Annual Report Discrimination 2015

Cases of discrimination in Europe

Cases of discrimination

in Europe

BULGARIA.

Anti-Roma speech by the Ministry of Health.

In the aftermath of a series of medical service disputes in different areas around the country (in areas where the

majority of the population is Roma but also in non-Roma areas), the Bulgarian Minister of Health, Peter Moskov,

made openly anti-Roma statements on 7 December 2014:

“People who have chosen to live and act like animals deserve to be treated as such. Even wild animals under-

stand when someone is trying to help them and don’t attack.” ... “As of tomorrow [8 December 2014], emergency

medical teams will only enter neighbourhoods where these incidents have occurred [attacks on ambulances] with

police protection and where local ‘opinion leaders’ personally guarantee the proper conduct of the population. By

virtue of my personal order, regional medical centres shall not be held liable for those decisions [in reference to

sending out ambulances]. I personally take responsibility for these decisions.”

Comparing Bulgarian Roma citizens with “animals” and blaming them for the conflicts (these conflicts also in-

volved non-Roma Bulgarians) consititutes a clear act of anti-Roma racism. All of the Roma associations in Bulgaria

and many NGOs called for the Minister’s resignation and filed charges against him but to no avail. He was not

even convicted for making racist statements.

The letter sent by Roma associations to the government and the European Union can be found at:

health- stop-fashism

NORWAY.

Anti-Roma law.

In November 2014 the parliament of Norway, with one of the highest GDPs in the world, passed a law prohibiting

panhandling. The official reason given by the new government, a conservative-progressive coalition, is the fight

against trafficking in human beings and other organised crime.

However, this appeared more like a direct attack on Roma immigrants as they account for a large percentage of

street beggars in Norway.

Before the law was passed, the leader of the Progressive Party, Siv Jenson, openly admitted that this prohibition

of panhandling was “the best way to reduce the number of Roma on the streets”. In other words, he explicitly

linked this new prohibition with the Roma community. Norway has a long tradition of anti-Roma measures, in-

cluding sterilisation.

CZECH REPUBLIC.

Segregation of Roma students.

A study conducted in 2013 by the Czech School Inspectorate (national body responsible for ensuring that

schools comply with national law) found a disproportionately high number of Roma children placed in schools

for students with “mild mental disabilities”. The study covered 483 schools where five or more students were

diagnosed with this disability and found that 28.2% of the children so diagnosed were Roma when less than 3%

of the total Czech population is Roma. In 2012 the Czech Ombudsman (responsible for ensuring and guaranteeing

compliance with anti-discrimination laws) expressed its opinion that this was discriminatory.