Chronicle
05 September 1999
Campaigning for roma rights
July 6: Submitted extensive published documentary information concerning the human rights situation of Roma in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, at the request of and for consideration by the European Commission in Brussels.
July 9: Published field-findings on plight of Roma in Kosovo.
July 12: Submitted cases of relevance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Romania for consideration by the United Nations Human Rights Committee at its 66th Session on July 12-30.
July 16: Sent a letter to UN Secretary General H.E. Kofi Annan to express concern at the lack of protection provided by Nato forces in Kosovo to the Romani civilian population there.
July 22: Sent a letter to Mr Jose Maria Aznar, Prime Minister of Spain, to express concern at the recent eviction of approximately one thousand Romanian Romani refugees from Madrid.
July 28: Sent a letter to Mr Oliver Bodin, European Commission Representative of the Joint World Bank/European Commission Office for Southeast Europe, and Mr Rory O'Sullivan, World Bank Representative of the same body, to urge that international authorities undertake all possible measures to overcome the alienation of Roma from local aid distribution.
August 2: Published interviews conducted during field research in Kosovo and in Macedonia from July 2-18.
August 4: Sent a letter to Prime Minister of Italy Mr Massimo D'Alema, calling his attention to the issue of Romani refugees from Kosovo.
August 23: Published a short report on a meeting with Major General Dr Péter Orbán, High Commissioner of the National Hungarian Police Headquarters, on the subject of police abuse and racially motivated hate crime in Hungary.
August 27: Submitted cases of relevance to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in Romania for consideration by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at its 55th Session on August 2-27.
Conferences and meetings
July 5: Participated in the first meeting of the NGO resource group, set up by the Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) to contribute to the preparations for the European Conference against racism in October 2000, in advance of the World Conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, London, United Kingdom.
July 10-11: Spoke at a workshop and public discussion "The Next Human Rights Agenda" at Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, New York.
July 14-18: Held a workshop on Roma and civil rights at the SIDU summer school of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, Mercuirea Ciuc, Romania.
July 19-29: Met with representatives of all countries that have sent troops to Kosovo as part of KFOR. For that purpose, the ERRC, together with Mr Orhan Galjus and Ms Nidhi Trehan visited the embassies in Budapest of the UK, US, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Russia.
July 26: Met with representatives of the US Embassy in Budapest to call attention to the situation of Roma in Hungary.
August 8-11: Participated in the Agenda for Reconciliation conference on the reinforcement of peace-making initiatives organised by the Fondation pour le Réarmement moral in Caux, Switzerland.
August 9: Gave a presentation on the situation of Roma in the Kosovo conflict to the students of the Caux Scholars Program in conflict resolution and applied international affairs at Caux, Switzerland.
August 27 - 31: Participated in a conference on the developments in central and eastern Europe after the collapse of communism organised by the Czech Council of Churches in Vilemov, Czech Republic.
