The Sinti and Roma minority continues to suffer from severe stigmatisation and marginalisation in Europe. The human rights organisation Amnesty International has been campaigning against this for years by mobilising people to oppose the widespread discrimination of the minority, in particular in the fields of education and housing.
Their campaign Human Rights Here – Roma Rights Now appealed directly to the European Union. The goal of the campaign was to remind the EU institutions and member states to respect existing antidiscrimination legislation, such as the Race Equality Directive and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and to not disregard the discrimination of Roma.
Although the EU member states are obligated to implement the prohibition of discrimination, large parts of Europe continue to disregard it. In 2014, Amnesty International confronted the EU with their continued failure to address discrimination and violence against Roma by publishing the report We ask for justice – Europe’s failure to protect Roma from racist violence.
The jury has decided to acknowledge this commitment and offer an incentive to continue to fight for the rights of the Roma by awarding this year’s European Civil Rights Prize of Sinti and Roma to Amnesty International.
Special Prize recipient - Eszter Hajdú
In her documentary film "Judgment in Hungary", Eszter Hajdú depicts the two-and-a-half-year long trial of four right-wing extremists who had assaulted several Roma villages and murdered six people, including a five-year-old child, in 2008 and 2009.
The sole observer to attend every session, Hajdú followed the proceedings against the three main defendants and their accomplice. No trial of neo-Nazis has been completely documented in film, up to now. The hearings revealed the flagrant errors committed during the investigation. This begs the question whether they were cases of shoddy work or misconduct. The main defendants received life sentences after almost 170 hearings. However, the Roma population continues to live in fear. At least one perpetrator involved in the murders remains at large.
The jury appreciated this intense documentary, which depicts the prevalent resentments against the Jews and the Roma in Hungary, and decided to honour Eszter Hajdú’s commitment by awarding her the special prize.
The European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma was brought in 2007 and was awarded for the first time in 2008. It seeks to contribute towards the protection of the civil rights of the members of the Sinti and Roma minorities in their respective countries of nationality. At the same time, the prize should be regarded as a signal to European society and public to take action against deeply rooted clichés and structures of prejudice, in order to gradually overcome the everyday marginalization of the minority. Prior award recipients include Władysław Bartoszewski, former Foreign Minister of Poland, Simone Veil, French publicist and former Minister of Health, Thomas Hammarberg, former Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and Tilman Zülch, General Secretary of the Society for Threatened Peoples.
Important information concerning accreditation:
We would be pleased to see you report directly on site of the event. If you are not directly accredited at the European Parliament as a journalist, then, due to security and logistics, we ask you to please contact Kerstin Müller until 8 April 2016 (kerstin.mueller@sintiundroma.de). Please provide your name and the medium you will be using. Important: Please also provide your ID number and ID type, and please carry it with you on 13 April 2016 at the award ceremony.
The event will take place at the 'Salle Robert Schumann' (WIC 200) in the Winston Churchill Building (Avenue du Président Robert Schuman, 67070 Strasbourg). To find information on how to reach the Winston Churchill Building of the European Parliament, please refer to these webpages:
http://de.strasbourg-europe.eu/gebaude-winston-churchill,41334,de.html
www.buergerrechtspreis.de
www.civilrightsprize.com