Greece: Massive Roma evictions by the authorities

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), a member of its network, that serious violations of the economic, social and cultural rights of Roma communities are continuing in Greece. OMCT, together with the GHM strongly denounce those violations that often involve violence, including cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and calls for immediate remedial action.

Recent facts:

Since late July 2006, about 60 families of the Makrigianni Roma community (out of a total of 80) have been evicted in Patras, which represents more than 400 persons. They were evicted without being offered alternative housing, despite the fact that, according to Greek and international laws, evictions cannot be carried out without alternative accommodation being offered.

According to the authorities, what are called “evictions” are some “cleaning up” of the settlements. Nevertheless, those so-called “cleaning up” pushed several Roma families to live and to sleep in their cars. As a result, they live precariously in unacceptable health and sanitation conditions that are particularly harmful to children.

Background:

For decades, in Greece, Roma have been subjected to evictions from their homes, demolitions of their homes and threats of evictions throughout the country. Little has been done to improve Roma access to adequate housing, nor has adequate compensations been paid for the destructions of their homes and the personal possessions they have lost. Rather than implementing housing programs which have been announced numerous times, the Greek authorities continue to evict Roma from their homes, or threaten them with evictions which are often encouraged by local ethnic Greeks who also object to attempts to relocate Roma in their area. In effect, numerous complaints are made to the authorities by ethnic Greeks concerning Roma communities, and especially concerning the Albanian Roma, who are much more subjected to forced evictions.

The Greek authorities have made several attempts to evict Roma “lawfully” from their dwellings. As Roma have never been provided with official documents attesting the legitimacy of their residences, they can, from a strictly legal point of view, be evicted under national law. Nevertheless, Roma submit that all these official proceedings as well as the demolitions, the evictions, and the failure or unwillingness to improve Roma's living conditions, are motivated by their Romani ethnic origins. Moreover, as the domestic courts show significant degrees of favouritism towards the authorities, the courts agree to most demands put forward by the state, which leads Roma to argue that the very notion of the principle of equality of arms is violated by the courts. Furthermore, no consultations take place between judicial authorities and Roma before the eviction decisions are issued. These realities lead to a denial of effective access to courts for Roma.

In addition to the unacceptable living conditions of Roma, access to education for Roma children is often impossible, as ethnic Greeks often refuse to allow Roma children to attend the same schools as non-Roma children. As a consequence, several authorities have built annexes to school especially for Roma children, or put them in separate classes for Roma children only. The need for segregated schools is sometimes defended by the alleged bad health conditions of Roma children and their diseases, due to the lack of access to health services. However, figures suggest that even vaccinated Roma children are segregated in access to education, which is a violation of Greece’s domestic laws as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination.

International decisions:

The European Committee of Social Rights found twice, in December 2004 and in July 2006, a violation of Article 16 of the European Social Charter (protecting the economic, legal and social rights of the family) on three grounds. Firstly, because the authorities failed to provide a sufficient number of permanent dwellings of an acceptable quality to meet the needs of settled Roma. Secondly, because they failed to provide a sufficient number of stopping places for “mobiled” Roma. And thirdly, by failing to prevent the evictions of Roma from sites or dwellings unlawfully occupied. These violations happen notably because of the insufficient means for obliging local authorities to obey the law or sanctioning them for violations.

Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to fair judicial procedures) is also violated in these cases, as the authorities benefit from favouritism before the courts. In addition, the local courts fail to adequately investigate violations of Greece's anti-discrimination legislation and sanction the perpetrators. As a result, Roma communities, who live, as bad-considered minorities, are not protected by the anti-discrimination legislation.

Recommendations:

OMCT together with GHM recommend:

• to respect Articles 16 of the European Social Charter by providing adequate accommodations and compensation to Roma facing evictions;
• to promptly, thoroughly, effectively and independently investigate all reports of abusive administrative action and discriminatory treatment by public officials and police officers of Roma communities and individuals, and to take sanctions on such cases;
• to raise the awareness of authorities to the needs of the Roma to enjoy adequate and affordable housing with legal security of tenure, to permit access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, electricity and other essential services, and to meet their specific cultural needs;
• to provide training to police, public officials, ombudsmen, prosecutors and judges, as well as to local newspapers, on the problems of discrimination against Roma;
• to verify, on each occasion, whether or not discrimination has taken place in order to take appropriate action;
• to investigate adequately all complaints brought to the courts against cases of speech inciting discrimination;
• to sanction all municipal councillors who make discriminatory remarks or do not comply with the regulations and decisions that bind them;
• that visits to Greece be carried out by international monitoring mechanisms as soon as possible and frequently;
• that strong protests be made against the unwarranted prosecutions that NGOs defending the Roma, like the GHM , are subjected to.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is the world’s largest coalition of non-governmental organisations fighting against arbitrary detention, torture, summary and extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and other forms of violence. Its global network comprises nearly 300 local, national and regional organisations, which share the common goal of eradicating such practices and enabling the respect of human rights for all.

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Contacts: Tom McCarthy and Stéphane Kessler
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Programme
OMCT
8, rue du Vieux Billard
CH – 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / Fax: +41 (0) 22 809 49 29
E – mails: tmc@omct.org and s.kessler@int.omct.org