Institutionalised racism and Roma
07 November 2001
The following is the text of the speech given by Ms Anna Cervenakova to the panel discussion on "Institutionalised Racism/Castism" on August 29, 2001, at the NGO Forum of the World Conference against Racism.
My name is Anna Cervenakova and I am a lawyer in the Czech Republic. I was born in the Czech Republic, but usually when people ask me where I come from, I have more difficulty answering this question than most of you who are present here. The reason for this is the fact that I am Roma/Gypsy. We, the Romani people came to Europe some 600 years ago and have lived in Europe ever since.
Roma or Gypsies are living all over the world, and their origin is rooted in India. When I say the word "Gypsy", for some people with stereotyped and prejudiced thinking, this can mean a person who steals and is a member of a social group that does not belong to any of the countries in this world.
The theme of the plenary session is institutionalised racism and this is an issue which effects Roma all over the world, especially in Europe. Roma in Europe experience discrimination in many different spheres of life such as education, access to justice, employment, housing, access to health care services or access to other public services.
Time does not allow me to speak about all these forms of discrimination faced by Roma. Discrimination in education and access to justice is what I would like to speak about here.
Education in the broadest sense of the term is a fundamental human right, and it is also an indispensible means of realizing other human rights, such as cultural, political or social rights. For example, the right of association has meaning only to those people who have been educated.
Last year an NGO called the European Roma Rights Center, based in Budapest, Hungary, filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, to challenge systematic racial segregation and discrimination of Romani children in Czech schools. Each applicant, ranging from 9 to 15 years of age, was initially assigned to a special school for the mentally deficient on the basis of tests that do not reflect the Romani culture. For decades, despite ample evidence of disparate impact, Czech officials have knowingly perpetuated a system that brands disproportionate numbers of Roma children as mentally retarded. As a result, thousands of Roma have been deprived from an early age of equal educational opportunities essential to future life. Nationwide, as the Czech government itself concedes, approximately 75 percent of Romani children attend special schools. The segregation of Romani children in education needs to be resolved also in many other European countries, such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.
Police brutality is a serious danger for the Roma in Europe. Just last month in Slovakia, police officers killed 51-year-old Rom Karol Sendrei during the night at a police station. Following a fight in a restaurant, Mr Sendrei was detained and beaten in the mayor's office in the village, then taken into a hospital and finally brought in the late evening of July 5 to a police station in another town. On the following morning, he was dead, due to injuries sustained as a result of severe physical abuse. His sons, detained with him, watched him die.
Roma in most European countries do not trust police officers as public officials. They cannot rely on any help from the side of the police if they are put into danger of being attacked by violent groups such as skinheads.
Roma live in a publicly organised and sponsored network of ghettos aimed at depriving them of full participation or even contact or interaction with Italian life. These Roma are forced to live in "camps" or ghettos that are "authorised".
Most of the Bills of Rights of European countries guarantee the right of freedom of movement and the right to freely leave any country, including one"s own. But the exercise of this right is denied to many Roma, for example in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Some western countries are now working on the basis of agreements with Central and Eastern European governments designed to stop Roma from leaving their countries of origin. As of April 24, 2001, U.K. immigration officers have special powers to discriminate against certain groups of non-U.K. citizens attempting to enter Britain. The measure was adopted pursuant to the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which came into force in April 2001 and which outlaws racial discrimination by public authorities while making an exception for the immigration service under Article 19(d). Further to the exception granted the immigration service, a Home Office Minister of Great Britain signed a Ministerial Authorisation on April 23, 2001, entitled "Discrimination on Ground of Ethnic or National Origin". The Ministerial Authorisation requires that British officials specifically subject certain groups "to a more rigorous examination than other persons in the same circumstances" upon arrival at a U.K. border. Explicitly listed are:
- A person who is of Chinese ethnic origin presenting a Malaysian or Japanese passport or any other travel document issued by Malaysia or Japan.
- A person of one of the following ethnic or national origins: a) Kurd, b) Roma, c) Albanian, d) Tamil, e) Pontic Greek, f) Somali, g) Afghan."
The Ministerial Authorisation also allows officials to detain members of the listed ethnic groups "pending examination", as well as to "impose a condition or restriction on the person's leave to enter." British immigration officials began subjecting passengers bound for London from the Prague airport to additional immigration checks. The pre-clearance procedure has led to airlines operating direct flights to the U.K. reportedly refusing to board at least 100 people in recent months, most of whom were Czech Roma.
Such discrimination by a public authority is a violation of the U.K.'s commitments under international law, particularly the 1966 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Roma in European countries and elsewhere suffer from discrimination and violence. We Roma have limited access to justice. Throughout Europe, the protection of Roma is lacking and legal remedies are not effective, or they do not even exist. It is in the power of national governments when designing, implementing and evaluating policies to combat racism and prevent discrimination, to involve representatives of Roma at all levels. We all are different but equal. We say that we come from different races. But the world was given to the human race, and Roma are part of this human race, and as such we are endowed with fundamental human rights.
