Annual Report 2014 - Discrimination and the Roma community

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Discrimination and the Roma Community 2014
of hate crimes ranging from everyday acts by individ-
uals in the street or on the Internet to serious crimes
perpetrated by extremist groups or totalitarian regimes.
It also proposes 25 action measures to comply ap-
propriately with the Framework Decision on Racism
and Xenophobia, including calling on Member States to
make sure that political parties or associations do not
promote hate speech or other forms of discrimination
against ethnic minorities.
The report makes several references to anti-gypsyism
and Roma victims, calling attention to the recent rise in
cases of romaphobia in different EU countries and the
difficulties Roma victims have in exercising their rights.
The report can be downloaded from the FRA’s website:
ion-framework-decision-racism-and-xenophobia-spe-
cial-attention-rights-victims
IV. Sweden publishes a “White Paper on
abuses and rights violations of Roma
during the 1900s.”
In 2013 the Swedish government published a chilling
report on policies implemented in Sweden during the
20th century against Roma in its country.
The publication of this report entitled “White Paper on
abuses and rights violations of Roma during the 1900s”
represents a major step forward in policies to combat
discrimination. It is a public acknowledgement of the
racist anti-Roma policies carried out by the different
Swedish governments throughout the 20th century,
with special mention of its intention to recognise the
damage it caused and apologise to victims.
The Swedish government also ordered the compulsory
inclusion of this Paper in Sweden’s educational system
such that from this year forward, students will study
Sweden’s dark anti-Roma past and the reality of the
discrimination suffered by the Roma community in this
country.
The Paper reports on practices such as censuses tak-
en of Roma with biometric data, forced sterilisation of
Roma women (1934-1974), kidnapping of Roma new-
borns by government institutions, border controls pro-
hibiting Roma from entering the country, systematic
denial of access to housing and the right of Roma to
register as local residents in the towns where they lived,
segregation of Roma students in special schools, police
abuses, hate speech by political representatives and nu-
merous acts of discrimination in access to employment
and goods and services.
English version to download:
20148/
White Paper on abuses and rights violations of Roma during
the 1900s.