Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: 25 Years of Waiting for Roma in Europe

15 December 2021

In 1996, a group of activist lawyers came together to create a new organisation in Europe. Inspired by the legal successes of the American civil rights movement, the European Roma Rights Centre was born. A human rights litigation centre, created in response to widespread human rights abuses against Roma who until then rarely, if ever, received justice.
 
Twenty-five years later the human rights abuses may have changed in character, but the injustices Roma face in the eyes of the law remains the same: police investigations which tamper with the evidence, intimidate witnesses, and even accuse the victims of lying; public prosecutors who refuse to consider attacks on Romani families as hate crimes, and characterise violent pogroms as “hooliganism”; courts which use words like “gypsy mentality”, hand down light sentences to racists, and take years to deliver a judgment; and European institutions which lack the power to crack down on racist governments, lack the political will to enter into direct confrontation with member states, and lack the courage to call out institutional racism.
 
Roma have been denied justice for decades by Europe, we think it is time for change! If you want to be a part of the change, get in touch, or check out our website (www.errc.org).