoided the conclusion that racial
animus had played a role in the attack. Mr Franz Fuchs, the
perpetrator convicted in the case in March 1999, has since committed
suicide in custody.
Austrian courts have been reluctant to find police officers guilty of
racially motivated crimes. On August 9, 2000, for example, an Austrian
court again ruled that police officers had acted correctly when in
April 1996, a riot squad stormed the flat of a Romani woman named Ms
Violeta Jevremovic, physically abused her, insulted her ethnic origins
and arbitrarily detained her for one night, leaving her children - all
minors - to fend for themselves. In addition to being loath to find
police officers guilty of breaches, including racist abuse, Austrian
courts often place undue weight on officer testimony against Roma.
According to information provided by the Vienna-based organisation
Romano Centro, another Romani woman, Ms M.K., was sentenced to three
months imprisonment in 1998 for resisting the police, after officers
claimed that she bit them.
The officers had reportedly stopped Ms M.K. from going through garbage
bins in Vienna to look for food. The court evidently did not take into
consideration the fact that Ms M.K., who is elderly, had no teeth.
There are, in fact, serious concerns that the Austrian police itself
may be infected by racism on a systematic basis. Earlier this year it
came to light that Austrian police use a system of record-keeping -
not only on persons detained on suspicion of crimes, but also
reportedly on persons seeking asylum - which lists persons according
to "racial type" (Rasse/Typus), including a checklist of five
categories: "Europid", "Southerner/Oriental", "East Asian + Mixed
Breed (Mischling - the old Nazi term)", "South Asian + Mixed Breed"
and "Negro (Neger) + Mixed Breed". (A copy of that document, as
reproduced in the newsletter of the Vienna-based non-governmental
organisation Romano Centro, was included in the package sent to the
three wise persons).
True levels of racially motivated crime and police abuse in Austria
are unfortunately not known, since such crimes are often not reported
by authorities. Members of the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which reviewed Austria's
compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1999 criticised the Austrian report
for containing "too little factual information". Indeed, human rights
violations of Roma in Austria are often not reported to authorities;
Roma in Austria, perceiving that the present Austrian administration
will not hear their claims fairly when their human rights have been
violated, often do not pursue justice.
Concerning the ability of individual non-citizen Roma to establish
themselves in Austria, local activists report that persons with legal
status other than full citizenship have, since the ERRC's 1996 report,
effectively been driven to the extreme margins of Austrian society.
Austrian law was amended in 1997, but legal restrictions on individual
establishment have not been lowered. At present, legal employment for
non-EU citizens is available to those persons who have entered Austria
with a permit of settlement (Niederlassungsbewilligung) issued for a
particular job. Other work permits are issued only under a system of
very restrictive exceptions.
The case of Ms Jovanka Gaspar, a Romani woman from Romania, is
illustrative of wider trends affecting all non-citizen Roma in
Austria. Like many if not most Roma who have lived in Austria for
years, Ms Gaspar did not enter Austria with a permit of settlement
issued for a particular job. July 14, 2000, Ms Gaspar secured a
part-time job as a teachers' assistant in Vienna, through a schooling
assistance project for Romani children organised by the Vienna-based
non-governmental organisation Romano Centro. Ms Gaspar's salary was to
have been provided by the Vienna municipal body Wiener
Integrationsfond. Ms Gaspar was, however, refused a work permit by
Austrian authorities. According to the official who conveyed the
information that Ms Gaspar's application had been rejected, Ms Gaspar
could not be issued a work permit, since she had not been in Austria
for five years. He reportedly stated that in certain cases the
five-year quarantine on foreigners working could be waived, but only
if the job at issue was important for the economy and Ms Gaspar's
teaching assistance job had not been, according to the official,
deemed important for the economy.
According to Romano Centro, work permit applications for foreign Roma
are now automatically refused if the individual concerned has not been
in the country for five years. Work permits are generally renewed if
the individual already has one, but if for some reason an individual
fails to renew their work permit, authorities refuse to issue a new
one. Roma in Austria face numerous other discriminatory burdens in the
field of employment; as the Council of Europe's European Commission
against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has noted, "Non-citizens [in
Austria] appear to face numerous disadvantages on the labour market.
As compared to Austrian
citizens, non-citizens are more likely to be employed on short-term
contracts, earn on average lower wages, and may have curtailed access
to unemployment benefits. In addition, their rather more uncertain
position on the labour market due to the system of work permits leads
many non-citizens to accept working conditions that Austrian citizens
would refuse, since loss of a job may imply losing a work permit and
insufficient income may affect the right of residence in Austria. Such
unequal conditions on the labour market for citizens and non-citizens
are discriminatory and may also lead to an increase in xenophobic
attitudes amongst the general public." Roma, burdened by historic
prejudice in Austria, are particularly affected.
