ERRC Welcomes Creation of Romani NGO Network in CIS and the Baltics

03 February 2003

ERRC Welcomes the Creation of a Unified Romani NGO Network in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic States and Urges a Rights Agenda

The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) welcomes the creation of a unified network of Romani non-governmental groups of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Baltic states. The decision to create an association coordinating the work of Romani non-governmental groups in this vast geographic region was taken at the Congress of the Roma Communities of the CIS and the Baltic countries in Smolensk, Russian Federation, January 31-February 2, 2003. The ERRC believes that the creation of the Association of Roma Communities of the Baltic Countries and the CIS (ARBCIS) is the first significant step towards a strong Roma rights movement in the CIS and the Baltic states.

Anti-Romani sentiment in the CIS and the Baltic states provides rich soil for serious violations of the fundamental rights of Roma. Due to intense anti-Romani sentiment, since the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union, Roma have increasingly become targets of racially motivated violence, in the form of police abuse, attacks by nationalist-extremist groups, or community violence, as well as of discrimination in accessing basic rights and freedoms, including access to justice, housing, education, and public goods and services. Protection provided to Roma by authorities against human rights violations is often inadequate or unavailable, and governments throughout the CIS and the Baltic states have failed to act to reduce widespread discrimination and anti-Romani sentiment. Officials in these countries have tacitly and in some cases even explicitly appealed to racist sentiments to garner support, arguably contributing to the creation of a public culture in which abuses of the fundamental rights of Roma are tolerated.

The ERRC believes that the newly born ARBCIS can be a key player in the Roma rights movement in the CIS and the Baltic states, and therefore welcomes its establishment. The ERRC encourages ARBCIS to place human rights issues at the top of its agenda.

More information on the creation of ARBCIS can be found at: http://www.romanation.narod.ru.