MINELRES: ERRC: Germany's Poor Roma Rights Record Criticised at United Nations

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


United Nations Human Rights Committee Presented with Documentation on
Germany's Human Rights Failure with Respect to Sinti and Roma

March 18, 2004

Today, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the body monitoring
states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, reviews Germany's compliance with the Covenant. On the
occasion of the review, the ERRC has provided comprehensive
documentation of a number of human rights issues facing Sinti and Roma
in Germany to the Committee.

High levels of anti-Romani sentiment in Germany, arbitrary limitations
on freedom of movement, racially motivated violence against Sinti and
Roma in Germany, and the expulsion of Roma from Germany as a matter of
policy raise serious concerns regarding the ability of Roma to realise
the rights enshrined in the Covenant.

Permeating and underlying many aspects of Germany's poor human rights
record with respect to Sinti and Roma are administrative efforts to
prevent non-citizen Roma in Germany from integrating in Germany. Of
particular concern is the status of "tolerated" ("geduldet"), through
which many Roma factually in Germany for periods of often a decade or
longer have been prevented from enjoying lives with dignity in Germany.
Many of these persons live under threat of expulsion from Germany, and
in recent years German authorities have in fact expelled large numbers
of Roma from Germany. In a number of instances, German authorities have
even forced Roma to go to Kosovo, where they face persecution.

In Germany, Sinti and Roma have also been targeted for racist attacks
and have experienced degrading treatment at the hands of law enforcement
officials. German authorities have for the most part failed to provide
justice even in the most extreme attacks on Sinti and Roma, such as in
the case of the 1992 firebombing of an asylum-seekers hostel in the
northern German city of Rostock.

Germany has also not managed to keep pace with evolving standards on
anti-discrimination law in Europe. Germany was under deadline to bring
the substance of European Union rules combating racial discrimination
into its domestic law by July 2003. To date, the German government has
not yet done so. The German government has tabled a number of drafts of
an anti-discrimination law, but it has not yet managed to adopt any of
these draft bills into law.  Also, the German government has not yet
ratified Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights,
providing a comprehensive ban on discrimination on a number of grounds
in the exercise of any right secured by law, nor has Germany ratified
the Revised European Social Charter.

Issues presented in detail in the materials provided by the ERRC to the
UN Human Rights Committee include:
�  Arbitrary Limitations on the Recognition of the Sinti and Roma
Minority in Germany
�  Forcible Expulsion of Roma from Germany
�  Arbitrary Limitations on Freedom of Movement
�  Arbitrary Limitations on the Rights to Freedom of Expression and
Assembly
�  Violence and Other Cruel and Degrading Treatment of Roma
�  Failure to Provide Sufficient Legal Protections against Racial
Discrimination

The submission concludes with a number of recommendations aimed at
providing a framework through which the very serious human rights issues
facing Sinti and Roma in Germany can be remedied. The full text of the
ERRC submission is available on the Internet at:
http://www.errc.org/news.shtml

For further information, please contact: Virgil-Cristi Mihalache, ERRC
Advocacy Officer: (36 1) 41 32 235.


_____________________________________________

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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