In direct relation to developments throughout the 1990s in Austria,
ECRI recommended that, "[...] it should be made clear that immigration
policies are not the same as policies dealing with immigrants already
living in a country, and politicians should at the very least engage
themselves to ensuring that immigrant groups already living in Austria
are treated in a fair and decent manner."
Finally, even Austria's obligation to provide protection to Roma
fleeing persecution has been affected by the present anti-foreigner
mood in Austria. Austrian protection of refugees in the Kosovo crisis
extended only to persons selected abroad - primarily in Albania and
Macedonia - who were then airlifted into Austria. There were
reportedly very few Roma airlifted to Austria and provided protection,
if indeed any at all. Such airlifts took place only during the NATO
action and ceased after the entry of NATO/KFOR troops to Kosovo in
mid-June 1999. As a result, Roma who were subsequently ethnically
cleansed from Kosovo by ethnic Albanians after June 1999 - such
persons number over 100,000 - have been unable to avail themselves of
such protection. Nearly all of the Kosovo Roma presently in Austria
have entered the country illegally, and this is especially true of
Roma who have entered Austria since mid-1999. According to local
organisations, none of these Roma have any legal status in Austria, in
direct contravention of recommendations by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) advocating "[...] the recognition of
Kosovo Roma as refugees or persons in need of international protection
[...]."
There are serious causes for concern that the unsettling trends
witnessed prior to the Freedom Party's entry into government in
January 2000 may be seriously exacerbated now that members of the
Freedom Party exercise power in the Austrian administration. As is
widely known, the Freedom Party appealed heavily during their Autumn
1999 election campaign to anti-foreigner sentiments. Pertaining to
Roma, Austrian authorities have, since the Freedom Party entered the
Austrian government, made anti-Romani statements. For example,
according to reports on August 5, 2000, in the newspapers Salzburger
Nachrichten and Ober=F6sterreichische Nachrichten, Salzburg mayor Mr
Siegfried Mitterdorfer, himself a member of the Freedom Party, had
stated that he was annoyed that every summer "Gypsy clans"
(Zigeunersippen) occupy parking sites in southern Salzburg. He
reportedly recommended "zero tolerance". Mayor Mitterdorfer has faced
no negative consequences as a result of his statements.
Honourable Mssrs Ahtisaari, Frowein and Oreja, the foundation for any
successful anti-discrimination policy is political will at all levels
of government. Absent moral leadership in the fight against
discrimination, all other steps risk being mere window dressing.
Governmental officials must frequently and publicly acknowledge that
racism against Roma is a grave and pervasive problem afflicting both
Roma and majority society. Governments and the public at large must
first acknowledge the extent of racism in order to combat it. Austria
is incapable of upholding its international commitments in the field
of the fight against racial discrimination as long as public officials
and political parties make anti-Romani and anti-foreigner statements
with impunity.
***
All Roma in Austria face popular racism and anti-Romani sentiment.
Beginning in the early 1990s, the centrist governments of the
centre-left Socialist Party of Austria and centre-right Austrian
People's Party took steps to convince the Austrian public not to vote
for the Freedom Party, by indicating that the centrist coalition was
prepared to be as xenophobic as the extremist challenger; restrictive
laws on foreigners allowing public administrators large and arbitrary
powers to reject applications for work and residence permits have been
in effect from 1992. The strategy of centrist parties to pander to a
growing extreme right-wing mood in Austria, evidently, was a failed
one. Its legacy, however, remains: the Austrian administration has
waged a bureaucratic war of attrition on foreigners - and especially
dark-skinned foreigners - for the past ten years.
Non-citizen Roma have been driven to the extreme margins of Austrian
society.
There are indications that, even more than previously, Austrian
authorities - especially those in the Freedom Party - intend to
demonstrate to the international community that Austrian developments
are not as dangerous as they seem, through the cultivation of
so-called "autochthonous" minorities, a category not legally defined,
though posited in opposition to "foreign".
On July 7, 2000, the Austrian Parliament decided, during debate on
minority legislation and on the initiative of a Freedom Party
representative, that minority provisions in Austrian law should
explicitly refer to "autochthonous" minorities, to the exclusion of
any person who could not demonstrate a historical link to Austria.
Austria's "autochthonous" Romani community, reduced dramatically in
size due to the Holocaust, is minute. The larger part of the really
existing Romani minority, that of immigrant background, is again
effectively excluded from the protection enjoyed by "autochthonous"
minority members.
