MINELRES: ERRC Action as Slovakia Comes before UN Review Body

[European Roma Rights Center]

July 17, 2003
European Roma Rights Center Press Release:
UN Body's Review Provides Opportunity to Highlight Human Rights Emergency 
Facing Roma in Slovakia

Today, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the review body charged 
with monitoring states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil 
and Political Rights, reviews Slovakia's compliance with the Covenant. The 
review provides an occasion to highlight the human rights emergency facing 
Roma in Slovakia.

Virulent racism, discrimination and racially motivated violence against 
Roma in Slovakia raise serious concerns about the Slovak Government's 
compliance with its obligations under the Covenant. Anti-Romani sentiment 
is pervasive in Slovakia, creating an environment in which Roma are 
extremely vulnerable to violations of their fundamental human rights. The 
Slovak Government has undertaken little to reduce or even acknowledge 
endemic anti-Romani sentiment. Indeed, some members of the Government have 
even appealed to racist sentiment in order to garner support, arguably 
contributing to the creation of a public culture in which abuses of the 
human rights of Roma are tolerated, and even encouraged.

An ERRC submission presented to the UN Human Rights Committee in advance of 
today's review details concerns which are sadly extensive:
	That Roma have suffered numerous acts of violence at the hands of both law 
enforcement and non-state actors, resulting in the death of the victims in 
a number of instances;
	That Romani women have in recent years been subjected to coercive 
sterilisation in Slovak state hospitals;
	That Romani children are educated in substandard segregated schools or 
classes, frequently in schools or classes for the mentally disabled;
	That racial discrimination against Roma persists in nearly all sectors of 
social life;
	That when Roma have sought redress for the human rights violations they 
have suffered, they have frequently been denied justice and in some cases 
even faced criminal charges in retaliation for their complaints;
	And that serious concerns have been documented in recent years related to 
the ability of human rights defenders freely to pursue their work in Slovakia.

The ERRC has been monitoring of the human rights situation of Roma in 
Slovakia since it first opened offices in 1996. Since then, the ERRC has 
conducted extensive independent human rights research in Slovakia, and has 
worked closely with a number Slovak non-governmental organisations to 
ensure quality fact-based human rights documentation. The ERRC additionally 
maintains a permanent human rights monitor, based in Kosice, as well as a 
legal monitor, based in Bratislava.

The ERRC submission to the UN Human Rights Committee presents extensive new 
research findings, including cases of coercive sterilisation of Romani 
women and statistics relating to the overrepresentation of Romani children 
in schools or classes for the mentally disabled. As documented by the ERRC, 
at some schools for the mentally disabled in Slovakia, during the 2002/2003 
school year, every single pupil was Romani.

In the process of drafting the submission, the ERRC and the 
Bratislava-based non-governmental organisation League of Human Rights 
Activists organised a consultation meeting in Bratislava on April 28 with 
Romani activists and other human rights groups in Slovakia to solicit input 
and discuss issues related to the upcoming Human Rights Committee review. 
The ERRC was disturbed to learn at the meeting not only that none of the 
organisations present had been consulted during the drafting of the 
Government report to the Committee, but also that no one present knew 
whether a Slovak-language version of the report was publicly available.

A recent conference organised by the World Bank and the Open Society 
Institute held in Budapest, Hungary, June 30-July 1, 2003, heralded the 
inauguration by philanthropist George Soros of a "Decade of Roma 
Inclusion". In marked contrast to a number of governments in the region, 
the Slovak government failed to send its Prime Minister, emphasising again 
what many have noted repeatedly: That the Slovak government has failed to 
date to make clear to the international community as well as to the Slovak 
public that it is serious about addressing the very problematic human 
rights situation of Roma in Slovakia. Today's review by the UN Human Rights 
Committee provides an important opportunity to begin to change this state 
of affairs.

The full text of the ERRC submission is available on the Internet at: 
http://www.errc.org/publications/indices/slovakia/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://www.errc.org.

European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary


Phone: +36 1 4132200
Fax:   +36 1 4132201

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