Report on the Position of Roma Men and Women During the Covid 19
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REPORT ON THE POSITION OF ROMA MEN AND WOMEN DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN SERBIA 1 Milena Reljić and Marina Simeunović REPORT ON THE POSITION OF ROMA MEN AND WOMEN DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN SERBIA Belgrade, 2021 4 IMPRESSUM Published by: Civil Rights Defenders Editor: Jovana Vuković Authors: Milena Reljić and Marina Simeunović Original title: Izveštaj o kršenju ljudskih prava Roma i Romkinja tokom pandemije bolesti COVID-19 u Srbiji Proofreading: Agencija za prevodilačke usluge IDIOMA Translation: IdiomaPro team Design: Naida Hodžić Cover image: Europe Continent Map by Vemaps.com ISBN 978-86-89531-06-0 Belgrade, March 2021 5 CONTENTS CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE STATUS OF ROMA MEN AND WOMEN IN SERBIA ........................ 8 How did COVID-19 affect the deterioration of the status of Roma and the inability for them to exercise their rights? ............................................................................................................................................... 10 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................... 13 ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER .................................................................................................................... 15 Introduction: Right to water ....................................................................................................................... 16 Roma access to drinking water during the COVID-19 pandemic ................................................................. 16 Case No. 1: Jelena Usainovic, Roma settlement in Zitoradja ...................................................................... 16 RIGHT TO EDUCATION ................................................................................................................................. 18 Introduction: Right to education ................................................................................................................ 19 Right to education before the COVID-19 pandemic .................................................................................... 19 Case No. 2: Settlement without electricity ................................................................................................ 20 Case No. 3: Students have electricity, but not a device on which they can follow the lessons ................... 20 RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE ............................................................................................................................. 22 Introduction: Right to health ...................................................................................................................... 23 Right to health care before the COVID-19 pandemic .................................................................................. 24 The Roma population health care during the pandemic ............................................................................. 25 Case No. 4 .................................................................................................................................................. 28 Violating right to health care ..................................................................................................................... 29 Case No. 5: Accepting applications in the general interest made by Roma civil society organisations’ representatives ......................................................................................................................................... 30 Case No. 6: Health mediators tested for loyalty either to community or to the employer .......................... 31 Case No. 7: Price of poor people’s health .................................................................................................... 32 Case No. 8: Mutual dependency of (violation of) rights .............................................................................. 32 Case No. 9: Hippocratic Oath on trial .......................................................................................................... 32 Case No. 10: Ignorantia iuris nocet (ignorance of law excuses no one) ....................................................... 33 Case No. 11: Solidarity in service of patients protection ............................................................................ 34 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................................. 35 INTRODUCTION: BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE STATUS OF ROMA MEN AND WOMEN IN SERBIA © Naida Hodžić 8 National minorities make up 16.98% of the total as measures for exercising the right to repre- population in Serbia. According to the data from sentation, they are largely not respected. Also, the latest census, Roma are the second-largest although the law prescribes quotas in employ- national minority, accounting for 2.05% of the ment (representation of the Roma national total population. The official number of Roma minority in institutions of 2% in relation to the in Serbia is 147,604, while unofficial data from total population, Law on Protection of Rights Strategy for Improvement of Status of Roma, and Freedoms of National Minorities, Arti- indicate many more Roma, even 500,000.1 cle 4), it is not implemented or, if it is, Roma men and women are employed in public util- Given that the position in society is replicated ity enterprises and on other low-skilled jobs by generations, individuals who manage to exit that are not in line with their qualifications.3 this matrix represent isolated cases and do not significantly affect the general improvement of In addition, housing is one of the key prob- the status of Roma men and women. In addition, lems for the Roma community and the least the recent deterioration of the status of the progress has been made in this area in recent Roma community is influenced by the growing decades. In 2015, the Department for Housing strengthening of the right-wing option in the Policy of the Ministry of Construction, Trans- region and Europe, extreme intolerance and dis- port and Infrastructure established a database crimination against Roma, as well as frequent called Geographic Information System (GIS) attacks resulting from anti-Roma propaganda for substandard Roma settlements, which was freely spread by extreme ring-wing move- supposed to enable monitoring of the condition ments and organisations without sanctions. of Roma settlements, and on that occasion, 583 substandard Roma settlements were mapped. The difficult position of Roma men and women is (According to the UN definition, substandard especially evident in the areas of employment, Roma settlements are characterized by: inad- housing and when it comes to violence. Accord- equate access to drinking water; inadequate ing to a regional survey on the socio-economic access to sanitation and other relevant forms position of Roma conducted by the United – sewerage system or septic tanks, traffic net- Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in work, water supply network and other utilities; 2011 and 2017, comparing the position of Roma poor quality of housing units – housing units with the position of the neighbouring major- built using inadequate building techniques and/ ity population, the number of employed Roma or poor construction materials, housing units is two to three times lower in relation to the that are decrepit due to poor maintenance and majority population, and in the case of Roma alike, which are potentially hazardous to the women, this number is up to ten times lower.2 safety of residents; overpopulation in terms Although it is envisaged that national minorities of average population density per unit area of are employed by applying special measures, the settlement, or in terms of large number of which are adopted in order to achieve real equal- household members and uncertainty of legal ity of national minorities and are prescribed status the houses on the respective plots, 1 Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma for 2016-2025, available at: https://www.minrzs.gov.rs/sr/dokumenti/predlozi-i-nacrti/sektor-za- medjunarodnu-saradnju-evropske-integracije-i-projekte/strategija-za-socijalno-ukljucivanje-roma. 2 Regional Roma survey 2017, available at: https://www.eurasia.undp.org/content/rbec/en/home/library/roma/regional-roma-survey-2017- country-fact-sheets.html. 3 Article 21 of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities is even more restrictive as it only prescribes the following: “When recruiting in public services, including the police, account shall be taken of the ethnic composition of the population, the appropriate representation and the knowledge of the language spoken in the areas of the authority or service.” According to the latest amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities, Article 21 has been deleted. 9 including unresolved property ownership rights The virus (the disease COVID-19) also affected over houses and land in the settlement). It is the Roma communities across Europe, causing estimated that more than half of all Roma in significant damage and health risk since Roma Serbia live in such settlements. are a sensitive group on many grounds. This especially refers to the limited access to clean Although certain progress has been made water and sewerage, cleaning products, and education and health care in recent years, the the possibility to implement self-isolation very COVID-19 pandemic