[WCAR] Germany's Poor Roma Rights Record Criticised at United Nations

United Nations Human Rights Committee Presented with Documentation on
Germany's Human Rights Failure with Respect to Sinti and Roma

March 18, 2004

Today, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the body monitoring
states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, reviews Germany's compliance with the Covenant. On the occasion of
the review, the ERRC has provided comprehensive documentation of a number
of human rights issues facing Sinti and Roma in Germany to the Committee.

High levels of anti-Romani sentiment in Germany, arbitrary limitations on
freedom of movement, racially motivated violence against Sinti and Roma in
Germany, and the expulsion of Roma from Germany as a matter of policy raise
serious concerns regarding the ability of Roma to realise the rights
enshrined in the Covenant.

Permeating and underlying many aspects of Germany's poor human rights
record with respect to Sinti and Roma are administrative efforts to prevent
non-citizen Roma in Germany from integrating in Germany. Of particular
concern is the status of "tolerated" ("geduldet"), through which many Roma
factually in Germany for periods of often a decade or longer have been
prevented from enjoying lives with dignity in Germany. Many of these
persons live under threat of expulsion from Germany, and in recent years
German authorities have in fact expelled large numbers of Roma from
Germany. In a number of instances, German authorities have even forced Roma
to go to Kosovo, where they face persecution.

In Germany, Sinti and Roma have also been targeted for racist attacks and
have experienced degrading treatment at the hands of law enforcement
officials. German authorities have for the most part failed to provide
justice even in the most extreme attacks on Sinti and Roma, such as in the
case of the 1992 firebombing of an asylum-seekers hostel in the northern
German city of Rostock.

Germany has also not managed to keep pace with evolving standards on
anti-discrimination law in Europe. Germany was under deadline to bring the
substance of European Union rules combating racial discrimination into its
domestic law by July 2003. To date, the German government has not yet done
so. The German government has tabled a number of drafts of an
anti-discrimination law, but it has not yet managed to adopt any of these
draft bills into law.  Also, the German government has not yet ratified
Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, providing a
comprehensive ban on discrimination on a number of grounds in the exercise
of any right secured by law, nor has Germany ratified the Revised European
Social Charter.

Issues presented in detail in the materials provided by the ERRC to the UN
Human Rights Committee include:
·  Arbitrary Limitations on the Recognition of the Sinti and Roma Minority
in Germany
·  Forcible Expulsion of Roma from Germany
·  Arbitrary Limitations on Freedom of Movement
·  Arbitrary Limitations on the Rights to Freedom of Expression and Assembly
·  Violence and Other Cruel and Degrading Treatment of Roma
·  Failure to Provide Sufficient Legal Protections against Racial
Discrimination

The submission concludes with a number of recommendations aimed at
providing a framework through which the very serious human rights issues
facing Sinti and Roma in Germany can be remedied. The full text of the ERRC
submission is available on the Internet at: http://www.errc.org/news.shtml

For further information, please contact: Virgil-Cristi Mihalache, ERRC
Advocacy Officer: (36 1) 41 32 235.


_____________________________________________

The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest law
organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence
in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the European
Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at http://www.errc.org.

European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
Phone: +36 1 4132200
Fax:   +36 1 4132201



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