ERRC concerns with respect to Austria may be summarised as follows:
four years after its publication, the title of the 1996 ERRC report:
"Divide and Deport" remains a valid formula of describing Austrian
authorities' treatment of Roma. Several thousand local Roma, unsure
and easily manipulated due to a legacy of historical persecution
culminating with genocide during World War II, are coddled by the
Austrian state, while the full bureaucratic machinery of a racist
society is set against Roma of non-Austrian origin.
The ERRC considers the present European efforts to assess the Austrian
government's human rights record a welcome step. We respectfully urge
that the three wise persons indicate to Austrian authorities the
necessity of fulfilling its international obligations by undertaking
the following:
- Serious and thoroughgoing review of legislation and practice:
Austrian lawmakers should review present legislation - especially
legislation pertaining to the rights of foreigners to establish
themselves in Austria - as well as its practice in implementing
race-neutral laws, to ensure compliance with international standards.
Laws which are shown to have discriminatory impact should be amended
or struck down, or legal or administrative measures for their fair
implementation should be adopted forthwith.
- Consistent and adequate enforcement of existing anti-discrimination
laws: existing anti-discrimination provisions of the Austrian legal
order should be rigorously applied. Such measures should include the
adequate disciplining of public officials who abuse their authority.
- CERD Article 14: without delay, Austrian authorities should declare,
pursuant to Article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), that Austria accepts the
competence of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination to consider communications from individuals and groups
concerning violations of the Convention.
- Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights: the Austrian
government should proceed with a speedy ratification of Protocol No.
12 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), adopted by the
Committee of Ministers on June 26, 2000, which broadens the scope of
ECHR Article 14 on non-discrimination.
- Documentation: the Austrian government can hardly comply with its
international obligations to eradicate racial discrimination absent
comprehensive data - including statistics - showing the racial impact
of policies in the fields of, inter alia, employment, housing,
education, and criminal justice. Concerning racially-motivated crime
and human rights abuses committed by representatives of the state,
Austrian authorities should develop independent, pro-active bodies to
which individuals can report abuse. One possibility would be the
strengthening and significant expansion of the capacity and
independence of the new Human Rights Advisory Committee to the
Austrian Interior Ministry (Menschenrechtsbeirat).
- Positive actions in the field of the fight against racism and racial
discrimination: international law authorises and in some cases
mandates affirmative action by governments to ensure equality in fact,
as well as in law, for those groups including Roma who have
historically suffered systematic discrimination. Among the most
important measures the Austrian government can take in this regard are
the active recruitment, identification and capacitation of Roma into
the ranks of public employment, including the police, prosecutorial
corps and the judiciary.
- Dialogue: the Austrian government should initiate programmes to
facilitate dialogue and understanding between Roma and public
officials, including the police, prosecutors and the judiciary.
- Anti-racism and human rights education: the Austrian government
should intensify efforts at popular education about the extent of
anti-Roma racism, about the contributions of Romani culture and
history, and about the binding nature of international and domestic
prohibitions on racism and discrimination.
We thank you for your consideration of ERRC concerns in this matter.
Sincerely,
Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director
Persons wishing to express similar concerns to the three wise persons
are urged to contact:
Dr Martti Ahtisaari
Office of the President
Erottajankatu 11 A 4th Floor
00130 Helsinki
Finland
Fax: (358-9) 612 7759
Dr Jochen Frowein
Max-Planck-Institut f=FCr ausl=E4ndisches =F6ffentliches Recht und=
V=F6lkerrecht
Im Neuenheimer Feld 535
69120 Heidelberg
Germany
Fax: (49 6221) 482 - 288
Mr Marcelino Oreja
Fomento de Construciones y Contratas, S.A.
Torre Picasso
Plaza Pablo Ruiz Picasso S/N
28020 Madrid
Spain
Fax: (34 91) 597 89 65
Other information on the human rights situation of Roma in Austria is
available on the Internet website of the European Roma Rights Center
at: http://errc.org/publications/indices/austria.shtml
*****************
The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest
law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal
defence in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the
European Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at
http://errc.org
European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
Telephone: (36 1) 42 82 351
Fax: (36 1) 42 82 356
*****************
SUPPORT THE ERRC!
The European Roma Rights Center is dependent upon the generosity of
individual donors for its continued existence. If you believe the ERRC
performs a service valuable to the public, please join in enabling its
future with a contribution. Gifts of all sizes are welcome; bank
transfers are preferred. Please send your contribution to:
European Roma Rights Center
Budapest Bank Rt.
99P00402686
1054 Budapest
Bathory utca 1
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