Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Fri, 2 May 1997 14:52:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Claude Cahn <[email protected]>
The European Roma Rights Center announces publication of the report:
"The Misery of Law: The Rights of Roma in the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine"
The European Roma Rights Center announces publication of the
report on the rights of Roma in Transcarpathian Ukraine. In response to
reports of the systematic mistreatment of Roma by both regular and special
police, the ERRC carried out several fact-finding missions in 1996 and
1997 into the human rights situation of Roma in Transcarpathia, a region
situated at the borders of Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. "The Misery of
Law" is the result of this research.
Through their research, the EERC was able to uncover serious
allegations against local police practices toward the Roma population.
Elements of the "preventive" policy were evident in varying degrees in all
urban and most rural communities that the ERRC visited. This policy
included monitoring of former prisoners in the Roma population, forced
registration of Romani men living in communities, raids on Romi
communities and collective arrests. These practices proved to be
especially distrurbing as they are mandated by Ukrainian law. Among the
duties delineated under Article 10 of the Ukrainian Law on the Police,
police are required to perform "administrative surveillance" of "people
inclined to commit crimes". In combination with the widespread belief that
Roma are inherently criminal, this duty can be seen as a blank check to
the constant harassment and violations of security of home and Romani
individuals by the police.
The Ukrainian judicial system has, to date, failed Roma. A
combination of factors-- widespread and deeply ingrained prejudice,
overweening prosecutorial power, a tradition of excessive judicial
deference to state authority, abusive police methods, narrow conceptions
of the role of criminal defence advocates, and the inability of many
Romani defendants properly to defend themselves in courts where language
is a barrier-- has conspired to make Roma communities a virtual pipeline
of men into prison. Additionally, the Ukrainian judicial system is, at
present, incapable of remedying police abuse through the prosecution of
the responsible officers or compensation for the victims.
Other themes addressed by the ERRC report on the human rights
situation of Roma in Transcarpathia include community violence and the
failure to prosecute non-Roma involved in acts of collective retribution
against Roma or police officers who remain passive during them; the
negative effect of land reform on Roma in Transcarpathia; and Roma in the
school system.
The European Roma Rights Center concludes its with a series of
recommendations to the Ukrainian government: investigations into
allegations of police brutality; discontinuation of discriminatory police
practices against Roma such as intrusive and arbitrary information
gathering and group arrests without reasonable suspicion; a review of
police investigative practices; justice for those responsible for
incidents of community violence and collective retribution against Roma;
and investigation and reform of legal proceedings in Transcarpathia.
***
The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest law
organisation which monitors the human rights situation of Roma and provides
legal defence in cases of human rights abuse.
EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTER
H-1525 Budapest 114, PO Box 10/24
Tel. (+36 1) 327 9877; Fax (+36 1) 138-3727
e-mail: [email protected]
Homepage: http://www.ceu.hu//errc/errcmain.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sun May 23 1999 - 13:34:18 EDT