Roma Rights 3-4, 2004: Health Care

15 December 2004

The ERRC announces publication of issue 3 and 4/2004 of the quarterly Roma Rights. Roma Rights 3 and 4/2004 addresses the theme of health care.

Roma are subjected to medical treatment of inferior quality as a result of racial discrimination. Barriers of Roma to health care are exhibited in the systemic disadvantages facing Roma in access to health. Certain general policies and administrative procedures have an adverse effect on Roma. Systemic disadvantages are visible in the disproportionate numbers of Roma excluded from health insurance; the large number of Roma living in neighbourhoods without health care facilities; the large number of Roma living in settlements not covered by general practitioners; the severe underrepresentation of Roma in the medical profession.

Barriers to quality health care for Roma manifest themselves in the disparate impact of the intersection of race and gender. Discriminatory treatment based on the compounded influence of race and gender magnifies the difficulties Romani women face in gaining equal access to quality health care.

In this issue of Roma Rights, the ERRC presents a summary of a survey on Roma access to health care commissioned by the Hungarian Ministry of Health but never published, presumably due to opposition to its conclusions. These included documentation of structural and individual influences diminishing the quality of health care provided to Roma and impairing Roma access to health. Among other articles, the ERRC also presents the results of advocacy actions on the issue of coercive sterilisations of Romani women in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as ERRC field research into discriminatory practices affecting Romani women's access to health care in Hungary.

Roma Rights 3-4, 2004: Health Care (PDF)

• Undiagnosed: The Impact of Racial Discrimination on Roma Health (Savelina Danova/Russinova)

• “Gypsy Rooms” and Other Discriminatory Treatment Against Romani Women in Hungarian Hospitals (Rita Izsák)

• Differences in Access to Primary Healthcare – Structures, Equal Opportunity and Prejudice (The Results of an Empirical Study)

• Healthcare Policy and Provision for Roma in Slovakia and the Czech Republic (James Grellier and Katarína Šoltésová) 

• Reflections on the Access of Roma to Health Care (Ivan Ivanov)

• Improving Access of Roma to Health Care through the Decade of Roma Inclusion (Heather Doyle)

• The Health of Foreign Romani Children in Italy: Results of a Study in Five Camps of Roma from Macedonia and Kosovo (Lorenzo Monasta)

• Roma in Finland (Janette Grönfors)

• Discrimination against Romani Women in Spain: European Roma Rights Center Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (Cristi Mihalache)

• Bulgaria * Czech Republic * Denmark * Greece * Hungary * Italy * Kosovo * Macedonia * Romania * Russia * Serbia and Montenegro * Slovakia * Ukraine * United Kingdom

• Strasbourg Court Finds Hungary in Breach of Human Rights Standards in a Roma Police Brutality Case (Branimir Pleše)

• Strategic Litigation Undertaken by the ERRC and Local Partners Prompt Bulgarian Courts to Sanction Racial Discrimination against Roma

• Breakthrough: Challenging Coercive Sterilisations of Romani Women in the Czech Republic (Claude Cahn) 

• Response of the Czech Government Commissioner for Human Rights to ERRC Action on Coercive Sterilisations of Romani Women in the Czech Republic 

• International Concerns about Forced Sterilisations of Romani Women Prompt Amendments to the Slovak Health Care Act

• Written Comments of the European Roma Rights Center to European Commission ("Green Paper: Equality and Non-Discrimination in an Enlarged European Union")

• European Roma Rights Center Roma Rights Summer Workshop 2004 (Larry Olomoofe)

• Le Anglune Pan omane Njerimata tala o Nevo Bulgarijako Zakono pa Egaliteto: Bulgaricko Krisako Akto Peravel e Diskriminacija Kontra le om

• Stepping (Tara Bedard)

• Chronicle