MINELRES: ERRC/IHF Joint Statement OSCE Roma Participation

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: European Roma Rights Center <errc@errc.org>


Joint Intervention by the International Helsinki Federation (IHF) and
the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) at the 2003 Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Human Dimension
Implementation Meeting
October 8, 2003

Abuse of the fundamental rights of Roma in the states of the OSCE region
remains a cause for deep concern.  Reports of, inter alia, violent
abuse, frequently animated by racial prejudice or animosity; racial
segregation and other abuses in the fields of education, housing and
health care; racial discrimination in nearly all sectoral fields; and in
a number of instances the collective expulsion of Roma from OSCE
countries continue, in most cases in the absence of adequate measures by
states to remedy them. Throughout the OSCE region, authorities have
failed to take adequate measures to improve the situation of Roma. These
issues are not new to the OSCE and the need for thorough-going and
pro-active measures by governments to address the situation of Roma has
repeatedly been emphasized in this forum. For example, the OSCE Charter
for European Security, adopted at the 1999 Istanbul Summit, provides
that OSCE states "recognise the particular difficulties faced by Roma
and Sinti and the need to undertake effective measures in order to
achieve full equality of opportunity, consistent with OSCE commitments,
for persons belonging to Roma and Sinti." OSCE states committed to
"reinforce [their] efforts to ensure that Roma and Sinti are able to
play a full and equal part in our societies [...]"

There is an increasing conviction among governments and civil society in
the OSCE member states that one of the conditions for remedying the
present exclusion of Roma is Roma participation: the inclusion of Roma
in the policy process and, indeed, in government. Roma participation has
been repeatedly addressed as a key issue at OSCE fora.  As long ago as
1990, at the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension
of the former CSCE, the participating states committed to "respect the
rights of persons belonging to national minorities to effective
participation in public affairs [...]" A World Bank/Open Society
Institute conference "Roma in Expanding Europe: Challenges for the
Future," held in Budapest, Hungary, 30 June - 1 July 2003, heralded the
inauguration of a "Decade of Roma Inclusion."

In light of the foregoing, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) and
the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) presented a
joint statement at today's "Tolerance and Non-Discrimination" session at
the 2003 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, being held this year in Warsaw,
Poland. In the statement, the ERRC and IHF call on OSCE states to take
immediate and effective measures to ensure that Roma enjoy full
participation in decision-making processes, and in the design,
implementation and evaluation of policy measures addressing issues of
relevance to Roma, in particular by ensuring adequate Romani inclusion
in all levels of public administration. In addition, the ERRC and IHF
note that if states are to uphold their international law and OSCE
commitments, officials must ensure that Roma are protected from abuses
of their fundamental rights, and provided with adequate remedy in the
event that such rights are violated. The full text of the ERRC/IHF joint
statement is available on the Internet at:
http://errc.org/publications/legal/index.shtml

Further information is available from:
Virgil-Cristi Mihalache (ERRC): ++ 36 20 22 60 766
Nicole Watson (IHF): ++ 43 676 30 52 642


_____________________________________________

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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