EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTER

1386 Budapest 62, P.O. Box 906/93, Hungary
		Phone: (36-1) 413-2200; Fax: (36-1) 413-2201
E-mail: office@errc.org; 
http://errc.org

United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
8-14, Avenue de la Paix
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

Budapest, June 29, 2001

Dear Committee Member,

The European Roma Rights Center (“ERRC”), an international public interest law organisation based in Budapest, respectfully submits published documentary information concerning the human rights situation of Roma in Ukraine for consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“the Committee”) at its 59th session in the period July 30-August 17, 2001.

During extensive field research and regular monitoring of the human rights situation of Roma in Ukraine since its establishment in 1996, ERRC has documented what we believe to be significant breaches of Articles 2, 5, and 6 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“the Convention”). ERRC’s concerns are elaborated in the enclosed collection of articles and news items pertaining to Ukraine, entitled “Focus: Roma Rights in Ukraine,” compiled and published in June 2001, on the occasion of, inter alia, the Committee’s review of that country. In particular, we would like to call your attention to the following:

Roma throughout Ukraine report being subjected to systematic police violence and other forms of abuse. Torture, ill-treatment and other coercive means for extraction of confessions from Romani detainees are widespread. (Please see pp. 22-41, extracts from ERRC Country Report The Misery of Law: The Rights of Roma in the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine (hereafter “ERRC Country Report on Ukraine”)). A pattern of violent police raids specifically and exclusively targeting Romani neighbourhoods accounts for massive ill-treatment of Roma, including women and children, as well as for systematic destruction of Romani property. During one such raid on a Romani tent camp in September 1999, home to approximately eighty individuals, a special riot police unit set Romani tents on fire, attempted to kidnap a 17-year old Romani girl and beat inhabitants indiscriminately. (Please see p. 104, news items from Roma Rights). Roma also report that individual police officers have entered homes without authorisation; subjected them to forced labour; and in at least two instances, sexually abused Romani women (see pp. 55-62 and 96, extracts from ERRC Country Report on Ukraine and news item from Roma Rights). 

ERRC research in 1996 and 1997 also revealed that Roma in Ukraine were singled out for what the police termed a “prophylactic” policy of crime prevention. One element of this policy involved subjecting Roma – especially young Romani men – to enforced registration and fingerprinting following collective arrest. (Please see pp. 23-24, ERRC Country Report on Ukraine).

Law enforcement officers are responsible, not only for committing acts of violence themselves, but also for failing to prevent violence against Roma committed by non-state actors. To give one recent example, in August 2000, a police officer reportedly failed to intervene and prevent the shooting and killing of a 24-year old Romani man by an off-duty forester. (Please see pp. 108-109, news items from Roma Rights). In an earlier incident in 1995, police officers failed to intervene and stop the retributive community violence against the entire Romani community in Velyka Dobron, which resulted in the demolition of twelve houses of Roma by a mob of ethnic Hungarian villagers. (Please see pp. 51-55, extracts from ERRC Country Report on Ukraine).

Ukrainian police who abuse Roma act with full impunity. Law enforcement officials are rarely, if ever, prosecuted for anti-Romani violence. Victims’ complaints are as a rule found “groundless” and prosecutors refuse to open criminal proceedings against law enforcement officers. ERRC is not aware of a single case in which police officers implicated in human rights abuse against Roma were indicted, let alone prosecuted and punished. In numerous instances documented by the ERRC, Romani victims were intimidated by the police and pressured not to file complaints. (Please see especially pp. 105-107, news items from Roma Rights). 

Roma who enter the criminal justice system in the capacity of defendants also experience gross discrimination and abuse. Criminal trials of Roma are plagued with excessive reliance on post-arrest confessions by Roma and by failure of the judicial authorities to take into consideration coercion claims by Roma. Absence of interpreters for those Romani defendants whose mother tongue is not Ukrainian often prevents them from following the proceedings and from fully understanding the alleged crimes of which they are accused. Restrictions of the right to legal defence and violation of the right of Roma to prepare for an effective defence are also commonplace. (Please see especially, pp. 42-50, extracts from ERRC Country Report on Ukraine). 

While violence and discrimination by law enforcement officials and racial bias in the criminal justice system are the most egregious forms of abuse against Roma in Ukraine, there are numerous additional areas in which the Ukrainian Romani community is facing routine denial of equal rights. Roma throughout Ukraine report that local authorities have failed to deliver social benefits to which they are entitled and assert that foreign aid intended for them is distributed to non-Roma instead. (Please see especially pp. 71-72, news items from Roma Rights). 

Discriminatory treatment of Roma is also reported in relation to the system of local residence permits (the so-called “propiska”). Largely without a valid registration of residence, significant numbers of Roma are deprived of a range of rights, including access to social benefits, health and child care, pensions, and voting. Roma report various forms of abuse in this area, ranging from arbitrary confiscation of their residence permits by local officials to refusal of authorities to issue residence permits to them under various pretexts. Although theoretically residence permits are issued free of charge, in many areas it appears impossible to obtain a residence permit without paying exorbitant bribes to the officials concerned. Roma are also often subjected to widespread abuse by the police who carry out punitive raids against them under the pretext that they do not have residence permits and therefore reside illegally in the area. (Please see especially, pp. 90-94, news items from Roma Rights). 

Finally, public officials, in particular police officers, often use abusive language when dealing with Roma, racially insulting them and stigmatising them as criminals. Sensationalist and inflammatory media reports also contribute to foster the widespread anti-Romani public hostility prevalent in Ukraine. (Please see pp. 97-101, article from Roma Rights).  

We hope that the documentation provided by the ERRC on the situation of Roma in Ukraine will assist the Committee in examining Ukraine’s compliance with the Convention. 

Sincerely, 

	Dimitrina Petrova
	Executive Director