TWENTY-NINE Roma children aged between seven and 18 are to sue the Ministry of Education and Science, Sofia Municipality and a Sofia school for segregation and discrimination of Roma children in violation of international and Bulgarian law.
The Roma children will be represented by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) lawyer Alexander Kashumov, Jean Garland, director of the Legal Department of the ERRC said. The educational results at segregated schools are much lower, the ERRC said. The case will be filed at the Sofia Regional Court and the claim is five leva per child.
After attending school for 12 years, some of the Roma children are unable to write a simple sentence in Bulgarian, according to the ERRC.
On Monday, the National Launch of Avoiding the Depen-dency Trap - a Human Develop-ment Report on the Roma Minority in Central and Eastern Europe was launched.
Andrei Ivanov, expert at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in Bratislava and author of the report, together with Antonina Zheliazkova, Director of the International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations and Mihail Ivanov, Secretary of the National Council on Ethnic and Demo-graphic Issues will present the report. Docho Mihailov, Team Leader of the National Human Development Report and Ivan Krastev from the Centre for Liberal Strategies have been invited to provide comments and open a discussion on the topical issues the report raises. Dejan Kjuranov will moderate the discussion.
Avoiding the Dependency Trap is the first cross-border comparative study of the Roma minority across five countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic). This study makes analyses and offers recommendations for solving the Roma issues not only from the perspective of human rights, but also from the broader perspective of individual choice. This new approach to Roma integration is currently being pioneered by UNDP.
The human development concept assesses Roma prospects and quality of life not solely on the basis of income levels, but using a wider range of indicators, among them literacy, health and social integration. Special attention is given to measuring and reducing poverty and to adapting and applying the eight Millennium Development Goals the UN has set the Roma communities.
The UNDP's Regional Report presents the main results and conclusions of a study conducted through personal interviews of 5034 Roma minority respondents across the five countries. The study has a total of eight chapters, each of them dealing with a particular topic: employment and unemployment, incomes, education, health, political representation. The report aims to examine Roma issues in a holistic manner, to propose recommendations on their solution and to initiate a debate on Roma issues and challenges before the Roma people.
Integration of the Roma people in Central and Eastern Europe and access to sustainable livelihoods are key political priorities for the countries working towards EU membership, according to the report. Progress as regards minority groups, and the Roma minority in particular, is one of the sets of assessment criteria in the pre-accession process. "In a European Union respectful of differences, the Roma should find their place as equal partners that contribute to Europe's extraordinary mosaic of cultures"," said Kalman Mizsei, Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States of UNDP, who was in charge of monitoring the conduct of this study.
The idea of this report emerged at the beginning of 2001. Initially, it was envisaged as a document presenting the situation of Roma in human development terms in five of the countries of the region. Many people were skeptical about the need to produce another report.
The Roma children will be represented by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) lawyer Alexander Kashumov, Jean Garland, director of the Legal Department of the ERRC said. The educational results at segregated schools are much lower, the ERRC said. The case will be filed at the Sofia Regional Court and the claim is five leva per child.
After attending school for 12 years, some of the Roma children are unable to write a simple sentence in Bulgarian, according to the ERRC.
On Monday, the National Launch of Avoiding the Depen-dency Trap - a Human Develop-ment Report on the Roma Minority in Central and Eastern Europe was launched.
Andrei Ivanov, expert at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in Bratislava and author of the report, together with Antonina Zheliazkova, Director of the International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations and Mihail Ivanov, Secretary of the National Council on Ethnic and Demo-graphic Issues will present the report. Docho Mihailov, Team Leader of the National Human Development Report and Ivan Krastev from the Centre for Liberal Strategies have been invited to provide comments and open a discussion on the topical issues the report raises. Dejan Kjuranov will moderate the discussion.
Avoiding the Dependency Trap is the first cross-border comparative study of the Roma minority across five countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic). This study makes analyses and offers recommendations for solving the Roma issues not only from the perspective of human rights, but also from the broader perspective of individual choice. This new approach to Roma integration is currently being pioneered by UNDP.
The human development concept assesses Roma prospects and quality of life not solely on the basis of income levels, but using a wider range of indicators, among them literacy, health and social integration. Special attention is given to measuring and reducing poverty and to adapting and applying the eight Millennium Development Goals the UN has set the Roma communities.
The UNDP's Regional Report presents the main results and conclusions of a study conducted through personal interviews of 5034 Roma minority respondents across the five countries. The study has a total of eight chapters, each of them dealing with a particular topic: employment and unemployment, incomes, education, health, political representation. The report aims to examine Roma issues in a holistic manner, to propose recommendations on their solution and to initiate a debate on Roma issues and challenges before the Roma people.
Integration of the Roma people in Central and Eastern Europe and access to sustainable livelihoods are key political priorities for the countries working towards EU membership, according to the report. Progress as regards minority groups, and the Roma minority in particular, is one of the sets of assessment criteria in the pre-accession process. "In a European Union respectful of differences, the Roma should find their place as equal partners that contribute to Europe's extraordinary mosaic of cultures"," said Kalman Mizsei, Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States of UNDP, who was in charge of monitoring the conduct of this study.
The idea of this report emerged at the beginning of 2001. Initially, it was envisaged as a document presenting the situation of Roma in human development terms in five of the countries of the region. Many people were skeptical about the need to produce another report.
