Poverty – ERGO Network

UN Side event on discrimination based on work and descent

UN Side event on discrimination based on work and descent

Since 2019, as a consequence of ERGO Network’s work on the Sustainable Development Goals for Roma inclusion, ERGO Director Gabriela Hrabanova works together with the Global Forum on Discrimination on Work and Descent (GFoD), the Asia Dalit Rights Forum and other global minority organisations to raise awareness of the important topic Discrimination based on Work and Descent (DWD) at the United Nations level and to bring together Roma with other communities victims of DWD.

In the framework of the 2020 United Nations General Assembly, a series of side events took place in New York and online organised by GFoD and with the support of the Permanent Mission of Germany in New York, which attracted the participation of politicians and members of civil society from across the world. Besides ERGO Network Director Gabriela Hrabanova also Member of the European Parliament Romeo Franz (Greens/EFA) was a panelist in the meeting.

This year, due to the pandemic, the Forum took the form of a Round Table with 15 Parliamentarians from countries in Africa (Somalia, Niger, Mauritania), Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), Brazil and Europe (Germany, Spain, Slovakia, Belgium).

The discussions focused mostly on the strategies for the caucus of MPs to make appropriate and effective interventions at both UN & Regional Bodies, and with bilateral bodies/processes towards the elimination of DWD globally. An additional topic was the outlining of measures for building up the International Parliamentarians Forum on DWD to operate as an effective platform at global and regional level.

The participants discussed best practices and possible strategies at local, national, regional and UN level to improve the fight against DWD.

Discrimination based on work and descent affects around 260 million people worldwide. Communities discriminated on work and descent are one of the most excluded and segregated groups globally, and this affects their daily social, economic, political, civil and cultural life. Compared to the majority population in their respective countries, Dalits in South Asia have less access to education, communities of former and modern slavery in Mauretania are economically deprived and Roma in Europe have less access to health care and services.

International cooperation around the topic of DWD has been gaining momentum since 2015, when DWD communities looking for solidarity beyond their own countries and communities found similar discrimination practices among African, European and Latin American communities and founded The Inclusivity Project at international level. But the kick-off for the Forum was a Round Table at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Senegal in New York in 2019. Seven parliamentarians from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka have discussed DWD and options for action with representatives from European Roma networks, the African Network on DWD and Slavery, the Asia Dalit Rights Forum and Quilombola from Brazil.

As a consequence of all endeavours in the last decades the Global Forum on DWD – against Casteism, Antigypsyism & Traditional and contemporary forms of slavery has been formed during the first Congress on DWD in September 2019 in New York with representation by descendants of former slaves, Burakumin, Dalis, Quilomboa, Sinti & Roma.

ERGO Network’s Response to the Country-Specific Recommendations

European Semester: European Commission releases Spring Package 2020
What’s in it for Europe’s Roma?

On 20 May 2020, the European Commission published the so-called Spring

Package, comprising the 28 Country-Specific Recommendations 2020 (including the United Kingdom), and the accompanying Communication on Country-Specific Recommendations, in the framework of the 2020 European Semester. Together with its national members, ERGO Network has reviewed the Package, to see to which extent it explicitly mentions Roma rights and inclusion, as well as other key issues, such as ethnic minorities, discrimination, racism, and the role of civil dialogue.

Overall, while our members welcome references to Roma communities in the Communication and in some countries, they lament that most documents don’t explicitly mention them, where the Roma are present in all Member States except Malta, and experience rates of poverty and social exclusion of over 80% in all of them except the Czech Republic. This situation was exacerbated by the current public health, social, and economic crisis and associated containment measures, as highlighted also by the Package, hence it would have warranted more attention paid to one of Europe’s most left-behind communities. For the CSRs that do mention the Roma, our members agree with the challenges identified for their countries, however they would have liked to see a more comprehensive, integrated approach across the four pillars of the National Roma Integration Strategies, with notably housing being conspicuously missing from the analysis. This is particularly important in the context of the upcoming renewal of the EU Strategic Framework for Roma Inclusion, scheduled for later this year.

