Roma Rights 2013: National Roma Integration Strategies: What Next?
06 January 2014
This issue of Roma Rights focuses on National Roma Integration Strategies and the objectives, challenges and shortcomings of the EC Framework which aim to improve the situation and status of Roma across Europe. The articles assess the existing national strategies and also look to the future to consider what needs to be done to increase the prospects of success.
The essays in this series exemplify the diversity of the Roma discourse. All of them discuss the EU Roma framework, but from different perspectives – national, thematic or institutional. Joanna Kostka examines the Polish national strategy and questions what has been learned from previous Roma integration initiatives. Thomas Acton, Iulius Rostas, and Andrew Ryder call for greater support to be given for grass roots Roma involvement in projects and programmes, while Enikő Vincze argues the need for greater consideration to be given to the role of Roma women. Belén Sánchez-Rubio and Carolina Fernández Díez provide an overview of the European Roma Policy Coalition’s assessment of national Roma strategies, while the relationship between the Roma Decade and the EU’s Roma framework is discussed by Aleksandra Bojadjieva. Bernard Rorke critically analyses the overall approach of the Framework and questions how much progress can be made without more effective action to counter discriminatory attitudes and practices, while the importance of placing the struggle against discrimination at the heart of Roma initiatives is emphasised by Dezideriu Gergely.
This issue also contains two case reviews. One is by Judit Gellér on the important Horvath and Kiss v Hungary case, a European Court of Human Rights decision on access to education. The second comes from Hilal Küey, from Izmir, Turkey, and highlights the destruction of historical Roma neighbourhood of Sulukule, in Istanbul. The ERRC has collaborated on both cases. Finally, a new book on Dale Farm, No Place to Call Home, by Katharine Quarmby, is reviewed by Marianne Powell.
Roma Rights 2013: National Roma Integration Strategies (PDF)
