Advocating Housing Rights of Roma in Europe Anita Danka , E uropean R oma R ights C entre

1. Advocating Housing Rights of Roma in Europe Anita Danka, European Roma Rights Centre 14 April 2007, Istanbul

2. The Housing Situation of Roma • Inadequate, or hazardous living conditions • Segregated settlements • Forced evictions • Discrimination in access to housing

3. International Norms Guaranteeing Housing Rights • UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • UN International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination • The European Convention on Human Rights • European Social Charter • EU Race Equality Directive (43/2000)

4. Housing Rights • The right to an adequate standard of living including ...housing • The right to protection from forced evictions, and the provision of alternative accommodation • The right to freedom from discrimination in access to housing and related services • The right to respect for private and family life, and home • The right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions

5. Housing Rights are Inter-linked and may be Linked to Other Human Rights • Right to life • Right to be free from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment • Right to access to education, healthcare and social benefits

6. The Right to Protection from Forced Evictions, and the Provision of Alternative Accommodation • Forced evictions are defined by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in their General Comment No. 7 as - the permanent or temporary removal • against the will of individuals, families and/or communities • from the home and/or land which they occupy • without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal protection. The prohibition on forced evictions does not, however, apply to evictions carried out by force in accordance with the law and in conformity with the provisions of the International Covenants on Human Rights.

7. Forced Evictions • Forced evictions frequently violate other human rights: right to life, the right to security of person, the right to non-interference with privacy, family and home and the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions. • Procedural protections are required where there is no alternative to eviction, including an opportunity for consultation before the eviction; adequate and reasonable notice and information on the proposed eviction; all persons carrying out the eviction to be properly identified; and government officials to be present, especially when groups of people are involved, should not take place in bad weather or at night, provision of legal remedies, legal aid. • Evictions should not result in individuals becoming homeless or vulnerable to other human rights violations. Where those affected are unable to provide for themselves, the State must take all appropriate measures, to the maximum of its available resources, to ensure that adequate alternative housing is available.

8. Danilovgrad case • The case involved the forced eviction and destruction of a Romani settlement in the city of Danilovgrad (Montenegro) by private residents who lived nearby. Earlier, the perpetrators had threatened to “exterminate” the community and “burn down” their houses. The Danilovgrad Police Department told the Romani community that they should evacuate the settlement immediately as they, the police, would be unable to protect them. Most of the Romani residents fled their homes leaving just a few behind to protect their housing and other possessions. During the afternoon of 15 April 1995, the non-Romani residents entered the settlement shouting “we shall evict them” and “we shall burn down the settlement”. The crowd set fire to the housing, resulting in the entire settlement being levelled and all properties belonging to its Romani residents completely destroyed. Several days later the debris was completely cleared away by municipal construction equipment leaving no trace of the community.

9. Decision of the UN Committee against Torture • CAT found forced eviction to be in violation of the Convention Against Torture • The CAT found that the Police Department did not take any appropriate steps to protect the residents and that the burning and destruction of the settlement constituted acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment within the meaning of Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture. Consequently, the Committee held that the Government of Serbia and Montenegro had violated Article 16 by not protecting the rights of the residents, a positive obligation under the Convention. Although the right to compensation is not expressly provided in the Convention for victims of acts of ill-treatment other than torture, the Committee concluded that the State Party should compensate the victims of this violation. As a direct result of the Committee’s finding, the Montenegrin Government agreed on 19 June 2003, to pay 985,000 Euro in compensation to seventy-four Romani victims of the Danilovgrad tragedy.

10. The Right to Freedom from Discrimination in Access to Housing and Related Services • Both the ICESCR and the ECHR have articles that prohibit racial/ethnic discrimination in the enjoyment of the rights set out in the Covenant and the Convention. • The scope of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination affirms that State parties must guarantee that individuals can enjoy the right to housing without being subjected to racial discrimination. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in their General Recommendation No. 27 explain that “State Parties [should] adopt measures to act firmly against any discriminatory practices affecting Roma, mainly by local authorities and private owners, with regard to taking up residence and access to housing; to act firmly against local measures denying residence to and unlawful expulsion of Roma, and to refrain from placing Roma in camps outside populated areas that are isolated and without access to health care and other facilities”.

