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Discrimination and the Roma community 2014
criminatory incidents and there is still a need to provide comprehensive services to potential victims of racial or ethnic
discrimination. We have to get victims to report discrimination and cases of racial or ethnic hatred; they must not
be made to feel helpless, unprotected and devoid of compensation when their house is burned down, when they are
denied access to a job or when they cannot go to a pool or a discotheque simply because they are Roma.
We are still witnessing unjust acts of rejection and, in some cases, even racial or ethnic hatred (Romaphobia) in several
European countries: mass expulsions, segregated schools, violent attacks, etc.; and the question is, what is the response
of European institutions?
In this connection, one of the FSG’s priorities is to promote equality and combat ethnic discrimination. The FSG’s Equal-
ity Department has been working along these lines for over 10 years and continues implementing different initiatives to
address the issue of discrimination against the Roma community:
•
Assistance initiatives for victims of discrimination that we have strengthened since March 2013 by coordinating
the Victim Assistance Service of the Council for the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination, work we do
side-by-side with 7 other social entities. This service was established in 2014 and we hope it will grow in 2015.
•
Technical assistance and training of key players in the fight against discrimination: mostly technical personnel and
the heads of administrations and social organisations, police forces, jurists, the media and universities.
•
Promotion of policies supporting the advancement of equal treatment by lobbying and monitoring anti-discrimi-
nation legislation and its everyday enforcement and European recommendations in this regard.
•
Social awareness-raising actions through the dissemination of information related with the fight against ethnic
discrimination and the promotion of equal treatment and social awareness-raising campaigns.
•
Strategic litigation before the courts, a course of action that began with the case of a Roma woman who was
denied her widow’s pension and which went all the way to the European Court of Human Rights which ruled
in her favour. We then defended another Roma woman from Romania who was treated unfairly by the Mossos
d’Esquadra (regional police of Catalonia) and got a favourable ruling in that case as well. Currently, together with
the agencies of the State Council of the Roma People, we are defending the Roma community in general in the
case of racist violence in Castellar.
•
Participation in European forums and projects to combat anti-Gypsyism and Romaphobia in Europe.
The main section of this report is devoted to shedding light on the everyday discrimination still faced today by the
Roma community in Spain, 151 cases having been identified in 2013 and 1073 cases in this decade of work; a sample
that gives us a closer look at the injustice of social rejection suffered by this group and sheds light on the need for
key professional sectors in this area to improve their performance with respect to this ethnic minority. The cases reg-
istered are presented by area with disaggregated data so as to provide the greatest degree of information, including
a description of some of the work strategies developed. Also, we have drafted the conclusions we reached from our
work assisting victims of discrimination and have made proposals to achieve greater effectiveness in the defence of
people who fall victim to the regrettable act of discrimination.
We then attempt to contextualise discrimination by analysing our political representatives who are key members of
our society insofar as they play an important role in defending Equal Treatment and Opportunity, we address the con-
cept of “liquid racism”, analyse the current makeup of the European Parliament, gain insight into the legal defence in an
important case in Spain and then hear from various political leaders who give their views on discrimination against the
Roma community.
The report continues with a reference to the significant progress made during the year 2013-2014 at European and
national level: EU recommendations on the inclusion of the Roma community, the report of the European Union Agency
for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on the framework decision regarding racism and xenophobia and hate crime victims, the