ERRC Legal Activities
(Last modified: 2005-08-09 10:18:54)
The current plan of action for the ERRC legal department and network reflects the overall strategy as well as organically builds on the ERRC research, monitoring and policy drafting resources. The main component of the planed ERRC legal work are briefly summarised below:
Strategic litigation
ERRC’s core legal defence work is to engage in impact litigation on behalf of Roma before both domestic and international courts. In doing so it is to achieve the following objectives:
Encourage more interest among local lawyers for Roma rights litigation and develop their capacity in this regard;
Generate judicial opinions which expand human rights protection for Roma through creative legal argument and reliance on international and comparative human rights jurisprudence;
Ultimately, bring about social change at a scale that would benefit Roma throughout Europe.
ERRC plans to continue to pursue these goals by selecting primarily those cases which have the potential to change the existing legal practices, through liberal and far-reaching judicial interpretation, as well as to trigger comprehensive reform of the relevant legislation. Building on the elaborate ERRC network of lawyers and Roma rights advocates and on the ERRC extensive monitoring activity, the legal defence team can choose among cases from across Europe. These cases range from domestic courts to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Geneva-based United Nations treaty bodies such as the Human Rights Committee, the Committee Against Torture, and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Current ERRC cases fall into four major categories:
racial discrimination against Roma in education, housing, access to public accommodations, social services, health, and other fields;
racially motivated violence against Roma perpetrated by police officers, skinheads, and others non-state actors; and
immigration and asylum cases concerning serious human rights abuses;
a variety of access to justice issues.
For the foreseeable future, the ERRC plans to continue focusing its strategic litigation along the same lines but will place additional emphasis on discrimination in education, health care, housing, employment, and access to social services.
Legal defence program
The ERRC works together with and supports the work of local lawyers acting in Roma rights cases. Case selection criteria include:
Whether the case raises an issue of general public interest with respect to the protection of the rights of Roma;
Whether the case constitutes a particularly grave violation of human rights;
The quality of legal representation to be afforded and the viability of the legal strategy proposed;
The potential of the case to have an impact on similar cases or on jurisprudence on the issue; and
The potential for publicity about the case to serve a wider educational purpose.
ERRC hires local lawyers representing Romani clients before domestic courts and simultaneously provides them with substantive and technical assistance during litigation. With regard to cases where redress is not obtained domestically, the ERRC is prepared to work together with the local lawyers in order to bring such cases to international courts.
The legal defence program remains an important part of ERRC’s efforts to help train local lawyers on Roma rights issues by providing encouragement, legal expertise, and funding. It contributes to the strengthening of a network of human rights lawyers throughout the region. In the years to come, the primary focus will be on quality rather than quantity, possibly taking on fewer cases but aiming to tackle more pressing and high profile Roma rights issues.
European Court of Human Rights: 30 cases
UN Committee Against Torture (UN CAT): 4 cases
UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD): 1 cases
UN Human Rights Committee (UN HRC): 1 cases
UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW): 1 cases
Domestic courts: 136 cases
Legal training in human rights litigation
This activity seeks to build and expand the capacity of local lawyers to defend Roma rights throughout Europe. ERRC is uniquely well suited to do this job by virtue of its expertise in human rights litigation on behalf of Roma. ERRC plans to develop further training for lawyers, building on its extensive network of contacts with lawyers, legal advocates and NGOs throughout Europe, and on its track record of close co-operation with inter-governmental organisations.
Over the last years human rights litigation workshops were held in most Central and Eastern European countries as well as in several EU member states, such as Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The ERRC has also assisted the Council of Europe, for five consecutive years now, with their Roma rights litigation training in Strasbourg.
Legal materials, references
As Romani victims of discrimination and racially-motivated violence increasingly seek legal remedies for violations suffered, a growing network of lawyers, advocates and NGOs has recognised the need for a legal information resource which would offer practical legal information of relevance to all Roma rights defenders throughout Europe. With this in mind, ERRC has continued to improve and expand two types of resources available to the general public:
selected legal materials on the ERRC website, and
publications in the ERRC Roma Rights.
Summaries of all European Court of Human Rights decisions involving Roma have been made available on our website and this database has been consistently updated.
In order to raise awareness within the legal community with respect to the most pressing Roma rights issues the ERRC Journal will continue to feature articles and analyses prepared by ERRC staff attorneys or outside contributing attorneys/consultants. This should enhance the profile of Roma rights litigation, and broaden the spectrum of advocates involved and arguments employed in Roma rights defence.
Legal case archive
ERRC continues to develop an archive of cases and case-related materials concerning Roma rights defence. The case files contain a variety of materials depending on the nature of the case at issue, the role of the ERRC, and the significance of the case for public interest litigation in general.
To date, ERRC has compiled over 120 case files from almost two dozen countries (Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom). |
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