11. Dobsina case On 20 March 2002, the Councillors of the municipality of Dobšina, Slovakia, adopted a resolution in which they approved a plan to construct low cost houses for the Roma inhabitants of the town. About 1,800 Roma lived in Dobšina in appalling conditions. Most of their houses are thatched huts or houses made of cardboard, with no potable drinking water, toilets or drainage and sewage systems. On hearing about the Councillors’ resolution, some of the inhabitants of Dobšina and surrounding villages set up a petition committee, and designed a petition which read “I do not agree with the building of low cost houses for people of Gypsy origin on the territory of Dobšina, as it will lead to an influx of in-adaptable citizens of Gypsy origin from the surrounding villages, even from other districts and regions”. More than 2,700 inhabitants of Dobšina signed the petition. The Councillors considered the petition and voted, unanimously, against building houses for Roma, cancelling the earlier approved resolution.

12. The CERD Decision • The CERD held that “in complex contemporary societies the practical realization of, in particular, many economic, social and cultural rights, including those related to housing, will initially depend on and indeed require a series of administrative and policy-making steps by the State party’s competent relevant authorities ... The Committee considers that the council resolutions in question, taking initially an important policy and practical step towards realization of the right to housing followed by its revocation and replacement with a weaker measure, taken together, do indeed amount to the impairment of the recognition or exercise on an equal basis of the human right to housing”. • The Committee found Slovakia in breach of its obligations under international law not to engage in any act of racial discrimination and to ensure that all public authorities act in conformity with this obligation. • It also found Slovakia in breach of its obligation to guarantee the right to everyone of equality before the law in the enjoyment of the right to housing.

13. Right to Respect for Private and Family Life, and Home • The European Convention on Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.” Protocol 1, Article 1, to the Convention also covers protection of property. The case law of the European Court on the right to respect for the home covers such issues as protection from wilful damage, protection from nuisances and disturbance (including environmental nuisance), and regulation of property.

14. The Hadareni case • On 20 September 1993 a mob of villagers in the town of Hadareni, Mures County, Romania, killed of 3 Romani men following the knifing death of a non-Romani man. • The angry mob burnt down 14 houses in the Romani community • Police passively looking. • The victims were forced to live in hen houses, barns, windowless cellars ... for several years in certain cases up until today. • Many fell ill, got hepatitis, diabetes etc. • Some fled the country.

15. The ECtHR Judgment • ”... the applicants’ living conditions and the racial discrimination to which they have been publicly subjected by the way in which their grievances were dealt with by various authorities, constitute an interference with their human dignity which (...) amounted to ‘degrading treatment’ within the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention.” • In addition: violation of the right to fair hearing, right to respect for private and family life and right no to be discriminated against in respect of these rights.

16. The European Social Charter • Aim: to facilitate economic and social progress • The social rights are divided up into concrete state obligations – possibility of concrete/clear interpretations, calling the state responsible. • Review procedures: • Monitoring procedure based on national reports • Collective complaint procedure (based on Protocol 3.)

17. Housing Rights guaranteed by the Charter • Access to adequate and affordable housing • Reduction of homelessness, housing policy targeted at all disadvantaged categories • Procedures to limit forced evictions • Equal access for non-nationals to social housing and housing benefits • Housing construction and housing benefits related to family needs.

18. ERRC complaints • 15/2003 ERRC v. Greece - The complaint relates to Article 16 (the right of the family to social, legal and economic protection) and the Preamble (non-discrimination). It alleged that there is widespread discrimination both in law and in practice against Roma in the field of housing. • 27/2004 ERRC v. Italy – relates to Article 31 (right to housing) alone or in combination with Article E (non-discrimination) of the Revised European Social Charter. • 31/2005 ERRC v. Bulgaria – relates to Article 16 alone or in combination with Article E.

19. Thank you for your attention! Anita Danka, ERRC Tel: +36-1-413-2221 anita.danka@errc.org