What is the European Roma Rights Centre?
(Last modified: 2005-02-25 10:41:31)
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is an international public interest law organisation engaging in a range of activities aimed at combating anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma. The approach of the ERRC involves, in particular, strategic litigation, international advocacy, research and policy development, and human rights training of Romani activists. Since its establishment in 1996, the ERRC has endeavoured to give Roma the tools necessary to combat discrimination and win equal access to government, education, employment, health care, housing and public services. The ERRC works to combat prejudice and discrimination against Roma, and to promote genuine equality of treatment and equality of respect. Since 1996, among other achievements, the ERRC:
as increased public attention to the human rights situation of Roma in Europe as an issue of primary public concern and a highest priority on the European human rights agenda;
as exposed and condemned the systemic abuse of Roma rights in a number of countries, including both countries of the former Communist block and EU member states;
as furthered the effective access to justice for Roma and the redress of human rights violations;
as contributed to the development of public interest law in the region, through litigation and legal training in the field of Roma rights;
as written the most significant European Union (EU) policy document on Roma, “Roma in an Enlarged European Union”, a report published in October 2004 by the Directorate General of Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission;
as influenced the human rights aspects of EU enlargement, through regular monitoring of compliance with the so-called “Copenhagen criteria” by the EU candidate countries and ensuring that the situation of Roma is addressed as a priority issue by both EU Member States and candidate countries;
as become one of the leading advocates in implementing anti-discrimination law in Europe, through participation in efforts related to the promotion of recent landmark instruments, including the EU Race Equality Directive and Protocol No. 12 to the ECHR;
as secured that racial discrimination against Roma is acknowledged and addressed as a top priority issue for the European region, in the framework of the process leading up to the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, September 2001;
Has contributed significantly to the first ever thematic session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, held in Geneva in August 2000 and devoted entirely to the issue of discrimination against Roma.
Romani organisations and Romani individuals throughout Europe contribute time and expertise to the ERRC. The ERRC is a co-operating member of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and has consultative status with the Council of Europe as well as with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
Key ERRC Activities
Campaigning through Domestic and International Advocacy
The ERRC is a campaigning organisation for Roma rights justice. Some recent and ongoing ERRC campaigns include:
Redress for Victims of Racially Motivated Violent Crime and Surviving Members of their Families
Beginning in 1999, the Romani community of Kosovo was ethnically cleansed from the province. During the 1990s, pogroms plagued countries throughout Central and Eastern Europe; in Romania alone, such community violence events resulted in the wholesale destruction of over twenty Romani communities. In a number of countries, skinhead violence targeting Roma and others is endemic. In nearly all the countries of Europe, police officers or other state officials have perpetrated anti-Romani violent crime. The ERRC began its institutional life seeking justice for victims of these individual and systemic crimes, and this remains a core part of the ERRC’s work.
School Desegregation
Since early in its institutional life, the ERRC has made campaigning for school desegregation a central element of its advocacy work. Actions have included support and promotion of grassroots desegregation advocates, publications documenting the extent and gravity of school segregation of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe, roundtable work with activists and officials to press for school reform at the Ministry and local level, and targeted advocacy work with international review bodies. In addition, the ERRC is involved in lawsuits against segregated schooling arrangements in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, and has assisted similar legal action in Denmark. As a result of ERRC efforts, school desegregation has been adopted as policy by a number of governments in the region, and is firmly at the centre of the advocacy agenda of a number of activist groups and politicians in Europe.
Implementing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Law
Major recent developments in EU and Council of Europe law have made possible high impact in the area of pressing for comprehensive anti-discrimination laws throughout Europe. The ERRC recognised early the value for the Roma rights agenda of making sure that comprehensive anti-discrimination laws in conformity with EU standards are adopted by governments and implemented in full. As a result of campaigning, countries including Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania have in recent years adopted new legal instruments making justice for victims of the serious harm of racial discrimination for the first time a serious possibility. The ERRC will continue to press other countries to adopt such laws, as well as to work with activists, advocates and victims to ensure that such laws are implemented in full.
Justice for Victims of Coercive Sterilizations
The coercive sterilization of Romani women is a matter of concern in a number of countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Throughout 2003 and 2004, the ERRC campaigned extensively for justice for victims of these practices. In Autumn 2004, as a result of ERRC actions with local partner organisations in the Czech Republic, broad and rich public debate about the issue made possible a number of positive developments, including the formation of victim support groups and a dramatic breaking of the silence by a large number of women who had been subjected to coercive sterilizations at the hands of Czech doctors. The ERRC is currently involved in legal action in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia in cases of coercive sterilisation of Romani women and will continue to press authorities to provide a full public accounting of the scope and gravity of the problem, as well as just compensation for all victims.
