Roma Rights 1-2, 2003: Anti-Discrimination Law

10 May 2003

Roma Rights 1 and 2/2003 addresses issues pertaining to anti-discrimination law in Europe. The ban on discrimination is anchored in both international Covenants, as well as in a number of other international legal instruments. European legal norms banning discrimination are currently in a period of dramatic expansion, due to consensus that the dignity of an individual in a democratic society depends to a great extent on her having access to legal tools with which she may seek and secure redress in instances in which her dignity has been harmed through arbitrary treatment. The very serious harm of racial discrimination has been a particular focus of recent efforts by European lawmakers, at least in part because of the dramatic return of virulent racism to Europe following the end of Communism. A question being posed with increasing frequency and urgency is whether governments can establish frameworks through which Romani victims of racial discrimination can receive due remedy. By late 2000, the ERRC had made adoption and implementation of comprehensive anti-discrimination law in conformity with international standards among the central planks of its advocacy efforts.

Roma Rights 1 and 2/2003 brings together essays by a number of observers and experts in Eastern and Western Europe, detailing the current state of efforts to bring about new or amended anti-discrimination laws in a number of countries. Additionally, ERRC Board Member Theo Van Boven describes the work of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the treaty body charged with oversight of implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. ERRC Legal Director Gloria Jean Garland provides an overview of ERRC anti-discrimination litigation efforts to date, as advocates work with existing laws to secure justice for victims of racial discrimination.

 

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