05/04/2013
FSG
The Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) was in Brussels on the 8th and 9th of April together with Amnesty International and the rest of the organisations that form part of the European Roma Policy Coalition (ERPC) - currently chaired by the FSG - to urge the EU and Member States to finally assume their responsibility and put an end to the widespread discrimination experienced by Roma in Europe, through the campaign "Human Rights Here, Roma Rights Now".
Coinciding with the celebration of the International Roma Day (8 April), Amnesty International and the ERPC organised two events in Brussels: a flashmob in front of the European Parliament (8 April) and a hearing in the European Parliament itself (9 April). These two actions have a common objective: to raise our voices to urge the EU and Member States to finally put an end to the racial discrimination experienced by the Roma community in Europe in many areas of life, including the access to housing, healthcare, education and employment.
At the same time, a cyberaction has collected signatures to support the campaign developed by Amnesty International in the past months and aimed at European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Vivian Reding, which recalls that "Many EU member states fail to enforce, in policy and practice, not just international human rights standards, but also EU anti-discrimination law. The European Commission has the competence, responsibility and obligation to ensure compliance with this law and fight against the discrimination facing Roma."
Reproduction of Roma settlement in front of the European Parliament in Brussels
“We cannot continue to allow second class citizens in Europe, who live in inhumane conditions [...]. We are in Brussels to demand the end of discrimination towards the Roma population. The EU and Member States must, once and for all, assume their responsibility to generate changes that guarantee fundamental rights, improve the living conditions, and achieve the effective social inclusion of Roma persons in Europe", affirmed Belén Sánchez-Rubio, Director of International Programmes at the FSG and Chair of the ERPC this semester.
On his side, John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International said that “The EU must implement immediately the considerable measures at its disposal to sanction governments that are failing to tackle discrimination and violence against Roma.”
To this end, the "flashmob" organised by Amnesty International and the ERPC involved dozens of Roma activists on the 8th of April on the square in front of the European Parliament in Brussels. The flashmob revolved around the reproduction of a Roma settlement, where the public was able to observe first hand the conditions in which tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Roma persons live: without hot water, without bathrooms, with a limited access to employment and healthcare services, confined to segregated schools, vulnerable to racist violence and defenceless against forced evictions. The question is clear: Is this the kind of Europe we want to live in?
Mayte Suárez, Regional Director of the FSG in Extremadura, asserted that “iniciatives such as this one are fundamental at a moment in which the economic crisis threatens to aggravate further the situation of the most important ethnic minority of Europe. At present, people at risk of exclusion, the most disadvantaged, are the most vulnerable. We must be a network of protection for them".
Together with Roma activists and members of European NGOs, various Members of the European Parliament, including Spanish MEP Raül Romeva, of Iniciativa Els Verds, who expressed again his awareness of the fundamental need to defend the rights of Roma persons when he received the FSG's commemorative poster of the International Roma Day from the hands of Belén Sánchez-Rubio.
Belén Sánchez-Rubio, Director of International Programmes of the FSG with Spanish MEP Raül Romeva, of Iniciativa Els Verds.
On Tuesday 9 April, the action shifted to the European Paliament where, between 11.00 and 14.00, Amnesty International and the FSG - as chair of the ERPC - organised a hearing, sponsored by parliamentary group The Greens/European Free Alliance, and with the active support of Green Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Hélène Flautre.
Under the title ‘How can this take place here? Discrimination against Roma in Europe’, the parliamentary audience gathered more than 150 Roma activists, significant NGOs, and experts on Roma issues from across Europe, as well as representatives of the Commission and MEPs.
Two discussion panels were set up: the first on discrimination towards Roma in the access to housing and education; the second on anti-Gypsyism and racially motivated violence towards Roma.
Representatives of DG Justice, responsible for Roma issues in the European Commission, confirmed that the European Commission will open infringement procedures against Member States which do not comply with the EU Equality Directives.
Information media had the opportunity to visit the simulated settlement and interview Roma activists from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania, as well as members of the European Parliament, the Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International, experts on Roma issues and representatives of member organisations of the ERPC, including Belén Sánchez-Rubio, current chair of the ERPC and Director of International Programmes of the FSG and Mayte Suaréz, Director of the FSG in the Extremadura region of Spain.
Mayte Suárez, Regional Director of the FSG in Extremadura, speaking to information media following the flashmob.
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