Campaigning for Adequate Housing
ERRC actions on adequate housing for Roma include collective complaints under the European Social Charter mechanism against Italy and Greece alleging systemic violations of the right to adequate housing where Roma are concerned. The Italy complaint was declared admissible in December 2004. These actions will reshape policy and law in those countries during the next period. In addition, the ERRC implemented a comprehensive project on the right to adequate housing in Slovakia during 2003-2004, including training for Romani activists, national-level campaigning with civil society partners, the publication of a housing rights manual in Slovak for practitioners, as well as a number of lawsuits. Campaigning for full realisation of the rights of Roma to adequate housing will remain a core activity of the ERRC in the coming years.
Romani Women’s Rights
Increasing focus on the fundamental rights of Romani women have brought these issues to the centre of the ERRC’s work. In the past two years, the ERRC has undertaken comprehensive submissions on women’s rights matters in Croatia, Germany and Spain. In 2004, the ERRC held an international training for Romani women’s rights activists and took on its first domestic violence case. Also in 2004, the ERRC hired a Women’s Rights Officer onto ERRC staff, to focus exclusively on developing programming in this area. In the coming period, the ERRC will join with local activists in Macedonia to undertake training and documentation in the run-up to that country’s review by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The ERRC will also be seeking to significantly enrich its research and policy work on women’s rights, and to sharpen its rights-based campaigning in this area.
Roma Rights Russia Action
In recent years, campaigning for Roma rights in Russia has come to constitute a major new area of ERRC activity. During 2004, multiple ERRC research teams were in the field for much of summer. Material gathered during these visits was presented at three key events: (i) a meeting on racism and xenophobia convened by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe; (ii) a briefing session for US Congress organised by the US Helsinki Commission; and (iii) the annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. All three events featured oral presentations as well as written submissions. The third of the three submissions was a joint statement by the ERRC and the International Helsinki Federation. ERRC follow-up in Russia is ongoing on a number of fronts, and a comprehensive report on the human rights situation of Roma in Russia is forthcoming in the near term.
One particular way in which the ERRC advocates is by pressing for the inclusion of Roma rights concerns on the agenda of domestic and international governmental and non-governmental bodies. Over the course of its nine-year history, the ERRC has sent numerous advocacy submissions to governmental, intergovernmental officials and other international bodies. Key and frequent targets of ERRC advocacy work include United Nations Treaty Bodies, European Union institutions, instances at the Council of Europe and the various fora of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Further information on ERRC international advocacy activities is available at: http://www.errc.org/Advocacy_index.php.
Legal Defence, Strategic Litigation and Legal Research
The ERRC provides and supports legal services, including litigation, to Romani victims of human rights violations and uses courts of law to end discriminatory practices by engaging in impact litigation. Legal research of the ERRC focuses on building strategies, based on analyses of existing law and legal services, to empower Roma through law and strengthen the network of legal advocates working on behalf of Roma. The ERRC disseminates information concerning Roma rights and promotes change-oriented litigation and law reform by conducting seminars for Romani activists, lawyers and community leaders. It also maintains a documentation centre of Roma-related, human rights and legal material.
The ERRC works with NGOs and lawyers to take cases of racially motivated violence, discrimination and other forms of human rights abuse to courts. Co-operation with these organisations focuses on a number of issues of major concern to Roma, and where litigation may have the potential of achieving positive reform. The ERRC is active in both domestic and international litigation. The ERRC supports local lawyers in their legal proceedings in both professional and financial terms. When possibilities for domestic remedy are exhausted, the ERRC often prepares a legal submission to one of a number of international tribunals, most notably the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The ERRC currently represents Romani clients in 35 cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, three cases pending before the UN Committee against Torture, two cases pending before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, one before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, one before the UN Human Rights Committee and more than 160 cases pending before domestic courts. The ERRC is also involved in cases through the submission of so-called “amicus curiae” briefs, clarifying a particular aspect of fact or law. Details of some of the most important cases in which ERRC has been substantially involved to date follow:
The Danilovgrad Case (Yugoslavia)
In April 1995, a group of non-Roma destroyed property and burned the houses in the local Romani settlement, in the process expelling the entire Romani community. Police officers were present but failed to act. A few days later, the area was completely cleared by construction machines of a public utility company. After failing to come to work for several days, the Romani men of the settlement were fired from their jobs at a local factory. Efforts to secure justice domestically failed, so the ERRC filed an application on behalf of the Romani victims with the UN Committee against Torture. The Committee against Torture accepted all of ERRC claims and consequently found the Yugoslav government in breach of a number of provisions of the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In June 2003, the Montenegrin government agreed to pay more than one million US dollars compensation to 74 Romani victims of the pogrom.
