Action for Roma and Gypsies
From: ncrmsouthwest@aol.com

You may already know of the new ECRE Campaigns. Just in case you don't, you might be interested in the following. The Campaign for Justice for The Plymouth Gypsies is keen to see Plymouth City Council as the first UK local authority to be 'held accountable' under this new strategy.

For those who recently sent letters or emails to Plymouth City Council regarding the situation with our local campaign - many many thanks. The Council appears to have 'stuck it's head in the sand' yet again and the matter has now been referred to the DETR and John Prescott. We just learnt that Chris Freegard, the Director of Regeneration at Plymouth City Council, resigned last Friday. This may have nothing to do with the fact that he was sent numerous letters and emails regarding the Plymouth Gypsy situation - but it might. (When the ship is truly sinking - the king rat is usually the first to leave the ship!).

Anyway, please look at the ECRE campaigns website. We are confident that many other local authorities in the UK could be entered on the 'database of shame'.

The European Committee on Romani Emancipation is a European Economic Interest Grouping founded under Articles of Council Regulation (EU) No. 2137/85 and Regulation 9 of the European Economic Interest Grouping Regulations 1989;

Registered in the United Kingdom , Reg. No. GE 168. 72 New Bond Street, London W1Y 9DD, United Kingdom and Rue Montoyer 37, BP: 15, 1040 - Brussels, Belgium

The European Committee on Ramani Emancipation (ECRE) is managing, or organizing, a range of campaigns to achieve its objectives. These include campaigns to: compensate Roma for the deterioration of their circumstances due to British local authority discrimination; terminate EU Funding of British local authorities which are in contravention of Article 13; terminate the Apartheid educational provisions for the Roma in central and eastern Europe; advocate more effective measures for the social and economic inclusion of the Roma; fairer reporting on Romani issues.

CAMPAIGN:
To compensate Roma for the deterioration of their circumstances due to British local authority discrimination.

STATE OF ILLEGALITY OF BRITISH LOCAL AUTHORITIIES

Recent opinions expressed by judges from the European Union, providing service at the European Court of Human Rights, have pointed to the fact that both British local authorities and the national government have broken the law, on a continuing basis, with respect to their treatment of the Roma in the United Kingdom.

The main problems have been:-
# the failure to provide adequate Gypsy sites
# the enthusiastic banning of Roma from formally "common land'
# the refusal of planning permission, in many cases, to permit Roma to settle on their own land
# the failure to take into account the different life style of Roma as they are required by law

IDENTIFICATION OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES

In consideration of the unacceptable ongoing state of affairs, ECRE, on 1st March 2001, initiated a campaign to identify those local authorities in the United Kingdom who, in contravention of the law, either failed to provide any site facilities at all or whose efforts were deficient.

Plymouth City Council in Devon, South West England, is the first local authority in the UK to be enterd onto the campaign database and it will be the first target for ECRE action. This Council closed its site facilities in 1973 and since that time, it has failed to provide site facilities and is believed to have deliberately evaded it's statutory responsiblility to provide for a community of fifteen Roma families, displaced by the 1973 site closure.

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF LOCAL AUTHORITY FAILURES TO PERFORM

ECRE will seek information from Roma affected by such failures in local authority performance. ECRE is particularly interested in quantifying cumulative financial losses resulting from the disruption caused by the deficient provisions of local authorities operating the 'moving on' of 'illegally pitched' families. This is of particular importance in the case of local authorities who have failed to provide Gypsy Sites or whose provisions are inadequate.

Since 1960, the Roma economy has been intensively disrupted by local authority actions or inaction. Roma have become increasingly limited in their ability to exercise their traditional seasonal travel to offer their services and products and thereby maintain their livelihood. This resulted in a loss of income, the development of under-employment and eventually unemployment. This increasingly desperate situation has culminated, in many cases, in dependency and reliance upon social services. In many cases the reliance of Roma families on the state has been a direct result of cumulative actions by local authorities.

ECRE will undertake investigations to quantify the cumulative loss of income of Romani families resulting from the performance deficiencies and discrimination of named local authorities as a basis for legal actions seeking financial compensation from those same local authorities.

To email information to ECRE on those local authorities considerd to be non-performant in serving members of the British public who are from the Roma community, use this address: info@eu-romani.org

http://www.ncrm.org.uk
http://www.carf.demon.co.uk
http://www.irr.org.uk