Minority Rights Anti-Discrimination Capacitation in Kosovo
(Last modified: 2007-06-25 13:15:27)
From the beginning of May 2007, the ERRC will implement a 1-year project in Kosovo with its partner, Roma and Ashkaeli Documentation Centre (RADC), to further the implementation of Kosovo's anti-discrimination law. The ERRC and RADC are grateful to the British government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office for supporting this project.
The aims of the project are to:
Raise awareness of racial discrimination against RAE and other minorities in Kosovo;
Undertake activities aiming to further implementation of Kosovo's anti-discrimination law for the benefit of all minority groups in Kosovo;
Strengthen the capacity of stakeholders including judges and prosecutors, independent lawyers, RAE and other minority activists and NGOs, and human rights advocates to work in the field of anti-discrimination law in Kosovo; and
Make a significant contribution towards ending race-based human rights abuse of RAE and other minorities in Kosovo.
Within the project, the ERRC and RADC will undertake the following activities:
1. Conduct a training seminar for 30 judges and prosecutors on anti-discrimination and human rights law and implementation;
2. Conduct a training seminar for 30 lawyers on anti-discrimination and human rights law and implementation;
3. Conduct a series of 4 training workshops for 80 minority representatives/activists on anti-discrimination law and advocacy;
4. Document cases of discrimination and human rights abuse of Roma, Ashkaeli and Egyptians in Kosovo;
5. Publish a full length report on the human rights situation of Roma, Ashkaeli and Egyptians in Kosovo; and
6. File 6 strategic test cases before Kosovo courts under the anti-discrimination law, with a view to testing implementation of the law and securing redress for victims of discrimination.
For further information on this project, please contact Tara Bedard at tara.bedard@errc.org.
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Law and policy: Actions to achieve full respect of children's rights in the Hungarian child protection system
(Last modified: 2007-07-24 10:33:08)
From the end of December 2006, the ERRC is implementing a 1-year project aimed at addressing deficiencies in the Hungarian child protection system which may enable children's rights workers and officials to work in a manner not fully respectful of fundamental rights of Romani children. Within this project, the ERRC aims to foster the effective participation of affected groups in the process of creating new legislative, policy and strategic measures through the creation of action plan which will be advocated to the relevant decision makers, as well as the eventual reform of the Hungarian child protection system, to ensure full respect of national and international children's rights provisions.
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Educational Integration of Roma: Political and Legal Preparation
(Last modified: 2006-11-22 11:08:21)
Beginning in November 2006, the ERRC is implementing a one-year project to address the problem of systemic disadvantage including the evil of racial segregation in education of Romani children in Bulgaria and the absence of action at central and local level of government to implement a comprehensive educational integration policy. The project is supported by the Roma Education Fund.
The project sees – and seeks to address -- the following core needs: (i) first to seed the ground for the idea that it is in the public interest to integrate Roma in society; at the level of political elites, not enough has yet been done to mute the widespread conception that Roma have in recent years become a privileged group while the rest of the population suffers; (ii) then to bring powerful research evidence to policy- and law-makers, as well as to the public at large, demonstrating the benefits of desegregation; such research evidence needs to appeal to all three of the core value-clusters identified above (civil liberties/human rights, pragmatic/economic, and nationalist, (iii) and finally to carry these matters home by advocating adoption of comprehensive school reform, via amendments to existing legislation and/or new law to establish positive obligations on institutions to secure an integrated school environment.
The primary aim of the project will be to attempt to secure adoption of a comprehensive school desegregation law, generating positive duties under domestic law and respective financial obligations for public officials to eliminate segregated education. Toward this goal the project undertakes three project components:
A) To build a dialogue among all relevant actors to develop the political will to integrate Roma in the education system;
B) To build a multi-element expert research base in order to move all actors. Key research elements include:
i) International and domestic human rights law/positive obligations of the state in the context of racially segregated schooling;
ii) Sociological/demographic/economic-geographic concerning the spatial arrangements of segregation in schooling in Bulgaria;
iii) Educational needs analysis.
C) Developing the basis for comprehensive school reform, involving two stages: (i) drafting legislation on comprehensive school desegregation; (ii) legislative advocacy to adopt the draft.
