Chronicle - Activities: November 1998 - March 1999
02 April 1998
Publications
December 1997: Published a Country Series Report entitled Profession: Prisoner: Roma in Detention in Bulgaria.
Campaigning for Roma Rights
November 6: Sent a letter to the General Prosecutor of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, expressing concern over recent instances of ethnically-motivated violence, in particular the beating to death by skinheads of a Romani boy in Belgrade on October 18.
November 7: Sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Slovenia, expressing concern about the recept deterioration of relations between Roma and non-Roma in Slovenia as a result of vocal opposition by non-Roma to a series of local-government moves aimed at the integration of Roma.
November 7: Sent a letter to the General Prosecutor of Hungary, expressing concern about allegations of human rights abuse and procedural irregularities by local and national police and private security guards in the central Hungarian town of Dömsöd.
November 14: Sent a letter to the Chief Administrative Judge of Berlin, expressing concern over German deportations of Bosnian refugees and requesting a stay of deportation for three Roma to Bijelina, in the Bosnian entity known as Republika Srpska.
November 19: Issued a public statement, addressed to the OSCE Implementation Meeting on Human Dimension Issues in Warsaw, on the human rights situation of Roma in the OSCE region.
December 18: Sent a letter to the Italian Parliament, on the occasion of a parliamentary debate concerning new legislation pertaining to foreigners, expressing concern over the treatment of the approximately 50,000 ex-Yugoslav Roma currently living in Italy.
January 19: Sent a letter to Czech President Václav Havel, appealing to him to annul the expulsion orders of all Slovak citizens who were sentenced to the penalty prior to, and including, December 31, 1997.
Conferences and Meetings
November 17: Addressed a meeting in the Committee Rooms of the House of Commons in London, concerning discrimination against Roma in the Czech Republic.
November 19: Participated in a round-table discussion in Warsaw, entitled „Strategies for Implementing Minority Rights of Roma and Sinti”, organised by ODIHR/CPRSI, the Council of Europe and PER.
November 19-21: Attended the OSCE Implementation Meeting on Human Dimension Issues in Warsaw. Delivered an oral intervention addressing ERRC concerns regarding the OSCE member states’ compliance with human dimension commitments with respect to Roma.
November 21: Co-organised and attended a conference at Columbia University, New York, hosted by the Columbia University Public Interest Law Initiative. Addressed the conference on the issues of Roma, public interest law and strategy to combat racial discrimination legal strategies in Europe.
November 29: Attended a conference in Beroun, Czech Republic, organised by the organisation Interroma. Addressed a seminar on the situation of Roma seeking asylum in the United Kingdom.
December 15 and February 16: Participated in meetings at the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of the Council of Europe in Paris.
January 29-31: Organised and held a workshop in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, entitled, „The European Convention on Human Rights — Law and Practice in International and Domestic Courts”.
January 31-February 1: Attended a meeting in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, held to conclude the activities of the international humanitarian organisation Médecins sans Frontières in Transylvania.
March 4: Attended a demonstration of Roma in the Lunik IX housing project in Kosice, Slovakia.
March 6-10: Attended a hearing of the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and submitted written comment on the countries considered.
