Indicator history

In 2011, Amnesty International issued a report called Mind the legal gap, Roma and the right to housing in Romania. The report documented the situation of various Roma communities which had been forcefully evicted by local authorities and relocated to inadequate housing in areas lacking access to basic utilities, some next to garbage dumps, sewage treatment plants, or industrial areas on the outskirts of cities that could be hazardous for their health. The report describes a chain of vulnerability including: lack of protection against forced evictions in national legislation, insecurity of tenure among the Roma, lack of remedies and accountability, discrimination. The report states that: “Across the country, a pattern of forced evictions of Roma, and threats of forced evictions has been documented for years by NGOs, such as Bucharest-based Romani CRISS and Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). Forcibly evicted Romani communities do not just lose their homes; they lose also their possessions, their social networks and their access to work, schools and other state services. When the authorities evict Romani communities against their will, without adequate consultation, adequate notice or adequate alternative housing, they are violating international and regional treaties that the government of Romania has signed up to. Although some Roma people live in permanent structures with legal tenancy, the authorities consider many other long-standing Romani dwellings as ‘informal’ or illegal, and their inhabitants do not have any documentary proof of tenancy, which exacerbates their vulnerability to eviction.”[1]

As an example of rejecting Roma as neighbours, according to the NGO Romani CRISS, in 2008, after extensive flooding affecting many Roma houses, in the locality of Arbore, Suceava county, the local authorities initiated administrative works to rebuild the houses and relocate those which were in the flooding area elsewhere. A local council decision would have been necessary in order to allocate the neccessary land from the private state property. A number of members of the community sent a memorandum to the local authorities asking for the decision not to include the locals of Roma ethnicity, because they did not want them as their neighbours. Following this memorandum, the local authorities no longer adopted any decision. The NGO filed a complaint with the Romanian equality body – National Council for Combating Discrimination. [2]

Sources:

[1] Amnesty International, Mind the Legal Gap, Roma and the right to housing in Romania, June 2011, available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR39/004/2011/en/5f9becde-66e9-4262-bb3a-ff1c3681046d/eur390042011en.pdf (last accessed: 17.02.2012)

[2] Romani CRISS, Presentation of the Arbore case, available at: http://www.romanicriss.org/Prezentare%20caz%20Arbore%20locuire.pdf (last accessed: 17.02.2012)