Roma Rights 1-2, 2003: Anti-Discrimination Law

10 May 2003

Roma Rights 1 and 2/2003 addresses issues pertaining to anti-discrimination law in Europe. The ban on discrimination is anchored in both international Covenants, as well as in a number of other international legal instruments. European legal norms banning discrimination are currently in a period of dramatic expansion, due to consensus that the dignity of an individual in a democratic society depends to a great extent on her having access to legal tools with which she may seek and secure redress in instances in which her dignity has been harmed through arbitrary treatment. The very serious harm of racial discrimination has been a particular focus of recent efforts by European lawmakers, at least in part because of the dramatic return of virulent racism to Europe following the end of Communism. A question being posed with increasing frequency and urgency is whether governments can establish frameworks through which Romani victims of racial discrimination can receive due remedy. By late 2000, the ERRC had made adoption and implementation of comprehensive anti-discrimination law in conformity with international standards among the central planks of its advocacy efforts.

Roma Rights 1 and 2/2003 brings together essays by a number of observers and experts in Eastern and Western Europe, detailing the current state of efforts to bring about new or amended anti-discrimination laws in a number of countries. Additionally, ERRC Board Member Theo Van Boven describes the work of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the treaty body charged with oversight of implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. ERRC Legal Director Gloria Jean Garland provides an overview of ERRC anti-discrimination litigation efforts to date, as advocates work with existing laws to secure justice for victims of racial discrimination.

• Roma Rights and Anti-Discrimination Law (Claude Cahn)

• The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Trends and Developments (Theo van Boven)

• The Bulgarian Draft Anti-Discrimination Law: An Opportunity to Make Good on the Constitutional Promise of Equality in a Post-Communist Society (Margarita Ilieva)

• A Unified Approach to Equality Law (Bob Hepple QC) 

• Will the Groom Adopt the Bride's Unwanted Child? The Race Equality Directive, Hungary and its Roma (Lilla Farkas) 

• The Dutch Equal Treatment Act in Theory and Practice (Janny R. Dierx and Peter R. Rodrigues) 

• Not Yet Viable: Anti-Discrimination Action in Romania (Romaniţa Iordache and Andreea Tabacu) 

• Enforcement of Rights under the Equality Legislation in Northern Ireland (Geraldine Scullion) 

• Fighting Discrimination Through the Courts (Gloria Jean Garland) 

• Albania * Bosnia and Herzegovina * Bulgaria * Croatia * Czech Republic * Denmark * Finland * France * Greece * Hungary * Italy * Kosovo * Latvia * Lithuania * Macedonia * Moldova * Romania * Serbia and Montenegro * Slovakia * Ukraine * United Kingdom 

• Romanian Roma: Two Years After the Adoption of the Government Strategy, No Visible Change (Tara Bedard) 

• ERRC Action as Poland and Slovakia Are Reviewed by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Mona Nicoară) 

• UN Committee Against Torture Finds Mountegrin Authorities in Flagrant Breach of Human Rights Standards (Branimir Plese) 

• Training Workshop of Judges in the Implementation and Enforcement of the EU Race Equality Directive February 28-March 1, 2003, Budapest, Hungary 

• Litigation 

• ERRC Scholarship Recipients 2002/2003 

• Romani-language translation of "A Comparative Analysis of National and European Law (prepared for the European Roma Rights Center, Interights and Migration Policy Group by Per Johansson) 

• Being a "Gypsy": The Worst Social Stigma in Romania (Valeriu Nicolae and Hannah Slavik) 

• Roma in Russia ( Nadezhda Demeter) 

• Turning the Tide 

• Chronicle