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Projects

European Dialogue is conducting a FRA/ERRC research study into the migration of A2 and A8 Roma to the UK in relation to the right to free movement within the EU. It is part of a comparative study which is currently being undertaken in Spain, Italy, Finland, France and the UK.

European Dialogue is currently conducting a research study mapping Romani migration to England after EU enlargement in 2004 and 2007. It is a 12-month mapping project of the numbers and situation of European Roma in England, which has been commissioned and funded by the Department of Children, Schools and Families. The project aims to identify strengths and weaknesses in current provision relating to this group, as well as examples of good practice. The outcomes will include recommendations for action by both central and local government, together with a background information booklet for practitioners involved with European Roma.

Events

ED representatives took part in a conference on Romani migration by ERIO in Brussels on May 27 2009. ED presented some of the findings of the DCSF research project mapping migration patterns of A2 and A8 Roma in England.

ED facilitated a meeting of Slovak and Czech Roma living in the UK, which was organised in conjunction with Oxfam Scotland. The meeting took place on 25 April 2009 in Glasgow. Fifteen Romani participants discussed issues they face on a day-to-day basis, such as employment, the employment restrictions, social assistance, housing, education and healthcare.

ED representatives took part in a seminar on multiple discrimination organised by ERIO in Brussels on 19 and 20 June 2008. European Commission and Parliament officers, Dutch, British and Belgian NGO representatives, politicians and other participants discussed the issue of multiple discrimination in Europe and ways tackling the problem by legal tools before the European Parliament's adoption of a new social package on 2nd July.

News from around Europe

Hundreds of Activists Support Campaign for Compensation for Coercively Sterilised Romani Women
Romani Women’s Rights Coalition Successfully Reaches Global Women’s Movement

15 July 2008, Budapest, Prague, Ostrava: At the beginning of July, members of the Ostrava-based Group of Women Harmed by Coercive Sterilisation and their advocates from European Roma Rights Centre and Peacework Development Fund initiated a campaign to activate the global women’s rights movement in lobbying efforts for public recognition of coerced sterilisation and compensation for Romani survivors of these practices in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

The campaign was launched around the 2008 Women’s Worlds Congress in Madrid, Spain, which brought together thousands of women’s rights advocates from around the world, and was supported by the Open Society Institute’s Public Health Program and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Warsaw.

During the Congress, supported by simultaneous actions in Czech Republic and Hungary, activists from more than 40 countries signed and sent hundreds of postcards and letters to the Czech, Hungarian and Slovak governments urging them to respond to calls for public apologies and compensation for coerced sterilisation survivors.

After five years of targeted advocacy and lobbying of the governments concerned, the survivors and their advocates turned to the global human rights movement to strengthen their efforts to secure justice, as the governments have failed to provide either public apologies or compensation for the harms inflicted upon Romani women.

During a panel discussion at the Congress on the issue, the survivors informed women’s rights activists, academics and politicians about the coercive sterilisation of Romani women in Central Europe, generating an invigorating discussion, with women from around the world sharing their knowledge about similar abuses elsewhere.

The coerced sterilisation of Romani women in Central Europe was highlighted in the concluding session of the Congress and will feature in the concluding recommendations coming out of the Congress, at: http://www.mmww08.org/. The issue is also featured in the documentary film, “Trial of a Child Denied” by Mortal Coil Media, which aired on CNN between 9 and 13 July (for a link to the film please see:  http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2008/07/14/untold.stories.child.denied.bk.a.cnn

(to read Gwendolyn Albert's opinion piece on coercive sterilisation in the Prague Post, go to http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2008/07/30/truth-to-power.php)

The survivors gained much strength from the strong support they received from NGOs and human rights advocates from around the world during the Congress. “Don’t give up, fight on,” is the message that Elena Gorolova, spokesperson for the Group of Women Harmed by Coercive Sterilisation, would like to send to all who demand redress for the harms they have suffered.

The letters of support for the survivors to the Czech, Hungarian and Slovak governments are available for download on the ERRC’s website, together with comprehensive information about the practice and the Congress. See: http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2965.

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