AI launches Europe-wide campaign to end discrimination against Roma
Marking International Roma Day on Monday, Amnesty International has just
launched a Europe-wide campaign entitled Human Rights Here, Roma Rights
Now. It aims to end persisting discrimination and segregation that an
estimated six million Roma face in many European countries, including the
Czech Republic. Mark Martin, the head of Amnesty International’s Czech
branch, explains what the campaign hopes to achieve.
We are looking to eliminate all forms of systematized discrimination
against the Roma minority as far as we can. In particular, we are looking
to eliminate discrimination against Roma children and their right to equal
access to quality education.
“We are looking to end unfair and illegal forced eviction practices, and
to eliminate racially, ethnically motivated violence throughout Europe.”
How does AI want to achieve these goals? There were some steps mentioned
including pressure on the European Parliament and the European Commission
– do you think this has the potential of achieving a breakthrough on
these issues?
“We are looking at a variety of different techniques and trying to push
this agenda forward. We are very obviously aware this is not a short-term
project so we will be focusing on these issues for a long time to come I
think.
“Some of the specific things we’ll be doing in terms of activism
include supporting the International Roma Day which is going on today,
creating various happenings and activities of the type that will take place
in front of the European Parliament today. We will also be following up on
our previous work in the area of education with ongoing participation in
the Ministry of Education forum with regards to equal rights to education,
and we will be working with other government and local organizations to
ensure that the rights of people with regards to their housing are
respected as well even in difficult situations around the country.”
The head of the Czech government’s agency for social inclusion recently
warned that the number of the so-called ghettos, or socially excluded
areas, rose from around 330 to over 400. Where do you see the biggest
weaknesses of the government’s policies in this respect?
“What we are mostly interested in is making sure that the rights of the
people living in these places are respected, so in the case they are
already living there, they don’t have their human rights abused by either
local municipalities or by extremist groups interested in harming them. So
the basic human rights such as the right to education, the right to work,
and so forth, need to be respected.
Then, clearly we are most interested in having the government work to
reduce the level of segregation in these groups so that they become a more
integral and integrated part of the mainstream society because to a large
extent, excluding them in these localities has a very negative and
marginalizing effect on the people who are living there.”
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We are looking to eliminate all forms of systematized discrimination
against the Roma minority as far as we can. In particular, we are looking
to eliminate discrimination against Roma children and their right to equal
access to quality education.
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