Romanian Government Urged to Respect European Court Judgments

06 October 2008

ERRC Action in Support of Romanian Activist's Protest against Government Inaction

Budapest, Bucharest, 6 October 2008: Today, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) sent a letter of concern to Romanian authorities, drawing attention to the hunger strike of human rights activist Istvan Haller and calling on the government to take measures to monitor and safeguard Mr Haller's health.

On 2 October 2008, Mr Haller declared a hunger strike over the persistent failure of the Romanian Government to address the serious rights violations caused by three anti-Romani pogroms in the early 1990s in Hadareni, Plaiesi de Jos and Casinul Nou, Romania. Following European Court of Human Rights judgments in these cases, the Romanian government undertook to implement community development projects that included the setting up of infrastructure, as well as anti-discrimination, educational and other social measures. To this day however, the Government has failed to fulfil its legal obligations.

In its letter, sent to Romanian President Mr Traian Basescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Lazăr Comănescu and Mr Gruia Bumbu, Head of the National Agency for Roma, the ERRC called for the implementation of community development programmes in the noted Romanian Romani communities, and announced its intention to file a brief on the implementation of the judgments with the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers in view of its forthcoming Human Rights Meeting on 2-4 December 2008.

The full text of the ERRC’s letter is available on the Internet at:

For further information, contact Theodoros Alexandridis, ERRC Staff Attorney, theodoros.alexandridis@errc.org.