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FSG presents the 15th edition of the Discrimination and Roma Community annual report [editar]

The report includes 334 cases of discrimination and antigypyism in areas such as employment, education or access to goods and services, which represents an increase of 44% in relation to those documented in the previous edition.

20/11/2019

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FSG presents the 15th edition of the Discrimination and Roma Community annual report

The report includes 334 cases of discrimination and antigypsyism registered and assisted from the FSG offices. This number is 44% higher than in the 2018 report. These Cases have occurred in areas such as the media and the Internet, with a total of 121 cases; in employment, with 56 cases; in access to goods and services, with 57 cases; in the Police Services, with 12 cases; in education, with 31 cases; in housing, with 25 cases and in health, with 10.

Regarding the profile of the victims, it is found that discrimination mostly affects young roma people, between the ages of 16 and 30, and women, with 238 of the 408 victims identified.

Besides, for first time, the report incorporates a chapter on strategic litigation in cases of discrimination, hate crimes and antigypsyism delivered by the Fundación Secretariado Gitano. It describes the twenty cases undertaken and the lessons that can be extracted from their use as a tool for defending the rights of roma people and the principle of non-discrimination.

Conclusions

Underreporting and the lack of adequate legal and institutional response to many cases of discrimination is one of the seven main conclusions that appear as a reality that prevents an effective fight against this scourge. The conclusions also reveal that roma women continue to suffer situations of specific discrimination due to the intersection between their ethnicity and their gender. In this sense, it is found that the specialized support provided by the professionals of the FSG´s program “Calí for the equality of Roma women” favours greater empowerment and responsiveness of many women, who react to these practices by claiming their rights, or denouncing.

The mention of ethnicity in the news related to events, and the comments of hatred in social networks, also appear among the fundamental causes that remain throughout the years in the reports and that most contribute to disseminate stereotypes about the roma people. Discrimination in access to housing, barriers to access to the labour market, school segregation and discriminatory police actions and controls by ethnic profile, also continue to be recurring themes in the cases included in the 15th Report.

The accompaniment of the victims appears as a key factor in the fight against discrimination. In addition, strategic litigation is fundamental to defend the rights of the roma population, together with the need of the Spanish state to comply with the latest recommendations of the international bodies.

Discrimination in access to housing

The barriers faced by Roma people in access to housing represent a violation of human rights. In addition, the principle of legality is often not respected when forced evictions, such as the case described in the Report in La Cañada, Madrid. This case was successfully brought to court by FSG.

The victims testimony

The victims who have suffered situations of discrimination, have reported in first person the eviction and demolition of their home, as was the case of the family of Mercedes Borja, or eviction and denial to another home, for being roma, as was the case that the family of Tomás Fernández lived.

Fundacion Secretariado Gitano in the active defence and the fight against discrimination advises and accompanies the victims, denounces before the competent bodies and undertakes strategic litigation before the Courts.

Here you can download the full report (in spanish). https://www.gitanos.org/centro_documentacion/publicaciones/fichas/129965.html.es
Summary report in english will be soon available.

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