Annual Report FSG 2014 FSG Cuaderno Técnico Nº 116 Discrimination and the Roma Community
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Annual report FSG 2014 FSG Cuaderno Técnico nº 116 Discrimination and the Roma community C/ Ahijones, s/n - 28018 Madrid (España) Tel.: (34) 91 422 09 60 - Fax: (34) 91 422 09 61 [email protected] th www.gitanos.org Annual report FSG 2014 ANNIVERSARY A Decade of Work Seeking Equality: 1073 cases recorded. Con la colaboración de: A Decade of Work Seeking Equality: 1073 cases recorded • Presentation of 151 cases of dis- crimination collected in 2013 • Political representatives give their views on discrimination• Sweden publishes a “White Paper on abuses and rights violations of Roma during the 1900s.” • Activity of Assistance service for victims of discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin • Discrimination and the Roma community Annual report FSG 2014 Discrimination and the Roma community th ANNIVERSARY A Decade of Work Seeking Equality: 10 1073 cases recorded Technical coordination and drafting: Area of Equality, Department of Social Inclusion - FSG Sara Giménez Mª Carmen Cortés Javier Sáez Maite Andrés Collaboration: Fernando Rey Martínez. (University of Valladolid). Óscar Vicario García. (Lawyer). Gáspar Llamazares Trigo. Member of Parliament from IU (United Left party) Pablo Iglesias Turrión. (Secretary General of the “Podemos” political party). Gonzalo Robles Orozco. (Secretary for Social Participation of the “PP” political party). Ramón Jáuregui Atondo. (Socialist Party Member of the European Parliament ). Area of Communication FSG. International Department FSG. Translation: Stephen Carlin Design and printing: A.D.I. © Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) Madrid 2015 Serie Cuadernos Técnicos, Issue No 116. “This material is free of charge. All forms of commercialisation are prohibited”. Index Introduction 7 Cases of discrimination 11 1. Conclusions and recommendations . 13 2. Cases of discrimination collected in 2013 by area . 19 3. The Castellar and Estepa cases: two examples of hate crimes against the Roma community . 71 4. Area of Equal treatment and non-discrimination. Ten years of work . 73 5. Presentation of disaggregated data . 75 Putting discrimination in context: 79 1. Liquid racism 81 2. The role of political leaders in combating discrimination. European Parliamentary Elections 2014 . 84 3. The case of Xavier García Albiol v. Romanian Roma from Badalona: “Anything goes is unacceptable in political discourse” . .86 4. Political representatives give their views on discrimination . 90 Gaspar Llamazares Trigo 90 Gonzalo Robles Orozco 92 Pablo Iglesias Turrión 93 Ramón Jáuregui Atondo 95 Headway made in combating discrimination in 2013-2014 97 1. The situation in Europe . 99 I. Recommendations from the Council of the EU on the inclusion of the Roma community . 99 II. 8th meeting of the European Platform for Roma Inclusion . .99 III. FRA report on the Framework Decision regarding racism and xenophobia and victims of hate crimes. .99 IV. Sweden publishes a “White Paper on abuses and rights violations of Roma during the 1900s.” . 100 2. National . 101 I. Assistance service for victims of discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin . .101 II. Council of Victims of Hate and Discrimination Crime. Victims of racism, xenophobia, anti-gypsyism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, islamophobia and other forms of intolerance. 103 III. Report by the Hate and Discrimination Crime Service of the Barcelona Provincial Public Prosecutor. Year 2013. .104 Positive developments in the field of anti-discrimination 107 1. Awareness-raising campaign YoSoyTu (I am you) . .109 2. Hate crime action protocol for police and security forces . 111 3. Investing in equality and non-discrimination: towards more efficient and inclusive public policies . .113 4. NET-KARD Project: Cooperation and networking among key stakeholders to combat discrimination against the Roma community . .115 5. PAYO TODAY: a humorous way to drive home a point with journalists . 116 6. Training activities implemented by the Fundación Secretariado Gitano . 