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When the Roma Do Not Apply to the State, the State Shall Come to Meet Them

July 20, 2016
 
Aleko Tskitishvili

The Roma are as isolated and marginalized community in Georgia like in other states. The Roma living in Europe have raised their voices for the defense of their rights for a long time already. However, we have not heard their civic protest in Georgia so far. The stereotypes in the society, frequent conflict with the state and the law, living in discriminative and hard social conditions are common problems of the Roma. 

In 2003, Human Rights Center published a report Roma Rights in Georgia, which told about the hard human rights situation of the Roma. As the organization reported, the majority of the problems are caused by hard social-economic conditions of the state. 13 years have passed since then but the problems mentioned in the report are still on the place regardless the fact that the economic situation social environment have significantly improved in the country. This fact shows that human rights abuses of the Roma are caused by various complicated factors.

Official statistics about the number of the Roma population in Georgia is always approximate because part of them does not hold citizenship and ID cards. Often their houses are not registered either and consequently they are not supplied with electricity, water or other communications. Roma children often cannot or do not go to school. The marginalized group mostly does not have access to state healthcare programs and various social benefits.

On July 4, the thematic group of the state inter-agency commission discussed ways of solution of this and many other issues during the conference in the Rooms Hotel Tbilisi. The office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia facilitated the session. The representatives of the state institutions and NGOs agreed that complete civic integration of the Roma in the society requires complex activities.

Coordinator of the Council on National Minorities under auspices of the Public Defender of Georgia Bela Osipova spoke about low activity of the Roma. “The Roma rarely apply to the state for the solution of their problems because they have lost trust that their problems will ever be tackled. Part of the Roma lives without identity documents. Very often women give birth to children at home for what the children do not get birth certificates. When the Roma do not apply to the state institutions for help, the representatives of the state institutions shall approach the Roma people – they should identify their problems and then provide the community with relevant assistance. It is the best solution. 

Considering similar approach, the concept of mobile schools was named as a good model which is planned to be implemented. Representative of the Ministry of Education Lela Tskitishvili noted that the state still fails to ensure full enrolment of the Roma children in the educational process. “The law unilaterally declares that every child shall get education but the reality shows that we still have children in our society who cannot get compulsory education. There are children, whose parents prefer their kids worked to earn living than get education. The mobile school will support eradication of this problem.”

Human Rights Center provides the Roma with free legal aid within framework of the project implemented in the frame of the East West Management Institute (EWMI) program “Promotion Rule of Law in Georgia” (PROLoG). The project aims to improve access to justice for vulnerable groups of people through strategic litigation. European Center for Minority Issues is partner of Human Rights Center in the project; representative of the ECMI Elena Proshikyan assists the lawyers to communicate with the Roma community and identify their problems.

Head of the Ethnicity and Multiculturalism Study Center Giorgi Sordia said the organization possesses more or less comprehensive information how many Roma people live in Georgia and where they are settled. “Incorrect information, strong stereotypes and believes about the Roma community hinders their integration into the society. For example, there is a so-called “Tsiganski Posiolok” or the Roma settlement on Lotkini Hill in Tbilisi but in fact the people living in that area have no connection with the Roma; they do not even speak Roma language. Also, we have one of the most marginalized ethnic groups, who live with the same life-style as the Roma, but speak the Kurdish language and earn their living from thievery. In Kutaisi these people have conflict with the Roma. Similar misunderstandings cause negative stereotypes in the society that may turn into an aggression. For example, in the first years of the independence, when Zviad Gamsakhurdia was the president, an unpleasant fact happened in Gurjaani district, when the Roma people were evicted from their settlement and their houses were smashed by tractor.”

At the session of the thematic group of the inter-agency commission Elena Proshikyan of the ECMI mentioned concrete examples of ineffective work of the local administrative bodies. Within framework of the Human Rights Center’s project the mobile group observed that parents from the Roma settlement in Gachiani village have to pay for the mini-bus to take their children to a public school in Rustavi; every month each family had to pay 40 GEL per child that is unaffordable for majority of them. The school administration had not applied to the Ministry of Education to send a free bus for the Roma children. As a result of the Human Rights Center’s advocacy the Ministry of Education will send a special free bus for the Roma children from the new school year.

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