The Prague Airport Case
In December 2004, the UK House of Lords ruled that the UK Government had discriminated on racial grounds against Czech citizens of Romani origin in preventing them from travelling to the UK in order to stop them from claiming asylum upon arrival. In 2001, the Czech Republic agreed that the UK could station immigration officers at Prague Airport to screen all passengers travelling to the UK. The overwhelming number of passengers who were refused permission to enter the UK under this operation were Roma. Statistics showed that Roma were 400 times more likely to be refused entry to the UK than non-Roma. The practice was described by the Lords as “inherently and systematically discriminatory” against Roma. The decision is among the most important ever anywhere in terms of condemning racial discrimination in the area of border regulation.
Nachova v. Bulgaria
On July 19, 1996, military police officer Major G. shot dead two Romani men, Mr Kuncho Angelov and Mr Kiril Petkov, conscripts in the Construction Force of the Bulgarian army, in the village of Lesura, northwest Bulgaria. Mr Angelov and Mr Petkov had escaped from prison and were hiding in the house of Mr Angelov’s grandmother in Lesura. Mr Angelov and Mr Petkov, both unarmed, were shot with an automatic rifle by Major G. while trying to escape from the house and running through a neighbor’s yard. The wounded men were then taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead. Despite legal complaints in the matter, Bulgarian authorities failed utterly to provide justice to the families of the victims. On February 26, 2004, the European Court of Human Rights announced its judgment in the case. The Court unanimously found the Bulgarian state responsible for the deaths of two Romani men as well as its subsequent failure to conduct an effective official investigation, in violation of Article 2 (right to life). For the first time in its history, the Court also found a violation of the guarantee against racial discrimination contained in Article 14 taken together with Article 2, and in doing so stressed that the Bulgarian authorities have “failed in their duty ... to take all possible steps to establish whether or not discriminatory attitudes may have played a role” in the events at issue. In so doing, as a result of ERRC argumentation in the matter, the Court altered significantly its standard of proof in racial discrimination cases.
Hădăreni Pogrom Case (Romania)
In December 2000, the ERRC filed an application to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of 21 Romani victims of a 1993 pogrom incident in Hadareni, Romania. In that case, a young non-Romani man was killed in a fight in a bar. Following the incident, a mob chased three men into a house and, under the supervision of police officers, set the house on fire. One Romani man was burnt to death – indeed burnt beyond recognition – in the fire. The other two men were set upon by the mob as they attempted to escape the blaze and were beaten to death. A coroner’s report documented more than 100 discrete wounds on each of the bodies of the men killed. The villagers then went on a rampage, setting fire to 14 other Roma-occupied houses in the village. Of the eleven civilian defendants finally charged, only four were convicted of murder and the remaining seven of arson. In June 2000, two of those convicted of murder were granted a presidential pardon, setting them both free. Despite court testimony given by victims and witnesses implicating police officials in the crimes no police officer has ever been held criminally responsible. Since opening offices in 1996, the ERRC has been determined to pursue justice in the Hădăreni case, and has expended considerable effort pushing for a just settlement. Despite the fact that at the time of the pogrom, Romania was not yet a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, in June 2003, the European Court agreed to hear the case. Decision is expected in early 2005. A positive ruling in the case will be crucial for seeking justice in a number of similar cases throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
Mario Goral Case (Slovakia)
On July 21, 1995, Romani teenager Mario Goral was the victim of a fatal attack by a group of skinheads in the central Slovak town of Žiar nad Hronom. Approximately 30 skinheads rampaged through the city that day and attacked several young Roma with crowbars and knives. Eighteen-year-old Mario Goral was caught and beaten unconscious. Two skinheads then doused him with a mixture of gasoline and polystyrene and set him on fire. As a result of injuries sustained, the Romani youth died in hospital 10 days later. On May 11, 2000, the first instance court of Žiar nad Hronom, in addition to granting the pecuniary damages claim, awarded the plaintiff compensation for the mental anguish she suffered as a consequence of her son’s wrongful death. This case is landmark as it was the first time that a Slovak court awarded a family member compensation for the mental anguish suffered as a result of a wrongful death of a relative.
