Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Tue, 28 Jan 1997 10:44:35 -0800 (PST)
Sender: Claude Cahn <[email protected]>
Subject: Legal Defense of Roma Symposium
STATEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTER
January 14, 1997
Between January 11 and 14, 1997, the European Roma Rights Center,
together with the EUROMA program of the Autonomia Foundation (Hungary) and
the Human Rights Project (Bulgaria), convened a symposium in Budapest on
legal defence of the rights of Roma. The four-day meeting brought
together more than 50 lawyers and human rights activists from more than a
dozen countries -- primarily in Central and Eastern Europe -- who work in
the field of public interest law.
The gathering, the largest of its kind to date, served as a forum
for lawyers from different countries to share information about legal
developments across the region of importance to human rights for Roma.
Participants assessed the relative costs and benefits of legal strategies
currently employed to obtain redress for abuse. Symposium members also
discussed formalising a network of Roma rights lawyers and activists to
undertake the following tasks: (i) systematically share information about
judicial and legislative developments -- i.e. the passage of laws and
issuance of court decisions -- concerning human rights for Roma; (ii)
create a central archive of international and domestic legal documents
concerning criminal and criminal procedure law, human rights law, and
constitutional law; and (iii) with the assistance of the European Roma
Rights Center, provide network members with legal research and advice on
issues of comparative and international law and legal practice.
The symposium made clear that, even as the human rights situation
of Roma in a number of countries remains precarious, a growing body of
public interest lawyers is beginning to achieve notable, if limited,
progress. Nonetheless, enormous contributions of time, energy and
resources will be required in the future to ensure that Roma are afforded
all legal guarantees to which they are entitled. The symposium
highlighted a number of problems which impede access to justice for many
Roma throughout Central and Eastern Europe, including the following: (i)
widespread failure by law enforcement authorities to register and
investigate reports by Romani victims of violence and discrimination; (ii)
non-existent or inadequate review of prosecutorial decisions not to indict
those who perpetrate crimes against Roma; (iii) serious legal obstacles
which hamper Romani victims of crime who seek to bring civil legal actions
for financial or other compensation; and (iv) the routine denial of access
to effective legal representation for Roma charged with crimes.
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The European Roma Rights Center is an international initiative which acts as
public advocate on behalf of Roma for the effective protection and advancement
of Roma rights.
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