ERRC letter to Czech Prime Minister
Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 13:12:41 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: ERRC letter to Czech Prime Minister
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Claude Cahn <[email protected]>
ERRC letter to Czech Prime Minister
On May 28, 1999, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), an
international public interest law organisation which monitors the
rights of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights
abuse, sent a letter to Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman urging his
government to prohibit the construction of a wall to separate Roma and
non-Roma in the northern Czech city of Usti nad Labem. The text of the
letter is as follows:
Dear Mr. Minister:
The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) notes with favor the belated,
May 26, 1999 decision of the Czech cabinet to recommend formally that
the regional government of Usti nad Labem rescind its decision to
build a wall - euphemistically called a ceramic fence - for the
purpose of segregating Romani residents by barring direct access to
the street. At the same time, ERRC is concerned that, notwithstanding
the cabinet's decision, the threat of segregation continues to hang
over Romani residents of Usti nad Labem. In this regard, we wonder why
it has taken almost a year for the Czech government to act in response
to such a blatantly unlawful act, and why it has not been possible,
not merely to recommend, but rather to require as a matter of law,
rescission of the decision to build the wall.
We thus urge that the Czech government use all appropriate
administrative, judicial, and/or other legal measures to prohibit -
immediately and unequivocally - this illegal action and terminate once
and for all the prospect of racial segregation in Usti nad Labem.
We note that numerous press organs, NGOs and inter-governmental
monitoring organisations have consistently reported - and many have
condemned - the publicly voiced intentions of municipal officials
since May 1998 to construct a wall to segregate Romani residents. In
August 1998, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination undertook the unusual step of making a special request
for information - under its urgent action procedures - from the Czech
government about "disturbing reports that in certain municipalities
measures are contemplated for the physical segregation of some
residential units housing Roma families." In January 1999, the Czech
government reported on its efforts to address the situation in Usti
nad Labem. At that time, the government steadfastly refused to concede
- against all evidence to the contrary - that the threatened
construction of a ceramic fence 1.8 metres high without gates would
result in segregation. The government limited itself to hypothesizing
that the local authorities would not ultimately press ahead with plans
to build a wall and promising to consider legal action in the event
that prediction proved unfounded.
At the UN Committee's most recent meeting in March 1999, Committee
members voiced concern that the Government was not doing enough to
prohibit an unlawful act of racial segregation. Thus, Ion Diaconu, the
Committee expert serving as country rapporteur on the situation in the
Czech Republic, criticized the Government for having decided to take
legal measures only if and when the local authorities started actually
to build the fence: "The Government should have declared the fence
illegal and should have requested its annulation. The country's
constitutional system provided that the higher authority could nullify
a local decision," he said. Another Committee expert said that he
would be satisfied only when the decision of the local authorities to
build the fence was in fact nullified. Promises to act in the event
construction commenced were deemed insufficient.
There should be no doubt that the contemplated action of the Usti nad
Labem authorities is unlawful. Racial segregation and discrimination
infringe Articles 3(1) and 24 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and
Freedoms, as well as binding international law. Article 3 of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination obliges "States Parties" to "condemn racial segregation
and apartheid and [to] undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate
all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction."
Furthermore, racial segregation constitutes degrading treatment" in
violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
These provisions of international human rights treaties, duly ratified
by the government of the Czech Republic, are, by virtue of Article 10
of the Czech Constitution, "applicable as directly binding
regulations, having priority before the law."
In view of the clearly illegal nature of the local authority's
decision, and the serious concerns expressed by United Nations experts
and others about the inadequacy of the Czech government's response to
date, the cabinet's decision of May 26, while welcome as a sign that
at long last the gravity of the violation is more fully appreciated,
does not definitively and clearly remove the threat of segregation. It
is thus insufficient. We urge you, Mr. Minister, to take all actions
necessary and proper to prohibit, now and forever, this illegal act.
Sincerely yours,
Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director
*****************
Persons wishing to express similar concern are urged to contact Prime
Minister Milos Zeman at:
Office of Government
Nabrezi Edvarda Benese 4
110 00 Prague 1
Czech Republic
fax: 0042 02 24 81 02 31
*******************
For more information about the European Roma Rights Center, visit
the ERRC on the web at http://errc.org.
Or contact the ERRC at:
European Roma Rights Center
H-1525 Budapest 114
PO Box 10/24
Hungary
telephone: (36-1) 4282-351
fax: (36-1) 4282-356
--
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe
Submissions: [email protected]
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected]
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================