While the recurrent focus on mitigating the consequences for vulnerable groups is very positive, it is our members’ experience that, unless the Roma are explicitly named as key target beneficiaries of support measures, mainstream initiatives and dedicated national and EU funds end up not reaching them. Europe’s Roma must be specifically prioritised in the EU’s Recovery Package and associated funds, if the EU is serious about delivering on its commitments for Roma inclusion. Our members equally express disappointment that issues of discrimination and antigypsyism are not present in the Package, as these have increased in recent years, and even more so during the pandemic. Finally, they deplore the lack of recognition and support given to civil society organisations in the documents, given that most of them were not only on the frontlines during the pandemic, providing essential support to communities in need, but they equally possess the knowledge, expertise, and direct links to beneficiaries which are needed to inform the design of public policies and ensure both ownership and effectiveness of interventions.

See below the Key Findings of the analysis, and access the full report here.

Key Findings

The Communication accompanying the Country-Specific Recommendations highlights the Roma as one of the most affected groups by poverty, inequality, and social exclusion.
In contrast, for the first time since 2012, not a single Country-Specific Recommendation 2020 mentions the Roma, while there were 4 in 2019 (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia).
The Roma are only mentioned in the Preamble for 4 Member States (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia), the same ones as the 2019 Preambles, minus the Czech Republic.
Ethnic minorities, discrimination, and racism are completely absent from all 28 documents, while only the blanket, vague term of “vulnerable groups” is typically used.
Civil society is only mentioned in 4 Preambles (Finland, Hungary, Portugal, Slovenia), while in contrast social partners are referred to in 3 CSRs and 16 Preambles.

For more information about ERGO Network’s work on EU social inclusion and employment policy (European Semester, Europe 2020, European Pillar of Social Rights, Sustainable Development Goals etc), please contact Senior Policy Adviser Amana Ferro.

Covid-19 – extreme hardship and solidarity in these times of crisis

Covid-19 – extreme hardship and solidarity in these times of crisis

The Covid-19 crisis affects everyone, and the virus does not differentiate between people; anyone could catch it, no matter how rich or poor. Most people suffer under lockdowns, most people are scared and many will need income support in the coming weeks. However, while many people are confined in their comfortable homes and can use their laptops to continue working or learning from home, marginalized communities such as the Roma are facing extreme hardship in this time of crisis.

Many Roma across Europe work in the informal sector, for example in street markets or digging in landfills. Now that they are not allowed to leave their homes, they are left without any income, have no savings and do not receive unemployment benefits, or any other form of social assistance. Today in Europe, hunger is a real. Thousands of people are left without food.

Many Roma live in poor housing in segregated communities, without running water in their homes or sufficient space to self-isolate. Roma are already statistically with poorer health, so more at risk in this crisis. And while other children continue their schooling through online classes, this is not possible for many Roma children simply due to a lack of internet access in their neighbourhoods, and of PCs in their homes.

And finally, adding to these devastating living conditions, comes widespread antigypsyism: Roma communities facing stricter restrictions than other neighbourhoods, Roma travelers being controlled more often and Roma even falsely blamed of carrying the virus. Governments are using the health threat to push forward racist policies, when they should do exactly the opposite and pay special attention to vulnerable groups.

ERGO Network together with its partners is asking governments to remain vigilant against racist acts and calls on the European Commission to ensure that the newly released EU Solidarity Fund to respond to the crisis fully takes into account the needs and rights of Roma and other marginalized communities. Member States must guarantee that poor and marginalized communities have access to clean drinking water, food, health care and housing, as well as to reliable information. If these communities are not supported now, the social crisis that will follow the health-crisis will haunt Europe for a long time to come. (Read here our joint letter to EU Commissioner Helena Dalli with the ERRC and several other (pro-)Roma civil society organisations).

At the same time, ERGO Network members on the grassroots level are putting extraordinary levels of energy into supporting the people on the ground and show a spirit of solidarity that others can learn from! Here are just some examples of their great initiatives:

Integro Association, Bulgaria

Immediately after the outbreak Integro established a coordination group of NGOs and relevant government representatives. Through this group they can convey needs and difficulties identified on local level and propose solutions, with a direct contact to the National Headquarter for combating the Corona-virus infection.

All health and education mediators of Integro are visiting Roma neighbourhoods to provide information, monitor quarantine and refer people to specialists. They also distribute schooling materials for children who cannot take part in online learning. At Integro’s suggestion, many mediators are also included in municipal coronavirus teams and receive protective equipment. As the equipment is not sufficient, Integro is looking for suitable fabrics so that the women at the organisation’s Roma Mother Centres can sew masks for mediators and activists. Integro also translated a brochure and video from the Roma Standing Conference on preventing the coronavirus infection from Bulgarian and Romanes into Turkish, the language of many Roma communities in Bulgaria. 15,000 brochures of the brochure have been printed!

