Europe, Headlines, Human Rights

RIGHTS: An International Plan for Roma At Last

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Feb 3 2005 (IPS) - The leaders of eight countries in eastern and central Europe launched a 10-year plan Wednesday to tackle severe social problems encountered by Roma, communities.

‘The Roma Inclusion Decade 2005-2015’ plan launched Wednesday (Feb. 2) in the Bulgarian capital Sophia aims to help millions of Roma escape “discrimination, segregation, and poverty that has pushed them to the margins of mainstream society..” Roma are people who migrated to Europe from the Indian subcontinent since the 14th century.

Government leaders from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovakia signed a declaration committing them to include the Roma as “full and equal” members of European society.

“Our governments will work to lift discrimination and overcome unacceptable differences between the Roma and the remaining members of society,” the leaders said in a joint declaration after the programme launch.

The initiative is the first international effort to improve living conditions for the Roma.

The new plan aims to improve the economic and social status of Europe’s estimated 10 million Roma in all eight countries through better education, health care, housing and job opportunities.

Under the initiative, each government will implement so-called National Action Plans containing precise targets for improvements to be met by 2015.

Roma groups and international bodies like the World Bank will monitor the progress made in each country and publish regular reports as the decade unfolds. The scheme is sponsored by the World Bank, the European Commission (the European Union executive), and by the New York-based Open Society Institute (OSI) chaired by George Soros.

“This is one of the great moral issues facing Europe today. If we do nothing, we will see continued disaffection and suffering. If we succeed, the Decade offers an opportunity to turn the tide of history and harness the political will to include the Roma as full citizens in European societies,” outgoing World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn said at the launch of the plan Wednesday.

“The Decade signals a sea change in Roma policy,” said Soros, founder of the Soros foundations network, a group of autonomous foundations and organisations in more than 50 countries. “But it is just the beginning. Problems will not be solved overnight and we must be prepared to fight social exclusion and discrimination over the course of the Decade. The Decade itself is an inclusive exercise and we welcome other countries, including EU member states, to join.”

Despite the booming prosperity that has accompanied the EU expansion into Eastern Europe, the World Bank says the region’s Roma are up to 10 percent more likely to live below the poverty line.

Tens of thousands live in squalid shantytowns without roads, electricity or running water, and their children often attend segregated schools or those for the mentally handicapped.

Adult Roma face massive unemployment, as high as 100 percent in some settlements. Some studies indicate that their average life span is 10 to 15 years shorter than other Europeans.

The World Bank says the Roma population has largely been ignored for a number of reasons.

“In the past there has never been a constituency for this most deprived and often despised minority. The tide has changed thanks to the pioneering efforts of George Soros and his Open Society Institute whose work on Roma was key in bringing us into the effort,” World Bank spokesperson Nick van Praag told IPS Thursday.

Van Praag adds that the expansion of EU has played a key role in putting the issue on the public policy agenda.

“The expansion of the EU to the east implies a doubling of the Roma population inside the Union. As enlargement went ahead, member states were concerned, from a moral perspective, about the miserable conditions in which most Roma live,” he added.

“The Bank sees the situation of the Roma as morally unacceptable. Our core mandate is to fight poverty, and the Roma are the poorest, most underprivileged group in Europe,” he said.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) survey released Wednesday to coincide with the meeting paints a bleak picture of life for the Roma.

Conducted in 10 countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, as well as Kosovo – it says that around three-quarters of Roma do not complete primary school education.

In some of the countries surveyed, the share of Roma living below the poverty line was almost six times that of the general population.

In Romania, seven out of 10 Roma do not have access to running water, while in Kosovo, only one out of 10 Roma aged 12 and above has finished primary school.

“These conditions are unacceptable in countries that are part of the European Union or aspire to be,” said Andrey Ivanov, human development advisor at UNDP’s Bratislava regional centre. “We need action now to close the appalling development gap that separates the Roma from the majority populations in this region."