For further information, please contact: Dimitrina.Petrova@errc.org |
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Transpose
(Last modified: 2006-02-20 10:28:24)
Since January 2005, the Irish Traveller Movement, in partnership with the ERRC and the Milan Simecka Foundation, has been implementing a 2-year project to develop a network of experienced and competent Traveller, Roma and Sinti advocates to improve the ability of locally-based Traveller, Romani and Sinti organisations to ensure the benefits of the provisions of the EU Directives are applied to Traveller, Romani and Sinti communities who experience severe levels of racism and discrimination. In order to achieve this goal, the partners are conducting a series of 6 cumulative training events for 30 activists from Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and Slovakia, addressing the following themes:
The Race Equality Directive;
Practical Monitoring;
Using Strategic Litigation;
Effective National Level Advocacy;
International Advocacy; and
Working with the Media.
The project is funded by the European Community under the European Comnunity Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion 2002 - 2006. Further information on the Community Action Programme can be found at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/social_inclusion/index_en.htm. |
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Social Inclusion Impact Assessment
(Last modified: 2006-02-16 16:06:48)
Beginning in December 2005, the ERRC is implementing a 12 month project to assess the impact of measures intened to improve access to social services for Roma in the National Action Plans of Czech Republic, France and Portugal. The project is funded by the European Community under the European Comnunity Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion 2002 - 2006 and is implemented in partnership with the independent Portuguese research institute Numena.
The project aims, through original research, to evaluate the economic and social impact of policies in the area of social services in the National Action Plans of Czech Republic, France and Portugal as these affect Roma, including an evaluation of policies specifically targetting Roma as well as how general policies address the needs of Roma. The research will culminate with a detailed report, highlighting deficiencies and good practices, as well as recommendations for improving the effectiveness of policy within the identified Member States. The objectives of this project include:
Transnational exchange of knowledge and best practices/lessons learned, promoting mutual learning between sectors and countries with respect to measures to further the social inclusion of Roma through improving access to social services;
Evaluating, through thorough research and analysis, the impact of measures to improve the access of Roma to social services included in the National Action Plans of Czech Republic, France and Portugal;
Identifying good and best practices in the implementation of policies and strategies aimed at increasing access to social services in the target countries to contribute to the further development of and improvement of social inclusion policy in both the target countries and other EU Member States and Candidate Countries with Romani populations that live in similar conditions and experience similar barriers to accessing social services;
Raising awareness of the specific situation of Roma in terms of their (in)ability to access social services and the impact of social inclusion measures by Member States to date along the line of reducing social exclusion through a seminar to report the research findings as well as the publication of findings; and
Expanding the knowledge base from which social inclusion measures within the EU and within Members States are developed.
Further information: Community Action Programme. |
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Housing rights project work in Slovakia
(Last modified: 2004-09-14 08:42:47)
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has co-funded project “Defending Roma Housing Rights in Slovakia”. The project involves field research, litigation and training components. An initial phase of the project involved legal research and factual research into the housing rights situation of Roma in Slovakia. The ERRC designed research methodologies for researchers and supervised a number of local research projects. On the basis of this research, a number of domestic and international lawsuits have been filed, focussing on Roma housing rights issues. In addition, the ERRC, in partnership with the Bratislava-based Milan Šimecka Foundation and with the co-operation of the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, prepared a training manual for Slovak Romani activists entitled, "Defending Roma Housing Rights in Slovakia: A Training Manual on International Law and the Right to Adequate Housing", tailored to the needs of Slovak Roma. The manual was translated into Slovak and published in 1,000 copies in March 2004. On March 6 and 7, 2004, the ERRC, the MSF and COHRE held a housing rights training workshop in Košice. Currently, the project partners are working on an advocacy campaign to improve the transposition of international legal standards related to the right to adequate housing into the Slovak domestic legal framework. For further information on the project, please contact Tara Bedard: tara@errc.org |
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Ukraine project work
(Last modified: 2004-07-15 12:48:09)
The EU has funded a project entitled "Defending the rights of Roma in Ukraine and ensuring their access to justice". The ERRC, in collaboration with Uzhorod-based Romani organisation Romani Yag, has made the final selection of participant NGOs in the project. On February 21, 2004, a project-launching conference was held for all project partners, during which the roles and tasks to be performed by each of the project participants were discussed. In March 2004, the ERRC and Romani Yag undertook preparations for the first three trainings envisioned in the project. In May 2004, the first such training, a training for local monitors, was held in Lviv. Early June 2004, training for advocacy officers and paralegals was undertaken in Odessa. Also in the preparatory period, the ERRC was searching for matching funding for the project, and ensured a contribution from the Kiyv-based Renaissance foundation. For further information on the project, please contact Istvan Fenyvesi: istvan@errc.org |
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