Tirana, Budapest 12 December 2018: A Romani community in Fushe Kruje, Albania have won a case before the Commissioner for the Protection from Discrimination, after taking on the local municipality for refusing to provide them with clean drinking water and sanitation. The Commissioner found that the municipality of Kruje discriminated against Romani families living in the “Kastriot” neighbourhood based on their ethnicity and socio-economic status, and  has ordered the municipality to take immediate measures to correct the situation within 30 days or face a fine.

Budapest 11 December 2018: The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the investigation, prosecution and trial of a racist police officer who murdered three Romani family members in Hurbanovo, Slovakia was inadequate. The court found that the prosecution of the case did not adequately expose and deal with the racist motivation for the murders. The two survivors of the attack who took their case to court were awarded €50 000 in damages.

Brussels, 6 December 2018: Today, a coalition of more than fifteen Romani and anti-racism civil society organisations from across Europe called for the Council of the European Union, and governments of European countries, to make a clear commitment to the new proposals for post-2020 Roma Inclusion plans made by the European Commission in its communication to the European Parliament and Council yesterday.

Budapest 4 December 2018: The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that publishers who share hyperlinks on the internet cannot be held liable for the content of those hyperlinks. The judgment is being hailed by publishers of online content as a breakthrough for internet freedom and came after Roma called out racist football hooligans for intimidating Romani children at a school in Hungary.

Budapest 19 November 2018: The Basic Court in Bitola, Macedonia has ruled that a swimming pool in the city directly discriminated against a Romani man by denying him entry to the pool in the summer of 2017 on account of his ethnicity. The Court has ordered Dovledzik swimming pool to cease the practice of denying entry to Roma, and pay a fine of 60,000 Macedonian Denars (€977) to Fikri Jasharov, the 37-year-old Romani man who sued them with the support of the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC).

Budapest 12 November 2018: The Miskolc Regional Court in Hungary has ordered a hospital to cease the practice of charging for mandatory maternity clothing for friends and family members of pregnant mothers. The Court agreed with the European Roma Rights Centre’s arguments that this practice directly discriminates against mothers living in poverty, and indirectly discriminates against Romani mothers who are disproportionately affected and often forced to give birth alone. 

Strasbourg, Budapest 7 November 2018: A seven-judge Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has unanimously ruled in favour of sixteen Romani people who were the victims of a pogrom in a Ukrainian village in 2002. The Court have awarded the Romani litigants damages amounting to €177,000 in total. The Court found that Ukraine violated the prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment and the right to respect for private life, family life, and home. These human rights violations, the Court ruled, were racially discriminatory.