Ostrava School Segregation Case (Czech Republic)
On April 18, 2000, the ERRC and local counsel, representing 18 Romani children from the Czech city of Ostrava, filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights, to challenge systematic racial segregation and discrimination in Czech schools. Their application contends that their assignment to special schools constitutes “degrading treatment” in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The submission further argues that the applicants have been denied their right to education, in breach of Article 2 of Protocol 1 of the Convention; that they have suffered racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to education, in violation of Article 14; and that the procedure which resulted in their assignment to special school did not afford the minimal requisites of due process required by Article 6(1). ERRC documentation undertaken in the course of preparing the lawsuit revealed that more than half of all Romani children in the Czech Republic are schooled in so-called “remedial special schools” for the mentally disabled. Any randomly selected Romani child is more than 27 times more likely to be placed in such a school than a similarly situated non-Romani child. The application asks the European Court of Human Rights to find violations of the above-noted Convention provisions and to award just satisfaction. Public hearing in the case is scheduled to take place in March 2005.
Hungarian School Segregation Cases
The ERRC has been involved in several successful school desegregation cases in Hungary. Most recently, on 7 October 2004, in a major ERRC test case, the Budapest Metropolitan City Court of Appeals upheld a first instance court decision ordering the primary school in Tiszatarján and the local governments of Tiszatarján and Hejkürt respectively to pay damages in the total amount of 3,650,000 Hungarian forints (approximately 14,600 Euro), with accrued interest, to nine families whose children have been unlawfully kept in a segregated class and taught based on a special (inferior) curriculum from 1994 to 1999. The complaint was filed in 2001 by attorney Lilla Farkas as part of a joint strategic litigation project undertaken by the Legal Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities (NEKI) and the ERRC.
Koptova – Slovak Town Ban on Roma
In August 2000, the ERRC received a positive ruling from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in the matter of Anna Koptova v. Slovakia. The CERD held that municipal ordinances banning Roma in two Slovak villages violated provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination guaranteeing freedom of movement and residence. One of the ordinances went so far as to state that Roma who settle in the village would be “with the help of the village inhabitants, expelled [...]”. The other resolved “not to allow the Roma citizens [...] to enter the village of N’agov, or to settle in shelters in the district of the village.” The applicant, a member of a legal defence foundation in the eastern Slovak town of Košice, was represented by the European Roma Rights Centre.
Sulejmanovic et al v. Italy; Sejdovic et al v. Italy
These cases involved a mass expulsion of Bosnian Romani families from camps outside of Rome, Italy. On March 3, 2000, more than four hundred municipal and state police conducted a pre-dawn blitz at camps located on the periphery of Rome. Fifty-six people were loaded onto an aircraft leased by the Ministry of the Interior, accompanied by military police. The plane took them directly to Sarajevo. The ERRC assisted an Italian lawyer in bringing claims on behalf of two of the families before the European Court by providing extensive legal research and by gathering crucial evidence in the course of field investigations documenting the conditions of the families’ lives following their return to Bosnia. The applications alleged violations of Article 3 (inhuman or degrading treatment), Article 5 (unlawful detention), Article 4 of Protocol 4 (collective expulsion), Article 8 (private and family life), Article 13 (lack of an effective remedy), Article 14 (discrimination), and Article 1 of Protocol 7 (right of a resident to proper expulsion proceedings). The European Court found the claims to be admissible. The Italian government reached a friendly settlement with the applicants, agreeing to bring them back to Italy and issue the appropriate residence papers. In addition, the Italian government agreed to pay out 160,000 Euro in compensation, including 45,000 Euro to Alissa Sulejmanovic.
Further information about ERRC legal activities is available at: http://www.errc.org.
Research and Policy
Reliable and accurate first-hand research is the foundation of all ERRC activities. Research and monitoring activities of the ERRC focus on gathering information on the human rights situation of Roma in Europe and on collecting information pertaining to specific legal cases in which the ERRC is involved. The ERRC frequently sends research missions to the field directly from the ERRC office, aimed at gathering first-hand field research on Roma rights issues. In addition, the ERRC has designed and supervised complex research models aimed at documenting systemic human rights abuses through qualitative and quantitative research. ERRC research models have been implemented in recent years in the fields of education, housing and access to public accommodation, as well as in documenting violence against Roma and Romani communities. Research methodologies are currently in various stages of design and implementation in the fields of employment and health.
