Violence, poverty and widespread discrimination have made Roma communities the ”punchbags” of Europe and victims of the regions ”undeclared apartheid.” These are among the conclusions reached by a panel of experts which assembled for the Council of Europes Viewpoint human rights talk show.
Technorati Tags: roma, europe, apartheid, discrimintion, rights
Make Some Noise on December 21st, [...]
This video was shot at the Mandra settlement I visited and wrote about here.
From the YouTube page
Directed by Dutch Director Aldo Smit, this video was shot in Greece for Amnesty International, Europe in No1’s favorite Dutch holliday country. The video was shot about 30 minutes driving from Athens. I have been traveling around the world [...]
On the same day as I re-visited the Roma settlement at Psari Aspropyrgos, I went to the camp at Mandra. The contrast between the two places was stark. I was transported back three years, to my first visit to Votanikos. The above photograph gives you some idea but cannot hope to illustrate exactly how it [...]
I had the great fortune to be able revisit the segregated Roma school that I wrote about in January 2007 and to take more pictures. Following over a year and a half of negotiations, it has been decided (for now) that it is better for the school in Psari Asproprygos to remain as a ghetto [...]
Via Yahoo News
I’m not a fan of Madonna but I am the first to support celebrities who use their fame to give voices to the voiceless. In this case, to one of the most discriminated against group of people in Europe. The Roma. It is sad but entirely unsurprising that she was booed for condemning [...]
I have posted the main body of the appeal here but you can download the full pdf here
URGENT ACTION
11 ROMA FAMILIES FACE FORCED EVICTION
At least 11 Roma families face forced eviction from their homes on a landfill site on the island of Lefkada in Greece, and have been subjected to other violations of their [...]
Today is World Roma Day. As usual, very little has been written about it. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the responsibility I feel to keep the Roma communities here in Athens on the radar.
So I’m asking every single one of you who reads this post to do one of the following things today:
Read The Roma [...]
As many of you know, this blog has been particularly dedicated to the plight of Roma communities here in Greece. The Roma Series has received a fair bit of media attention and has, in some small way, raised awareness of some of the issues. For those of you who are not familiar with the series, [...]
The Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) highlights today’s article in “Eleftheros Typos” focused on a Greek Romani doctor who speaks with harsh words for the living conditions of Roma in Greece.
The Roma of Aghia Varvara [a Greater Athens municipality, with a substantial presence of Roma] call him “the example of the race”. He grew up and [...]
I received this very disturbing press release from the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) about the Municipality of Aspropyrgos. Official complaints have been made to the European Committee of Social Rights and the European Court of Human Rights regarding their treatment of Roma families including illegal evictions and the segregation of Roma children in school. In [...]
Press release from the Greek Helsinki Monitor
Please take action
Greece: Violations of Roma children’s rights during their interrogation by the police
Case GRC 221208.CC
CHILD CONCERN
Violation of children’s rights during their interrogation by the police / discrimination of Roma children
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Greece.
Brief description of the situation
The [...]
Via the Greek Helsinki Monitor
On 13 August 2008, GHM wrote to the Prosecutor and the President of the Supreme Court (with a copy to the Minister of Justice) listing 39 recent litigation cases on behalf of or against Roma. They indicate that cases against Roma (often resulting from abusive actions of prosecutors) are investigated promptly [...]
A recent article about the Roma community at Votanikos from the national newspaper Eleftheros Typos (in Greek). It looks at the health and fire risks that arise from salvaging copper which involves burning cables. The community sells the copper to make some sort of livelihood. The dioxins emitted cause cancer and can have lasting harmful [...]
I have been putting off writing this post for days now. I don’t know how many of you have been following events in Italy involving the Roma community there, but the whole issue is becoming increasingly disturbing. I have written extensively about the Roma here in Greece and I am well-aware of the deeply entrenched [...]
We have won a victory. And I do mean we.
We are not all lawyers. Most of us do not have the ability to go to court and fight for human rights but we are still part of the whole picture. Some of us can do no more than just write and take pictures. Some [...]
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