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Sara Giménez, re-elected as Spain’s representative to the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) [editar]

The Roma lawyer and congresswoman is the current president of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano

02/11/2022
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Sara Giménez, re-elected as Spain’s representative to the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)

At the meeting held by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in Strasbourg on 19 October, Sara Giménez, Roma lawyer, congresswoman and current president of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, was re-elected as Spain’s representative to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).

At the meeting held by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in Strasbourg on 19 October, Sara Giménez, Roma lawyer, congresswoman and current president of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, was re-elected as Spain’s representative to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).

The post, of five years’ duration, was due to end this 31 December, but the Council of Europe has already taken the decision to re-elect her for a further period. This is the first time such a decision has been taken with respect to a Spanish representative. It should also be remembered that Sara Giménez was the first Roma woman to attain this position.

ECRI – the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance – is a supervisory body belonging to the Council of Europe, whose task is to combat racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance at European level, with a focus on protecting human rights. The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 by 10 European countries. It now has 46 member states, with Spain included in this number since 1977.

ECRI’s members, nominated by each Member state within the Council of Europe for a term of five years, are, according to its Statutes, “people of recognised authority and experience in the field, who perform their functions independently and in their individual capacities”.

ECRI is one of the international organisations which has repeatedly highlighted the situation of discrimination suffered by the Roma population and the need for public authorities to pay greater attention to this issue.

Sara Giménez, in her capacity as member of ECRI since 2018, participates in the revision of Member states’ legislation, policies and measures to combat racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and other forms of intolerance, producing country reports and formulating political actions and recommendations for Member states on this subject. In addition, she participates in ECRI's Working Group on civil society and as an observer representing ECRI in the Committee of Experts on Roma and Traveller (ADI_ROM) of the Council of Europe.

President of the FSG since June 2021

Sara Giménez has a degree in Law from the University of Zaragoza and a postgraduate degree in Human Rights from the University of the Basque Country, with further training in NGO management and in issues relating to minors, foreign residents, criminal defence, etc.

She has years of experience in the identification and analysis of cases of racial or ethnic discrimination, as well as direct experience of assisting victims. As the head of the Department of Equality and the Fight against Discrimination at the Fundación Secretariado Gitano for several years, she provided direct legal assistance in discrimination cases brought before the courts. Among these was the case at the Provincial Court of Barcelona of a Romanian Roma woman, with a favourable judgement (10 December 2013), and her participation in the well-known case of the Roma widow María Luisa Muñoz, “La Nena” (8 December 2009), again with a favourable judgement, at the European Court of Human Rights.

She has been a Member of Congress since the 13th Legislative Session, acting as spokesperson in various Commissions and Sub-commissions, such as that established in April 2021 for the study of a State Pact against Antigypsyism and for the Inclusion of the Roma People. She was also one of the most active drivers of the recently-passed Law 15/2022 (12 July), integral to equal treatment and non-discrimination, and of the modification of the Criminal Code to recognise antigypsyism as a specific form of hate crime.

After joining the Fundación Secretariado Gitano’s Board of Trustees in 2019 as vicepresident, in June 2021 she took over the presidency from Pedro Puente, the organisation’s founder.

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