The relevant report on Greece by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) presented to the Fifth Human Rights Council of the UN (11th to 18th June 2007).

The report also has information on past and present Olympic evictions as well as reports from following countries: Australia, India, Israel/Palestine, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Greece won COHRE’s 2006 Housing Rights Violators award as a result of a pattern and practice of forced evictions of Roma. Since the December 2006 award, no change in practice has been documented in Greece. In the period since June 1, 2007 alone, authorities forcibly evicted some 100 Albanian Romani families legally residing in Greece from the Votanikos state-owned area of Athens, without any proper legal procedure, and announced they would also evict an additional 100 Romani families living nearby. They then regularly harassed some 30 of the Romani families evicted from Votanikos who had resettled in a disused factory at 120 Iera Odos St., threatening them with violent action, arrest, prosecution and deportation if they did not leave. On June 10, six of these families felt coerced enough to in fact leave the disused factory premises. They settled once more in an open area they thought was state property. The Roma concerned, in both evictions, were provided with no alternate accommodation. Greek officials attending a June 7 meeting of the OSCE to discuss the crisis of forced evictions of Roma in the OSCE region were entirely unaware that Greece had been found in violation of three aspects of European Social Charter Article 16 for systemic violations of the rights of Roma to adequate housing, including as a result of a pattern and practice of forced evictions of Roma.

[GHM note: for a background and updates on the Votanikos eviction see here and for an update on the completion of the eviction this morning].

I also promoted this comment from Panayote Dimitras of the GHM to the main page:

Volunteers sought!

Anyone who is willing to participate in an event we are planning in front of the City Hall on Monday morning and afternoon (they have a city council meeting) may indicate availability through an email to which ever address DD will suggest.

Thanks

Please contact me if you can come. It is so important that everyone who cares about this issue is there on Monday. I will send you details of time and place via email as soon as I receive them. Let’s actually try and DO something concrete. Thank you. DD