DECLARATION OF

ROMANI WOMEN NETWORKS

ROMANI WOMEN’S RIGHTS CONFERENCE

AMARE GLASURA ASHUNDE

3-4 DECEMBER 2007

Stockholm, Sweden

We, Romani women networks and human rights activists present at the conference on Romani Women’s Rights, Our Voices Heard, 3-4 December 2007, wish to address the European Union, Council of Europe and United Nations Member States as well as other international institutions on the situation of Romani women and their families.

We wish to express our concern over the persistent discrimination and exclusion of the Romani communities and we call upon governments which have failed to adoptappropriate policies and measures to effectively address the multiple discrimination faced by Romani women, and therefore ensure the full implementation of Council of Europe Human Rights Conventions and Charters, United Nations Covenants and Conventions and EU directives.

We are particularly alarmed at:

- the increased anti-Roma attitudes on the part of politicians and citizens across Europe;

- the inaction of some Member States in acknowledging and addressing the forced sterilization of Romani women;

- the cases of school refusals to enrol Roma children and the persistent policies of school segregation of Romani children in various Member States;

- the numerous cases of repatriation of Romanian Roma from Italy and France after Romania joined the European Union in 2007 and by the inhumane living conditions of Romani families in these countries;

- the increasing cases of forced evictions of Roma families, especially during winter, and the inaction of the central administrations to end the illegal practice of forced evictions in accordance with the right to adequate housing guaranteed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the European Social Charter;

- the unacceptably poor health status of Roma communities and the failure of governments to follow up with concrete measures and programmes on the report Breaking the Barriers - Romani Women and Access to Public Health Care, published in 2003;

Therefore, we, international Romani women’s networks call upon:

-The EU Member States to take immediate steps to implement the European Parliament Resolution on the situation of Romani women in the European Union (2006);

-Council of Europe Member States to effectively implement CoE policy recommendations on Roma and ensure that Roma human rights guaranteed by its Conventions and Charters are fully respected;

-Member States of the United Nations to implement Treaty Body and other related UN recommendations, especially the provisions of the General Recommendation XXVII of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on discrimination against Roma;

-Independent and inter-governmental institutions to conduct research on the occurrence and consequences of forced sterilization practices committed against Romani women in Europe both during and after the communist period; therefore, we call on governments of the countries, where forced sterilization of Romani women took place, to acknowledge the human rights violations committed against Romani women and compensate the victims and their families and/or communities, following the examples of Sweden and Norway;

-The European Commission to adopt a European Strategy for Roma Integration and establish as a matter of urgency a Roma Unit which should start its activity by tackling issues affecting the equal enjoyment of rights guaranteed for all European citizens;

-The European Commission, MemberStates and the European Parliament to establish a Roma Unit within the European Institute for Gender Equality, as well as to designate a Romani woman specialised in gender issues in the Advisory Forum of the Gender Institute;

-The Fundamental Rights Agency “to devote more attention to Gypsyism / Romaphobia in Europe and to allocate the necessary resources to monitor racial abuse and human rights violations against Roma” as stipulated in the European Parliament Resolution on Roma (2005). Such measures should include, inter alia,the appointment of a Roma Special Rapporteur for Anti-Gypsyism to monitor the response of the judicial systems to cases of Anti-Gyspsism throughout the EU, analyse the impact of governmental equal opportunity and integration policies on Roma communities and make Specific Recommendations to the European Commission;

-The Fundamental Rights Agency to implement the art 22 of the EP Resolution on Romani women, which states that: Urges the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia to initiate a series of studies on the role of the media in fostering anti-Gypsyism, and in particular on the promotion of damaging stereotypes of Romani women;

-The Fundamental Rights Agency and the Council of Europe to continue addressing the problems of Romani women and organize a yearly follow up event in partnership with governments and other international organizations to take stock of the situation of Romani women and plan further steps of improvement throughout Europe.

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