The European Union is committed to upholding Human Rights and sees this as a core and essential part of its role.
Reports on the situation of the Roma within Europe have found that they remain one of the most vulnerable minorities and still fall significantly behind their European counterparts in regards to education, employment, access to health care, and housing.
[2] The EU recognises that there are issues of human rights violations relating to the treatment and integration of the Roma within the EU and have taken steps to encourage each member state to take responsibility and work towards greater Roma inclusion specifically in the areas of health, housing, education and employment and non-discrimination at a policy, police and social level.
Under the Lisbon treaty the European Union was given an extra degree of force and ability to address issues of human rights violations within its member states.
[4] This was a significant step for the EU's ability to ensure human rights are maintained within member states and allow the EU courts to strike down legislation that was not consistent with the Human Rights charter The European Union has taken positive steps towards changing the position of the Roma and eliminating discrimination against them.
This allows the EU to provide accountability and ongoing support to member states as they jointly work towards the goal of integration.
This is for a variety of reasons ranging from mistrust of public institutions preventing Roma from accessing hospital birthing care, through to lack of funds needed to register, or a general unawareness of some Roma to the need to register a child This lack of registration can oftentimes leave a child stateless.
It can prevent them from gaining citizenship and in many cases denies them access to education, healthcare, and protection under state laws[8] In many non-EU countries where rights such as birth registration, education, healthcare, and legal protection are violated, discrimination and social marginalisation persist for the Roma.
Many later enter the EU as a means of escaping these conditions, but the standards of recognising the Roma as a persecuted group due to their country of origin varies.
[12][11][13] Under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees it is a violation of human rights law to send those seeking asylum back to a country where they have a well-founded "fear of persecution" based on their membership in a particular social group.
[18] Many Roma houses also lack access to water, electricity, or gas, basic elements that the majority of EU citizens enjoy[2] Additionally, Roma within the EU are facing continued and increasing forceful eviction and arbitrary destruction of their homes in violation of the ICESRC.
40 of these families were relocated to inadequate housing, without access to power or water, next to a former chemical waste dump on the outskirts of the city.
[21] It was not until the end of 2013 that the courts ruled that the eviction was illegal and that the discrimination against Roma should be compensated and the families relocated to adequate housing.
France is in the midst of significant human rights violations relating to discrimination and systematic forcible eviction of the Roma.
"And "As part of the objectives that have been set, (…) prefects must carry out, within their geographical areas of responsibility, at least one operation per week, be it an evacuation, dismantling, or expulsion, with priority being given to Roma.
There is evidence of discrimination on an ethnic basis that violates France's responsibilities under various UN and EU human rights treaties.
[26] The legality of the 2010 forcible evictions and subsequent deportation of Roma was also brought before the European Committee of Social Rights in the case of COHRE v. France Complaint No.
In 2010 the European Union also implemented a regulation that allowed funding for marginalised communities that needed housing interventions.
An important part of the integration of the Roma is to allow them to protect their identity and culture without isolating them from the general community or resources.
They often start school later than their non-Roma counterparts, and they face social stigmatisation from their classmates and teachers simply by being Roma.
A Czech case was bought before the Human rights court in 2007 which addressed the disproportionate number of Roma students in special education.