Welcome to the ERRC blog from Bernard Rorke (Editor) and Rob Kushen (Board Chair)
13 October 2014
As editor, it’s a real privilege to welcome you to the new ERRC blog. Our intent is to stimulate discussion and provoke debate about how best to counter human rights abuses against Roma; to shine a light on topics that get overlooked or are wilfully ignored; and to make space for voices that often go unheard.
For openers, our features include a photo essay covering the dire situation of Dom refugees in Turkey; an interview with the newly elected Feminist Party MEP and Romani activist Soraya Post; opinion pieces on anti-Gypsyism, statelessness and the rights of the child; a tribute in memory of Nicolae Gheorghe; legal briefs covering the latest on forced evictions and more.
Over the next few months, we hope that this blog, with its mix of news, views and reviews, features and reportages will prompt many of you to join the conversation about what needs to be done to defend fundamental rights, to ensure dignity for all, and to advance ‘the struggle to eliminate the evil of racial injustice.’ Your input will be of great value, for we have much to learn from each other!
As Board Chair, I am honored to bring you this short introduction.
ERRC uses legal advocacy as one of its main tools to bring about change. As a result, we spend a lot of time talking to officials in legal language about what they are doing wrong and how to make it right. This blog will be different: you’ll hear from a variety of people, Roma and non-Roma, from ERRC staff and from others, about what is happening in Roma communities, how rights are being violated, and how rights are being protected. In plain language; no law degree necessary.
There will be room for feedback and for respectful dialogue. This is a new way of communicating for us, so we welcome your suggestions as we will no doubt get it wrong at the beginning.
This fall marks the beginning of the final year of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, an international initiative in which European states pledged to close the gap between Roma and non-Roma in all aspects of daily life. Of course, ten years is not long enough to reverse the consequences of hundreds of years of oppression. No one expected that addressing structural poverty would be easy, but all of us hoped for more in the past ten years. One of the reasons it has not been easy is the profound discrimination faced by Roma in their daily lives, a problem that Decade countries have been slow to address, or even acknowledge. Discrimination starts at the top, with political leaders throughout Europe characterizing Roma with the crudest of stereotypes. These attitudes trickle down through the government system, perhaps nowhere felt so keenly as in schools, where Romani children are tracked into special education, pushed to the back of the class, or sometimes denied admission altogether. Public attitudes shape and are shaped by this official approach. In opinion polls, large majorities of the public object to living next to Roma, working with Roma, or sending their children to school with Roma. Given the many obstacles to genuine inclusion, it is clear that a real transformation in the lives of Roma and in their place in society will take many decades, not just one.
We at ERRC have been working at this transformation for almost two decades. How does ERRC have an impact? By exposing government hypocrisy and abuse; by reminding people that democracy is not a “winner-take-all” arrangement, that a democracy which fails to protect minorities is not a democracy at all; and by providing a small measure of justice and dignity to people deprived of both.
Our work tends to be top-down, focusing on government officials, judges, legislators and policy makers. We are sometimes criticized as not being in touch enough with Roma communities and with the general public. We hope that this blog can open a new channel of communication and that we can use it to learn as well as educate.