The ERRC also co-ordinates the work of an international network of local monitors who perform regular monitoring of the human rights situation of Roma in various countries of Europe. Roma Rights monitors are charged with investigating and documenting instances of human rights abuse of Roma in the countries in which they reside, undertaking research on various human rights themes of relevance to Roma, as well as regularly informing the ERRC of important local developments of relevance to Roma rights.
ERRC research moved to the centre of European Union policy-making during 2004, when the European Union published a report on Roma in an Enlarged European Union. The ERRC wrote the report and ERRC research comprised the core of the report. The report is available on the Internet at: Roma in an Enlarged European Union. In the wake of publication of the report, the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia concluded, in its Annual Report, “Roma appear to be most vulnerable to racism. Roma, Sinti, Gypsies or Travellers – as the group is named depending on the country – face widespread discrimination in housing and employment. Surveys show that they are the ‘least wanted neighbour’, and unofficial estimates indicate that the unemployment rate for Roma is far higher than for any other segment of the population.” Further information on ERRC Research and Policy activities is available at: http://www.errc.org/Research_index.php.
Publishing Activities
The ERRC publishes press releases, reports on the situation of Roma in various countries, reports on themes comparing the situation of Roma in different countries, quarterly journal Roma Rights, pamphlets, position papers, press releases and the ERRC internet website (http://www.errc.org). Two flagship ERRC print publications are the Roma Rights quarterly and the Country Report series. Each issue of Roma Rights is dedicated to one specific theme (e.g. Access to Justice, Housing, Forced Migration, etc.), but also contains a news section, reports on ERRC advocacy and legal activities, human rights education news and developments, Romani language translations, and other information. All issues of Roma Rights are available in electronic form at: http://www.errc.org/Romarights_index.php.
Since 1996, the ERRC has published 13 book-length Country Reports documenting the human rights situation of Roma in Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Romania (2 reports), Slovakia, and Ukraine. The reports can be downloaded from the ERRC website at: http://www.errc.org/Countryrep_index.php. The ERRC also publishes thematic reports on cross-cutting issues, such as the 2004 report on racially segregated educational arrangements in five countries, Stigmata: Segregated Schooling of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. The full text of Stigmata can be downloaded at: http://www.errc.org/Thematic_index.php.
In 2004, the ERRC put its experiences in advocating Roma rights under one cover, by publishing “Knowing Your Rights and Fighting for Them: A Guide for Romani Activists”. The Guide is a manual summarising the experience, strategies and methods of the ERRC, developed in the course of its first nine years of existence, in undertaking human rights work on racism issues in Europe. It presents, for Romani and other activist audiences, a range of information that might assist individuals in taking action to challenge abusive treatment. During 2005, the manual will be published in six languages. The manual can be downloaded from: http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2066.
Romani and Russian language publications
Since 1999, the ERRC has undertaken a number of print, audio and electronic publications in Romani. Key ERRC Romani language publications include ERRC Romani language Roma Rights audio: Due to the growing number of Romani radio stations and Romani-language radio programmes – particularly in southeastern Europe – the ERRC decided that it would be valuable to make information about ERRC activities and about Roma rights generally available on audio cassette in Romani. The Roma Rights cassette thematically parallels the quarterly journal and offers information on rights issues of importance to Roma. The ERRC distributes Roma Rights cassettes primarily to Romani organisations and Romani media, especially to Romani radio programmes and stations. The cassettes are now regularly played on radio stations in Bulgaria, Italy, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, and other countries. Beginning in late 2004, the ERRC changed from cassette to CD format.
In addition to English and Romani, the ERRC is currently developing its Russian-language publication programming to address the extreme need for human rights information of relevance to Roma throughout the former Soviet Union. The ERRC’s first Russian-language bulletin of Roma rights news and issues appeared in 2004. Further Russian language publications are forthcoming in the near term.
Human Rights Education
The main objectives of the Human Rights Education programme of the ERRC are to raise human rights awareness among members of the Romani community. ERRC Human Rights Education programming aims to empower individuals to acquire knowledge, understanding and experience in human rights and Roma rights concepts and the international law instruments guaranteeing fundamental rights for all. The targeted approach of the ERRC Human Rights Education programming comprises:
1. A scholarship programme for Romani university students of law and public administration. Scholarships normally cover tuition at accredited schools. Criteria for selection include academic promise, financial need and a demonstrated intention of working in the field of human rights. For more information on the application procedure see: http://www.errc.org/Scholarships_index.php. Over the course of its history, the ERRC has provided scholarship assistance to more than two hundred promising Romani university students.