117 Annex 1. Legislation in force . .121 2. European organisations and institutions working in the field of equal treatment, non- discrimination and the Roma community . .124 Introduction Introduction Introduction Another year has passed and the Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) presents its Annual Report on Discrimination and the Roma Community. This is the 10th year of publication of this report, the main objective of which is to shed light on and report discrimination which, unfortunately, the Roma community continues to suffer. We believe it is extremely important for the government and the society at large to be aware of these cases of discrimination and thus have an idea of the everyday reality that Roma families face in gaining access to housing, employment, education and services simply because of their ethnic background. In some cases, rejection has over- stepped the boundary of discrimination and turned into racist violence as was the case this year in two towns in the south of Spain, Estepa and Castellar, where the homes of several Roma families were set on fire during the course of racist demonstrations. Unfortunately, political parties and human rights organisations failed to speak out against these inadmissible and unjust acts. We’ve been working for ten years in the area of equal treatment and anti-discrimination and can confirm that discrim- ination against the Roma community is caused by the negative social image people have of them, i.e. prejudice and stereotypes that are proving difficult to eliminate because they are deeply rooted in our society and in the arguments used by most citizens when erroneously referring to this sector of the population. Many Roma have a standard lifestyle and don’t even remotely resemble the negative social image which limits their right to equal treatment. Societal awareness is intimately linked to the media that play a key role in this connection. In the cases recorded in this decade of work we found that the media often perpetuate a biased and prejudiced image of the Roma community. Moreover, regarding the image of the Roma community, we regret to report that in the latest update of the Spanish dictionary by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, the latter changed the fourth definition of the word “Gitano” (Roma). It used to read: “one who deceives” and now has been updated by: “swindler, cheat”. So now when the Spanish society looks up the word “gitano” in our dictionary they will see the Roma community associated with “swindler or cheat who, by illegal deception, cheats someone in a purchase, sale or exchange.” Once again this year we want to give the victims of discrimination a voice and let people know that they need to be effectively accompanied and defended, especially in these times of economic crisis when inequality is ravaging the most vulnerable. We believe it vital that our country continues to be known for being inclusive and to that end actions and measures must be implemented to guarantee equal treatment and opportunities for all. As regards the defence of non-discrimination, we still face challenges. In our ten years of work, we feel that very little progress has been made in implementing existing legislation in this area, there is still a significant lack of data on dis- 7 Discrimination and the Roma community 2014 criminatory incidents and there is still a need to provide comprehensive services to potential victims of racial or ethnic discrimination. We have to get victims to report discrimination and cases of racial or ethnic hatred; they must not be made to feel helpless, unprotected and devoid of compensation when their house is burned down, when they are denied access to a job or when they cannot go to a pool or a discotheque simply because they are Roma. We are still witnessing unjust acts of rejection and, in some cases, even racial or ethnic hatred (Romaphobia) in several European countries: mass expulsions, segregated schools, violent attacks, etc.; and the question is, what is the response of European institutions? In this connection, one of the FSG’s priorities is to promote equality and combat ethnic discrimination. The FSG’s Equal- ity Department has been working along these lines for over 10 years and continues implementing different initiatives to address the issue of discrimination against the Roma community: • Assistance initiatives for victims of discrimination that we have strengthened since March 2013 by coordinating the Victim Assistance Service of the Council for the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination, work we do side-by-side with 7 other social entities. This service was established in 2014 and we hope it will grow in 2015. • Technical assistance and training of key players in the fight against discrimination: mostly technical personnel and the heads of administrations and social organisations, police forces, jurists, the media and universities. • Promotion of policies supporting the advancement of equal treatment by lobbying and monitoring anti-discrimi- nation legislation and its everyday enforcement and European recommendations in this regard. • Social awareness-raising actions through the dissemination of information related with the fight against ethnic discrimination and the promotion of equal treatment and social awareness-raising campaigns. • Strategic litigation before the courts, a course of action that began with the case of a Roma woman who was denied her widow’s pension and which went all the way to the European Court of Human Rights which ruled in her favour. We then defended another Roma woman