In addition, the association proposed urgent measures to be taken by local authorities to support Roma communities, and many of them complied and provide for example food packages and water tanks. Integro also discusses with the Ministry of Education to provide internet access, and with IT companies to provide old computers to the communities so that children can participate in online learning programmes. Last but not least, they closely monitor whether rights of the Roma are violated.

Nevo Parudimos, Romania

Our members from Resita in Romania convinced the municipality to distribute weekly food packages to poor families and have already distributed 160 wash basins, antibacterial soap and disinfectants to families in the marginalized neighbourhoods of Mociur, Dealu Mare and Câlnic, where many Roma live.

Nevo Parudimos has also agreed with a textile factory to produce 1000 face masks for people in need. Nevo Parudimos will provide the material and the factory will produce the masks free of charge. The European Solidarity Corps volunteers hosted by Nevo Parudimos are spending their days sewing masks in self-isolation. Nevo Parudimos is keeping their spirits up by daily group calls and online activities.

Upre Roma, Italy

In Northern Italy, where the situation is worse than anywhere else in the world, our member Upre Roma is putting all efforts into activating political contacts and lobbying all administrative and political levels to provide basic necessities for poor communities. 40,000 poor people, many of them Roma, are left without food. No NGO would have the means or would even be allowed to support all these people, so political action is needed. Upre Roma has also started a petition to demand access to clean water for Roma camps. At the same time, the activists are constantly on the phone, informing people about how to access their rights, how to get support etc.

Butterfly Development, Hungary

Pro Cseherat is running a successful community gardening programme with Roma communities for many years already. In times of confinement and lack of financial resources, self-reliance through gardening can take a great burden from poor families. Pro Cseherat is therefore developing a distant learning programme through Facebook that explains how to start one’s own vegetable garden.

Slovo 21, Czech Republic

In this exceptional situation Slovo 21 is intensively communicating with members of the Roma Women’s group Manushe, which organizes Roma women through sharing Facebook posts and events. Together they coordinate the sewing of facemasks, which are distributed for free within their localities and to hospitals. Face masks are obligatory to wear in Czech Republic when leaving the house, for example to buy food or seek medical attention.

Besides these concrete examples, all member organisations focus in particular on providing information and lobbying their governments. They explain new rules concerning self-isolation, inform where to get financial assistance, give mental health support and provide essential hygiene tips. They are lobbying their governments to provide extra support to Roma communities, to stop evictions and to end discrimination of marginalized groups who suffer disproportionally under the crisis. None of us could do anything to mitigate the crisis on our own. Coordination is needed, and Roma NGOs need to be included in crisis response teams to ensure Roma are not left out of any support measures.

Do you want to share what you are doing? You can send information about your activities to info@ergonetwork.org and we will share it with other activists!

Do you observe rights violations against Roma in this crisis? Please provide information to the Fundamental Rights Agency, which is investigating the impact of Covid-19, by sending information to frp@fra.europa.eu.

Do young people in your organisation are organising solidarity actions? ERGO Network is partnering with FEMYSO for the campaign #OutbreakofGenerosity which offers a great guide for young people’s work during this crisis. http://outbreakofgenerosity.org/

Roma grassroots perspectives on poverty alleviation

Roma grassroots perspectives on poverty alleviation:
Impact of access to quality education and employment as well as antigypsyism on Roma people’s economic situation

The topic of the case studies was how access to quality education and employment as well as antigypsyism affect Roma people’s economic situation.
This synthesis report can serve as evidence concerning implementation of the EU Roma Framework and mainstream social policies on the grassroots level, which can support the EU institutions’ work on making the European Pillar of Social Rights a reality. The main objective is to fill the gap and bring more perceptions of Roma into Roma-related discourses. Therefore ERGO members explored Roma people’s perspectives on the causes of poverty that can potentially say more about barriers to poverty reduction efforts and implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategies and social policies (if any). Fostering participation of Roma in voicing their needs and positions about what causes their economic situation is crucial for our work.

Download link