2. An internship programme providing Roma rights activists with training at the ERRC office in Budapest, or with a carefully selected, appropriate human rights organisation. Internships are offered on a competitive basis for periods of six weeks to six months to Romani persons who meet certain educational, language and other criteria. The interns are hosted at the ERRC office in Budapest. The interns receive professional guidance from ERRC staff and also work together with one or more of the ERRC Departments (Research and Policy, International Advocacy, Legal, or Human Rights Education). For more information on the internship application procedure see: http://www.errc.org/Internships_index.php.
3. Workshops on human rights issues directed at Roma and other targeted groups within the wider society, such as police officers, teachers, NGO activists, members of public administration, etc. Recent workshop-related training activities have included general human rights training seminars in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary and Sweden; school desegregation workshops in Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria, including a number of events organised jointly with the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe; housing rights workshops in Romania and Slovakia; and an international women’s rights workshop held in Budapest. The jewel in the crown of ERRC human rights training workshop activities is the ERRC Summer Workshop for Romani Activists, held every July in Budapest.
4. Event-specific action, for example, organising, preparing and accompanying a Romani delegation to the World Conference against Racism, Durban 2001.
ERRC Human Rights Education activities aim first and foremost to empower Romani activists. Other target groups of ERRC Human Rights Education programming include Romani university students of law and public administration, as well as in some cases targeted groups within wider society, such as police officers, teachers, NGO activists, and members of public administration. Further information on ERRC Human Rights Education programming is available at: http://www.errc.org/Human_index.php.
The ERRC is governed by an international board of directors
Chair: Erika Szyszczak (UK)
Members: Dr Deborah Harding (USA); Karel Holomek (Czech Republic); Dr Jeno Kaltenbach (Hungary); Azbija Memedova (Macedonia); Aleksandr Torokov (Russia); Petar Antic (Serbia); James A. Goldston (USA); Isabela Mihalache (Romania); Viktoria Mohacsi (Hungary); Dr Krassimir Kanev (Bulgaria)
Major sponsors of the ERRC include the following:
British Embassy in Budapest; Charity Know How Programme of the Allavida Foundation; Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; Eurasia Foundation; European Commission; Ford Foundation; Human Rights Project Fund of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom; Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Open Society Institute; Ruben and Elisabeth Rausing Trust.
In recognition of ERRC contribution to “the preservation and promotion of democracy and the enhancement of the vigilance against all forms of dictatorship, discrimination and racism”, the organisation has been awarded the Geuzenpenning award (the Geuzen medal of honour) – a prestigious award which was presented during a solemn gathering in the Grote Kerk church in Vaardingen by Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of Netherlands on March 13, 2001.
To contact ERRC Executive Director Vera Egenberger, please use the address and fax number below or e-mail: vera.egenberger@errc.org.
For information on ERRC legal activity, please contact Geraldine Scullion, at the address and fax number below or e-mail: geraldine.scullion@errc.org.
On ERRC Research and Policy activities, please contact Savelina Danova Russinova: savelina.danova@errc.org.
For inquiries concerning ERRC Human Rights Education programming, please contact Larry Olomoofe: larry.olomoofe@errc.org.
For ERRC publications, please contact Dzavit Berisha: dzavit.berisha@errc.org.
On issues related to project development, please contact Tara Bedard at: tara.bedard@errc.org.
For general inquiries, please contact: office@errc.org.
European Roma Rights Centre
1386 Budapest 62, P.O. Box 906/93, Hungary
Phone: (36-1) 413-2200; Fax: (36-1) 413-2201
E-mail: office@errc.org
The ERRC has not yet raised its 2006-2008 budgets. We are currently in the middle of a fundraising drive seeking 1,000,000 Euro. Your financial contribution will enable the ERRC to continue its vital role in ending the racist abuse of Roma in Europe. Donations can be made via bank transfer to:
European Roma Rights Centre
Budapest Bank Rt.
1054 Budapest
Báthory utca 1
Hungary
USD Bank Account Number: 99P00402686
(USD IBAN: HU21-10103173-40268600-00000998)
EUR Bank Account Number: 30P00-402686
(EUR IBAN: HU54-10103173-40268600-00000307)
SWIFT (BIC) code: BUDAHUHB
Further information on the European Roma Rights Centre is available on the ERRC website: www.errc.org.
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