Ruthless and Racist: Policing Roma in the Balkan

16 December 2024

This report and its companion, Brutal and Bigoted: Policing Roma in the EU, aim to break the silence over institutionally racist policing of Roma. The sheer volume of complaints, court cases, and testimonies of police misconduct collected by the ERRC over recent years lends further credence to the conclusions from this report and its predecessor, Brutal and Bigoted, in total covering seven EU Member States and two Accession countries, that, across Europe, anti-Roma racism and discrimination is systemic within many law enforcement agencies, where a culture of impunity emboldens police officers to give full reign to their racist prejudices and engage in arbitrary and sometimes lethal violence against Roma.

The report, Ruthless and Racist: Policing Roma in the Balkan can be downloaded here.