Fundación Secretariado Gitano

FRA Report on Fundamental Rights in Europe - 2021 [editar]

• International

The Fundamental Rights report of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) reviews the main developments of 2020: the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; equality and non-discrimination; racism, xenophobia and related intolerance; Roma equality and inclusion; asylum, borders and migration; information society, privacy and data protection; rights of the child; access to justice; and the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This year, the report devotes its focus section to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected fundamental rights during 2020. The health crisis has hit hard to society as a whole, but has particularly affected the most vulnerable people, including the Roma population. In the education section of this chapter, explicit mention is made of the results of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano's April 2020 survey in which 11,000 Roma people in Spain were interviewed to find out how their lives were impacted by the Coronavirus.

In the specific chapter on Roma equality and inclusion in Europe, the report focuses on anti-gypsyism, education (with a particular focus on inclusive education and the technology gap), housing and health. As part of this section, a series of FRA recommendations on these issues can be found, as well as the opinion on which should be the role of Member States in designing the national strategies following the EU Roma Strategic Framework for equality, inclusion and participation for 2020-2030:

1. The fight against discrimination and antigypsyism should be mainstreamed in all policy areas of the national Roma strategies, and should include targeted measures. Such measures should be designed and implemented together with Roma communities’ representatives, to promote positive narratives about Roma and Travellers, raising awareness of their history of discrimination, segregation and persecution.
2. Coordinated measures to ensure that all children have access to distance learning tools should be implemented. Any measures in education should include targeted actions tailored to specific needs of the diverse Roma and Traveller groups. The recruitment, training and deployment of more Roma mediators and teachers with a Roma background should be encouraged. Targeted measures are sustainable and well-funded, making use of EU funds
3. Priority should be given to the implementation of the new EU Roma strategic framework. The national plans should be ambitious and include effective monitoring systems to assess progress, measuring the impact of both mainstream and targeted measures, as well as the effective use of national and EU funds. National Roma strategies should include specific reference to the meaningful participation of Roma and Travellers.

The report covers the 27 EU Member States as well as the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Serbia.

The FRA is a European agency, which provides independent advice to EU and national decision-makers, thus contributing to better informed and more targeted fundamental rights debates, policies and legislation.

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