UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination review of Ukraine; international monitoring body reports on Finland, Hungary, Liechtenstein and Slovakia

07 November 2001

The United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued concluding observations and recommendations, concerning the compliance of Ukraine with the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination on August 16, 2001. The committee voiced many concerns regarding practices in Ukraine, in particular, with respect to Roma. Specifically, the Committee expressed concern about "reports of the continuing discriminatory treatment of Roma and violence against them and their property [...] reports of police brutality against the Roma population, including arbitrary arrests, and illegal detention." The concerns were followed by several recommendations in which the committee urged that the Ukrainian "State party take immediate and effective steps to stop these abuses and that the next report contain information on human rights training for the police, investigations of complaints of abuse and disciplinary and criminal measures taken against those found guilty of committing abuses."

In other news relating to human rights monitoring bodies, the Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has published opinions on measures taken in this field by various countries. Opinions regarding Hungary and Liechtenstein were published in September 2001, and opinions pertaining to Slovakia and Finland were published in July 2001. The opinions contain a legal assessment of the adequacy of measures taken by the member countries to comply with the Framework Convention. Particularly strong statements were made by the committee with regards to the Roma in Slovakia and Hungary. Pertaining to Slovakia, the committee was concerned with the education of Romani children and specifically noted that "[T]here remain problems in the implementation of the Framework Convention as concerns Roma. The Advisory Committee is particularly concerned about the discrimination encountered by Roma in various fields as well as the treatment of this minority by law-enforcement officials, including reported collection of personal ethnicity data without clear legal basis. The Advisory Committee is also concerned about extremely wide socio-economic differences between some of the Roma and the majority population, which are aggravated by the unsatisfactory status of Roma in the educational system [...] the provisions on minority languages contained in the School Act do not cover Roma language and that no school in Slovakia offers instruction in Roma language." Similar concerns were expressed regarding Hungary. The Advisory Committee stated in its report that "[T]he situation of the Roma in Hungary gives rise to deep concern, notably regarding numerous acts of discrimination in a wide range of societal settings, widespread negative social perceptions and significant differences in socio-economic and living conditions between Roma and the remaining population."

(ERRC)