The human rights situation of a society can be measured by how it treats its minorities. The EU should take a long hard look in the mirror, and ask whether it can say that the treatment of its Roma minority can be said to be corresponding to this principle.
Can anybody pretend that the practice of putting Roma children in institutions of the mentally handicapped instead of school is just(which seems to be a common practice in Slovakia)? Or are the frequent acts of violence and regular discrimination against Roma in many European countries not something that indicates that the protection against discrimination is something often overlooked in the case of Roma people?
Discrimination of Roma people is to a certain extent linked to a social acceptance of racism towards them. I believe all of us have been present in situations, where people we know have banally said they “don't like” Roma people as a group or openly expressed their prejudice with collective accusations such as “they are criminals” etc. Now where does this kind of thing come from? It is often well educated, highly civilized(not always, of course) human beings who say these things. To one part, the reason is that there is not that much knowledge about the history of Roma persecution in Europe: the slavery in 1900th century Romania, the forced sterilizations in Sweden in the 1930ies and 1940ies, exterminations in Nazi Germany and so on. Secondly, the Roma society is seen as closed, patriarchal and intolerant. Bearing in mind the persecutions mentioned above, this is hardly surprising. However, the fact that Roma people also have problems of their own making does not change the fact that what is going on now is a disgrace for a continent priding itself for its human rights regime.
The debate in the past months in Europe has also shown how easily dangerous demagogy and straight forward racism can creep to the surface. The recent expulsions in France, was the arch example of how prejudice can be exploited by politicians on the cost of a group of people. It was said, that many of the people expelled were criminals. Well, if they were, why were they not prosecuted in a normal order? Maybe because many of them lack citizenship, and thus lack the rights connected to it. If a state wants to expel people, it needs to be based on aquis communaitaire, or more precisely, on practice accepted by the European Court of Justice. In the case of France, the expulsions are targeted at a group of people, instead of treating Roma people as individual citizens of a common market area with free movement and basic human rights- and freedoms as bearing principles.
Since children and young people are the group that are clearly affected concretely by what is going on, it is important for youth organizations to take an active interest in the matter. First through pushing for the Roma peoples right to proper education and participation, second, by considering projects aiming at the integration of Roma young people in society. On this, I know the Slovak Scouts are being active, for example. A comparison and best practice sharing between youth organizations would be very interesting and useful. This could also result in recommendations to decision makers on how to tackle the question. The advantage of youth organizations is, that we actually do practical things to seek solutions, a fact that should be better recognized by society at large.
Like most matters, also this is a complex issue. The problems are many, and no easy solution can be found. But awareness raising, clear condemnation of human rights violations and integration activities by civil society and the state, together with Roma communities, need to be taken. Otherwise, the dark clouds of discrimination will continue hanging over Europe, leaving an already for many generations excluded group in isolation for the decades to come.
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