The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights specifies that the Roma population in Romania are widely discriminated against especially in the areas of housing, education, health and employment, with Romania failing to ensure effective implementation and protection of human rights.
Amnesty International and the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) welcomes the concluding observations of the UN Committee made public.
"The concluding observations highlight persistent concerns generated by Romania's failure to ensure effective implementation and protection of human rights - including the Roma’s - Romania not being able to comply with such obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which it ratified in 1974.
These conclusions largely reiterate concerns repeatedly articulated by the two organizations both in public and in discussions with the Romanian authorities“, the Amnesty International press release reads presented by Mediafax.
The UN Committee noted deficiencies in the National Strategy for inclusion of Roma in Romania and called for more effective policies based on disaggregated statistical data on the Roma population.
In particular, the "Committee shared the concerns of organizations related to significant challenges on the right to housing for" the Roma who continue living in poor housing conditions, without clean water or sanitary facilities, electricity, heating, sewerage, sanitation or legal security of tenure which exposes them to the risk of an evacuation "and also noted" the limited number of available social housing and the lack of a monitoring mechanism to ensure their allocation in a transparent and non-discriminatory, "the release reads.
Romanian authorities have been urged to amend national legislation to ensure a minimum degree of security for people living in informal settlements and to enact legislation to ensure that evictions are carried out in accordance with international human rights standards.
The UN Committee claims that forced evictions of Roma should not take place "before they were not consulted, they were guaranteed a fair trial and alternative housing or compensation enabling them to acquire adequate housing".