Roma Rights, Winter 1998: Police Violence against Roma

02 April 1998

In fighting police brutality, we have relied upon two methods. First of all, we have collected and disseminated information about violations of Roma rights by police. We have described the most disturbing cases of abuse in our reports. Secondly, we have sued police officers and institutions and have assisted others in doing the same; in the best of cases (and more such cases will likely come), law enforcement officials were sent to prison. Now that these two methods have been usefully explored, we look forward to a third method: dialogue. Once the Roma and the lawyers have begun to form an alliance, it is time to invite to the table the missing party: the police. We are prepared to start a discussion, a genuine dialogue, with the police. This will be a kind of human rights education, provided that all parties will be both trainers and students. 
 

• Dialogue with the police? (Dimitrina Petrova) 

• One of these days (Claude Cahn) 

• Albania * Bulgaria * Czech Republic * Denmark * Greece * Hungary * Italy * Kosovo * Lithuania * Romania * Russia * Serbia and Montenegro * Slovakia * Slovenia * Spain * Ukraine * United Kingdom 

• Down by law: police abuse of Roma in Italy (Piero Colacicchi) 

• Roma-police seminars in Bulgaria (ERRC partner organisation the Human Rights Project has held a series of round-table discussion between Roma and the police. Savelina Danova describes their successes, failures and lessons) 

• Székesfehérvár in perspective: Roma and housing in Hungary (Csilla Dér and Betty Eberle) 

• Law and practice in international and domestic courts (James Goldston) 

• Litigating cases on behalf of Roma before the Court and Commission in Strasbourg (Luke Clements)  

• Letter to the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel 

• Letter to the General Prosecutor of Moldova, Dumitru Harlumpii Postovan 

• Here the law is fear the police: Roma in Macedonia and Yugoslavia testify about instances of police brutality 

• Wish you weren't here: The response of the British press to Romani asylum seekers (Lucie Roberts) 

• Britain and France (The ERRC travelled to Britain with Czech and Slovak activists during the media hype surrounding Romani asylum seekers there. David Chirico tells what happened) 

• Chronicle