ERRC Highlights Roma Rights Concerns in Russia

05 June 2008

Russia's Progress Regarding ICERD Guarantees under Review

3 June 2008, Budapest, Geneva: Today the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) submitted a comprehensive parallel report on the human rights situation of Roma in Russia to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in advance of the Committee's July/August 2008 review of Russia's compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The report is based on extensive first hand research and media monitoring undertaken by the ERRC.

The main human rights violations highlighted the report include:

• Violent forced evictions of Roma carried out with no regard to due process of law;
• Discrimination against Roma in the criminal justice system;
• Racially motivated violence against Roma by non-state actors; and
• Unchallenged anti-Romani statements by public officials and rampant hate speech against Roma in the media.

The submission also includes a series of recommendations for Russian authorities to improve the overall situation of Roma in Russia with regard to the human rights guaranteed in the ICERD.

The full text of the report is available at: View it (Acrobat pdf format)!.

Версия пресс-релиза на русском языке здесь: ERRC обозначил нарушения прав цыган в России.

For further information, please contact: 

• Natasha Kravchuk, ERRC Staff Attorney, natasha.kravchuk@errc.org (Russian and English)
• Eleonora Davidyan, ERRC Legal Consultant, eleonora.davidyan@errc.org (Russian and English)