Salay and Zemanová v Slovakia (pending)
13 December 2019
Facts
The ERRC is representing a Romani couple. They are called “the applicants” because we have submitted an application for them to the European Court of Human Rights complaining that Slovakia is violating their rights.
The applicants live in a racially segregated community in Plavecký Štvrtok, which is about 30 kilometres north of Bratislava and 60 kilometres northeast of Vienna. In the 1990s they built their home on land owned by the State. In 2012 the authorities started proceedings to force the applicants to demolish their home and leave. With the ERRC’s support, the applicants brought proceedings in Slovakia’s administrative courts, challenging the demolition order. But the Slovak courts did not accept the challenge. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of Slovakia. Their house has not yet been demolished, and the applicants still live there.
The Case
The ERRC is representing the applicants in a case complaining that the threat to demolish their home is a violation of their rights, and that if the home were actually demolished, that would be a further violation. The case is not important only for this family, but for many Roma in Slovakia and around Europe. Centuries of antigypsyism have left Roma more likely than non-Roma to be living in informal housing, at risk of forced eviction.
On 14 October 2019 the European Court of Human Rights decided there was a case to answer. So they published facts about the case on their website and asked the Slovak Government to answer questions about it. We will have a chance to reply. According to the timeframes the Court tries to follow, the case should be decided by October 2021. But cases before the European Court often cases take longer.
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