The Indelible Bonobo Experience

Renaissance Monkey: in-depth expertise in Jack-of-all-trading. I mostly comment on news of interest to me and occasionally engage in debates or troll passive-aggressively. Ask or Submit 2 mah authoritah! ;) !

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UNDP, the World Bank and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). They conducted a survey in 84,000 households in 11 countries across the continent. What they found was grim: only 15% of young Roma adults surveyed finish upper-secondary general or vocational education, compared with more than 70% of the majority population living nearby. Less than 30% of Roma surveyed are in paid employment. And about 45% of them live in households lacking at least one of the following: an indoor kitchen, loo, shower or bath, or electricity (via new report, Economist) Conditions in Roma settlements on the edges of town and villages rival Africa or India for their deprivation. And most Roma in eastern Europe (where the majority of Europe’s Roma live) are now worse off than under communism, which, for all its faults, at least guaranteed work, housing and welfare. It also stamped down on hate crimes that now flare up in regular intervals. We are now seven years into Europe’s “Decade of Roma Inclusion”, launched in 2005 at a riverside hotel in Budapest. In order to reduce the gap between Roma and non-Roma, national strategies will need to be more effectively implemented. The authors of the report recommend that policymakers pay more attention to the school participation and school completion of Roma children; the skills and education of Roma jobseekers; the housing needs of the Roma and their health condition. It is also important to focus more on the combat against discrimination and anti-gypsyism and to raise Romas’ awareness of their fundamental rights.

UNDP, the World Bank and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). They conducted a survey in 84,000 households in 11 countries across the continent. What they found was grim: only 15% of young Roma adults surveyed finish upper-secondary general or vocational education, compared with more than 70% of the majority population living nearby. Less than 30% of Roma surveyed are in paid employment. And about 45% of them live in households lacking at least one of the following: an indoor kitchen, loo, shower or bath, or electricity (via new report, Economist)

  • Conditions in Roma settlements on the edges of town and villages rival Africa or India for their deprivation. And most Roma in eastern Europe (where the majority of Europe’s Roma live) are now worse off than under communism, which, for all its faults, at least guaranteed work, housing and welfare. It also stamped down on hate crimes that now flare up in regular intervals.
  • We are now seven years into Europe’s “Decade of Roma Inclusion”, launched in 2005 at a riverside hotel in Budapest. In order to reduce the gap between Roma and non-Roma, national strategies will need to be more effectively implemented. The authors of the report recommend that policymakers pay more attention to the school participation and school completion of Roma children; the skills and education of Roma jobseekers; the housing needs of the Roma and their health condition. It is also important to focus more on the combat against discrimination and anti-gypsyism and to raise Romas’ awareness of their fundamental rights.
Posted in roma eastern europe gypsy gipsy discrimination europe | 1 note
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‘Landmark’ Roma eviction ruling sets precedent, rights group says‎

golden-zephyr:

Roma child running past his home in Sofia

HUMAN RIGHTS

‘Landmark’ Roma eviction ruling sets precedent, rights group says

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that evicting Roma from an established community outside of Sofia, Bulgaria, would violate the right to life. Amnesty International called it a “landmark judgment.”

The Strasbourg-based rights court issued the ruling last week in favor of 23 Bulgarian nationals living in a settlement with about 250 other Roma.

The Roma had settled in Batalova Vodenitsa, on the outskirts of Bulgaria’s capital Sofia, in the 1960s and 70s.

The 1990s saw growing hostility against Roma in Sofia, including some politicians calling for the emptying of “Roma ghettos.”

Citing tensions with neighbors over the makeshift homes, which lacked building permits and didn’t fulfill safety regulations, a local court in 2006 upheld an eviction order by Sofia authorities after the land was privatized.

The Roma, also known as gypsies, have been pushed to the margins of European society and have even become targets of persecution.

Bulgarian nationalists with anti-Roma t-shirts in a march

Anti-Roma sentiment in Bulgaria remains high - members of the nationalist Ataka party wear t-shirts with the slogan “I don’t want to live in a Gypsy country” during a protest in Sofia last year.

Pressure from the European Union prevented the Sofia eviction from taking place. Now, the European Court of Human Rights has ordered Bulgaria to change its removal law.

Any such removal must provide special consideration of vulnerable populations, such as elderly and children, the ruling stated.

“It means the authorities can’t evict these communities without safeguards,” said Barbora Cernusokova, an Eastern Europe specialist with Amnesty International.

The “landmark judgment” is also important since with it, the court officially recognized discrimination against the Roma community, Cernusokova said.

The ruling “provides a guideline as to how other countries should approach Roma rights,” Cernusokova said.

She cited a similar eviction case relating to a settlement in Craica, Romania. The rights group has also spoken out against evictions of Roma outside of Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

The EU last year adopted a framework for inclusion of the often marginalized Roma into society, which includes education, employment, and health and housing goals.

The Roma or Romani population in Europe comprises 8 to 12 million people, and is centered mostly in Central Eastern Europe.

In addition to ordering the Bulgarian government to change its policy, the human rights court said it must pay court costs of 4,000 euros ($5,300).

Author: Sonya Angelica Diehn
Editor: Jessie Wingard

So where was the Human Rights court during the Dale Farm evictions in the UK or similar evictions in Italy and France?

Wait, don’t tell me, I know: that was “different.”

It seems like the Western Europe pays attention only when there is potential for East to West migration; the reverse is encouraged, much like the 1500s, when the European powers engaged in systematic discriminatory (almost genocidal) policies.

(via aj-rromale)

Posted in batalova vodenitsa bulgaria eastern europe echr europe ghetto gipsy gypsy human rights roma romani romania sofia romales discrimination political correctness racism antiziganism | 20 notes
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The balance of respondents who think the world economy will pick up against those who expect it to worsen rose from minus 28 percentage points to minus 5. In North America more executives are bullish than bearish for the first time in a year. In eastern Europe however, confidence has slumped. (via Daily chart: Global business barometer | The Economist)

The balance of respondents who think the world economy will pick up against those who expect it to worsen rose from minus 28 percentage points to minus 5. In North America more executives are bullish than bearish for the first time in a year. In eastern Europe however, confidence has slumped. (via Daily chart: Global business barometer | The Economist)

Posted in forecast business confidence prospects barometer europe eastern europe euro optimism north america | 3 notes