Who We Are
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is an international public interest law organisation working to combat anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma through strategic litigation, research and policy development, advocacy and human rights education.
Since its establishment in 1996, the ERRC has endeavoured to provide Roma with the tools necessary to combat discrimination and achieve equal access to justice, education, housing, health care and public services.
The ERRC has consultative status with the Council of Europe, as well as with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The ERRC has been the recipient of numerous awards for its efforts to advance human rights respect of Roma: in 2010, the Silver Rose Award of SOLIDAR; in 2009, the Justice Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation; in 2007, the Max van der Stoel award given by the High Commissioner on National Minorities and the Dutch Foreign Ministry; and in 2001, the Geuzenpenning award (the Geuzen medal of honour) by Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of Netherlands.
Strategic Priorities
The ERRC’s strategic priorities for 2010 – 2012 include:
- Violence against Roma and hate speech
- Education
- Housing
- Women’s and children’s rights
- Movement and migration
- Disaggregated data collection
Major Achievements
As one of the leading NGOs working on Roma rights issues in Europe, the ERRC has:
- Exposed and condemned the systemic abuse of Roma rights across Europe;
- Focused public attention and political priorities on the human rights situation of Roma in Europe;
- Contributed to the development of public interest law in the region, through litigation and legal training in the field of Roma rights;
- Secured access to justice and redress for human rights violations for Roma across Europe;
- Developed significant jurisprudence on discrimination in access to education and the state response to racially-motivated violence through a series of landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights;
- Influenced the human rights aspects of EU enlargement, through monitoring of compliance with the “Copenhagen criteria” by EU candidate countries and ensuring that the situation of Roma is addressed as a priority issue by both EU Member States and candidate countries;
- Written several significant policy documents on behalf of the European Commission (Roma in an Enlarged European Union) and the Fundamental Rights Agency (Housing Conditions of Roma and Travellers in the EU and The Situation of Roma EU Citizens Moving to and Settling in Other EU Member States); and
- Become one of the leading advocates in implementing anti-discrimination and human rights law in Europe.
Governance, Funding and Accountability
The ERRC is governed by a multinational Board of Directors consisting of Romani and non-Romani lawyers, human rights activists and businesspeople.
The ERRC receives funding from a number of sources, including private foundations, international organisations and governments. Further information about current donors is available upon request.
The ERRC maintains the highest standards of fiscal accountability, through staff and Board oversight and annual audits by external auditors according to the standards issued by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).
Strategic Litigation
The ERRC has set in motion more than 500 court cases in 15 countries to bring to justice state and non-state actors who have discriminated against Romani individuals or have committed violence against them. It has secured over 2 million EUR in compensation for Romani individuals for the abuse they have suffered and the subsequent failure of their respective governments to ensure justice.
The ERRC engages in strategic litigation seeking to reverse patterns of human rights abuse and discrimination against Roma. ERRC legal work aims to empower Roma through law and strengthen the network of legal advocates working on behalf of Roma.
The ERRC is active in both domestic and international litigation. The ERRC supports local lawyers in domestic legal proceedings both professionally and financially. When domestic remedies are exhausted, the ERRC prepares legal submissions to international tribunals, including the European Court of Human Rights, the European Committee of Social Rights and UN treaty bodies.
Research and Advocacy
The ERRC’s extensive research programme has provided reliable data about the human rights situation of Roma. The focus includes racially-motivated violence against Roma and the impact of individual practices and structural forms of discrimination on the access of Roma to economic and social rights. This work aims to assess the impact of law and policy and contribute to awareness-raising, policy development and strategic litigation.
The ERRC works to ensure that human rights issues facing Romani communities are firmly on the political agenda in Europe and beyond.
Some recent and ongoing ERRC campaigns include support for: effective state responses to violence and hate speech against Roma; school desegregation; an end to forced evictions and other housing rights abuse; implementation of comprehensive anti-discrimination law; justice for victims of coercive sterilisation; and Romani women’s rights.
Media and Communications
The ERRC maintains an extensive archive of Roma rights related information on its website and publishes human rights reports, press releases, a regular newsletter, the prestigious journal Roma Rights, pamphlets, position papers and educational materials. Information is regularly shared via an electronic listserve.
The ERRC has published over 25 book-length reports documenting the human rights situation of Roma in Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The ERRC has also produced more than 100 advocacy submissions to international treaty-monitoring bodies.
The ERRC works closely with various media through outreach, education and information sharing, in order to improve coverage of Roma rights related matters in Europe and ensure balanced reporting concerning Roma.
Human Rights Education
ERRC human rights education activities aim to empower Romani activists to promote human rights respect and equality of Roma, using the international human rights framework. The ERRC also targets other groups within wider society, such as judges and lawyers, to achieve these aims.
The ERRC’s human rights education portfolio includes: internships for Romani activists; Roma rights workshops targeting Romani activists; thematic or country specific training initiatives targeting legal professionals (Roma and non-Roma); legal traineeships for Romani lawyers; and gender equality research fellowships for Romani activists.
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is looking for original articles and other submissions (book reviews, interviews with key figures and conference reports) from a broad range of disciplines addressing the topic: Funding Roma Rights: Structures, Practices, Challenges and Prospects.
Developing and implementing effective programmes and projects to address the problems that Romani individuals and communities face, in most cases, requires financial resources. The variety of available funds to promote Roma rights and inclusion, the utilisation of these funds, the mechanisms employed for their allocation and the (in)accessibility of resources is a matter of debate among Roma civil society. The question of available funding for Romani organisations and the impact of such on their autonomy is also of growing concern.
In this issue of Roma Rights, the ERRC seeks submissions relevant to the field of Roma rights which reflect on and seek to provide answers to questions like:
- What funds have been available to support human rights work benefitting Roma in the last 10 years? What trends can be seen?
- What is the relative importance of domestic versus non-domestic funding sources?
- Have EU funds been effectively deployed to address Roma rights?
- Have available funds been used efficiently or effectively? What impacts are visible?
- What evaluation has been conducted? What have been the results? What have been the challenges?
- How do governments fund Roma policy implementation? Is this effective?
- How are donor priorities set and how do these match the priorities of Roma?
- How has EU accession influenced funding in this field?
- What challenges exist to accessing funding based on the current funding mechanisms?
- Should alternative funding mechanisms be explored in the Roma rights movement?
- Can funding allocation be more effectively channelled, tracked and evaluated to bring better results faster?
Individual testimonies reflecting the experiences of Romani persons and organisations are particularly welcome. Authors are encouraged to address the theme from perspectives other than those suggested above. Articles offering critical insight into lessons learned in similar situations in different countries, as well as submissions reflecting the perspective of the grassroots Roma movement are also welcome.
Process
Full articles must be submitted to the ERRC by 1 September 2010. All submissions will be reviewed by a committee of ERRC staff who will make the final selection of articles for publication. Due to limited space, it may not be possible to publish all articles submitted.
Please send queries and submissions to Catherine Twigg: catherine.twigg@errc.org.
Submission Guidelines
- All submissions and accompanying materials must be written in British English.
- Submissions must follow the ERRC Style Sheet.
- Submissions must be in electronic form and accompanied by any relevant graphics or pictures.
- The length of submissions should not exceed 5,000 words for articles and 2,500 words for other items (e.g. book reviews or conference reports), inclusive of footnotes.
- Footnote referencing should be utilised. Submissions with bibliographical referencing will be sent back to authors.
- All contributions must be original, previously unpublished material.
The ERRC reserves the right to refuse publication of submissions at any point prior to the publication of the journal.
