ERRC: Roma in Transcarpathian Ukraine
Date: Thu, 08 May 97 11:08:45 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: ERRC: Roma in Transcarpathian Ukraine
From: MINELRES moderator \ Internet: ([email protected])
Original sender: John Jaworsky <[email protected]>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 02 May 97 08:38:01 EDT
From: Claude Cahn <[email protected]>
ERRC Press Release: Roma in Transcarpathian Ukraine
Resent-Date: 2 May 1997 15:42:08 -0000
Resent-From: [email protected]
Announcement of Publication:
The Misery of Law: The Rights of Roma in the Transcarpathian Region of
Ukraine
The European Roma Rights Center announces publication of the report, The
Misery of Law: The Rights of Roma in the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine.
In response to reports of the systematic mistreatment of Roma by both
regular and special police, the ERRC carried out several fact-finding
missions in 1996 and 1997 into the human rights situation of Roma in
Transcarpathia, a region situated at the borders of Hungary, Romania and
Slovakia. The Misery of Law is the result of this research.
The police in Transcarpathia have devised a so-called "prophylactic" policy
aimed at crime prevention. Roma are the sole targets of this policy. The
first element of the police prevention policy involves Roma with criminal
records; all Roma who have been in prison in the last three years are kept
on a special list for observation and monitoring. Secondly, all over
Transcarpathia, the Roma in general, and especially young Romani men living
in communities, have recently been subjected to forced registration and
fingerprinting, often following collective arrests. Third, monitoring raids
are carried out on whole communities for a variety of purposes: searching
for specified or unspecified suspects, checking local residence permits, or
for simple intimidation. Finally, ghettoisation is promoted, the ghettos are
raided and collective arrests are made. As one police officer told the ERRC,
"There are special troops for controlling Gypsies. What we have achieved is
that Gypsies live in camps-- concentrated."
Elements of the "preventive" policy delineated above were evident in
varying degrees in all urban and most rural communities that the ERRC
visited. More disturbing still is the fact that they are mandated by
Ukrainian law; among the duties delineated under Article 10 of the Ukrainian
Law on the Police, police are required to perform "administrative
surveillance" of "people inclined to commit crimes". In combination with the
widespread belief that Roma are inherently criminal, this duty can be seen
as a blank check to the constant harassment and violations of security of
home and Romani individuals by the police.
The Ukrainian judicial system has, to date, failed Roma. Widespread due
process problems plaguing the investigative and trial stages prevent Roma
who are charged on the basis of questionable police tactics from getting a
fair hearing in court. Police employ abusive tactics in order to apprehend
suspects and secure evidence-- usually in the form of a written confession
of guilt following arrest. Roma are then charged, at least partly on the
basis of misconduct by law enforcement officers. Criminal trials of Roma are
marred by excessive reliance on these post-arrest confessions, inadequate
scrutiny of claims of coercion, poor or non-existent interpretation during
courtroom proceedings, and restrictions on the right to prepare an adequate
defence. More broadly, a combination of factors-- widespread and deeply
ingrained prejudice, overweening prosecutorial power, a tradition of
excessive judicial deference to state authority, abusive police methods,
narrow conceptions of the role of criminal defence advocates, and the
inability of many Romani defendants properly to defend themselves in courts
where language is a barrier-- has conspired to make Roma communities a
virtual pipeline of men into prison.
Additionally, the Ukrainian judicial system is, at present, incapable of
remedying police abuse through the prosecution of the responsible officers
or compensation for the victims. Legal mechanisms for redressing police
abuse have yet to prove themselves: the ERRC could not discover any case in
which a police officer had been held accountable in a court of law for
mistreatment of Roma. Although members of the police, prosecutor's office
and judiciary uniformly trumpeted the judicial system's capacity to examine
allegations of official misconduct fairly and impartially, the observations
of the ERRC did not substantiate these claims.
Regular invasion of Romani settlements and the subjection of Roma to
special measures by the police, the evident powerlessness of Roma before
Ukrainian courts and at other Ukrainian authorities, and the legal
vulnerability of the group as a whole have created an atmosphere of impunity
among the police in the Transcarpathian region. Younger, less experienced or
more creative elements within the police force now abuse their power. Such
abuse is often linked to public drunkenness by the police and, in two
instances investigated by the ERRC, it resulted in the rape or attempted
rape of Romani women by the police officers.
Other themes addressed by the ERRC report on the human rights situation
of Roma in Transcarpathia include community violence and the failure to
prosecute non-Roma involved in acts of collective retribution against Roma
or police officers who remain passive during them; the negative effect of
land reform on Roma in Transcarpathia; and Roma in the school system.
The European Roma Rights Center concludes its report on Roma in the
Transcarpathian region of Ukraine with a series of recommendations to the
Ukrainian government:
1. Carry out full and impartial investigations into allegations of police
brutality, including but not limited to sexual violence by individual police
officers, as well as into instances of partiality, discrimination or
corruption on the part of local prosecutors. Those responsible should be
brought to justice.
2. Discontinue discriminatory police practices such as "prophylactic"
measures against Roma, the intrusive and arbitrary gathering of information
on Roma, and group arrests of Roma absent reasonable suspicion of criminal
activity should be immediately discontinued. New policing techniques should
be explored, with an emphasis on community involvement in policing and close
co-operation with the leaders of Romani communities.
3. Thoroughly review police investigative practice. Bring police law in
Ukraine and police practices in Transcarpathia into conformity with
international norms on police conduct as set down in the UN Code of Conduct
for Law Enforcement Officials (1979), as well as in Resolution 690 (1979) of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Declaration on the
Police and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law
Enforcement Officials.
4. Bring to justice those responsible for incidents of community violence
and collective retribution against Roma.
5. Investigate the quality of legal proceedings in Transcarpathia and bring
about significant reforms which will ensure that Roma defendants are secured
all due process and fair trial guarantees to which international law
entitles them, and that Roma and other victims of rights violations may
obtain remedies on a just basis. Special consideration should be given to
the manner in which legal assistance is afforded to indigent defendants, to
the perverting effect of corruption on the entire legal system, and to
ensuring the right of each defendant to:
-- have the free assistance of an interpreter in court;
-- have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence; --
examine, or have examined, the witnesses against him and to obtain the
attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same
conditions as witnesses against him.
6. Promote transparency and due process in disciplining of public officials.
7. Carefully review land reform procedures. Implement measures to insure
that minority groups such as Roma are not discriminated against during land-
distribution proceedings. The government of Ukraine should take active and
significant steps to prosecute instances of discrimination.
8. Devise, in co-ordination with Roma organisations and Roma leaders,
schooling strategies which ensure safe and integrated schooling for Roma
children.
***
The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest law
organisation which monitors the human rights situation of Roma and provides
legal defence in cases of human rights abuse.
EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTER
H-1525 Budapest 114, PO Box 10/24
Tel. (+36 1) 327 9877; Fax (+36 1) 138-3727
e-mail: [email protected]
Homepage: http://www.ceu.hu//errc/errcmain.html
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