Discrimination against Roma and Travellers in the field of housing
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text
adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of
the Assembly, on 26 November 2021 (see Doc. 15393, report of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination,
rapporteur: Mr František Kopřiva).
1. The right to adequate housing is
a recognised international human rights standard, applicable in
all Council of Europe member States. Yet, for far too many of the
estimated 10 to 12 million Roma and Travellers living in Europe
today, access to this right remains illusory. This is the case regardless
of whether they seek housing in the form of permanent (fixed) homes
or mobile homes adapted to an itinerant lifestyle.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly condemns the fact that many Roma
still live segregated from the rest of society, often in isolated
settlements on the outskirts of urban centres, through no choice
of their own. Such spatial segregation aggravates social isolation
and also contributes to the segregation of Roma children in schools.
The lack of public transport to isolated, segregated settlements
moreover exacerbates difficulties in accessing the labour market
and adequate healthcare.
3. The Assembly deplores the fact that lack of access to both
the private property market and social housing forces many Roma
to live in informal settlements, with no access to electricity,
gas or running water, and in unsafe and unhealthy constructions.
Far too often, Roma are pushed into living on land that is itself insalubrious
and unsafe. Such living conditions harm their health and life expectancy,
and hinder access to education and employment.
4. Where Roma do not have legal title to their homes or to the
land on which they are built, they are highly vulnerable to forced
evictions – without due notice, legal assistance or the provision
of alternative accommodation, in violation of international human
rights law – and to the demolition and destruction of their property.
Such evictions have a devastating impact on other rights, as children
lose access to schooling and parents to sources of employment. Where
no sustainable alternative accommodation is provided, those concerned
may furthermore become homeless or locked into an increasingly harmful
cycle of forced evictions. The latter are moreover frequently conducted
under high media scrutiny, which casts the evicted persons in a negative
light, fuelling antigypsyist stereotypes and sentiments.
5. In many States, insufficient sites are provided for Travellers
wishing to maintain an itinerant lifestyle, forcing them to stop
in unauthorised locations, whether on public or private property,
and exposing them to being violently expelled and moved on – but
with nowhere to go. The sites that are provided are often not adequately
equipped or maintained. Travellers too are thus frequently exposed
to insalubrious living conditions, with all the human rights violations
these entail.
6. The Assembly deplores the antigypsyism and anti-nomadism that
are frequently at the heart of these grave human rights violations.
Instead of seeking to build trust and mutual confidence and combating
these phenomena, local authorities often use their prevalence among
inhabitants as an excuse for taking no action to remedy these violations
or for carrying out forced evictions. In addition, images of Roma
and Travellers living in inadequate conditions are frequently used
by both politicians and the media to fuel such racist sentiments further.
In both cases, the failure to provide long-term solutions not only
prolongs the human rights violations experienced by Roma and Travellers
but also increases tensions and sources of conflict within communities.
7. The Assembly strongly condemns the numerous violent racist
attacks that have been carried out in recent years in many member
States against villages, settlements, sites, houses, dwellings,
caravans and other places where Roma and Travellers live. It underlines
that segregated living conditions aggravate the risks of such criminal
actions, by making these areas easy targets for attack.
8. Moreover, the Assembly underlines that the situations described
above violate numerous international human rights instruments and
standards, including but not limited to the United Nations International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the European Convention
on Human Rights (ETS No. 5), the European Social Charter (revised)
(ETS No. 163) and the Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities (ETS No. 157), as well as General Policy Recommendation
No. 13 on combating anti-gypsyism and discrimination against Roma,
adopted by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(ECRI). These situations are also regularly denounced by ECRI and
the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities in their country monitoring work.
9. The Assembly observes that situations of inadequate housing,
including the failure to provide sufficient halting sites for Travellers,
may in some cases be the result of a failure to analyse the needs
of Roma and Travellers in this field and to make provision for them
in consequence. They may also in part be due to inadequate legislation
at national level, inadequate implementation of legislation by local
authorities, or both. Frequently, local authorities that fail to
respect their obligations under national law in the field of housing
face few or no sanctions, allowing these violations to persist for
many years.
10. The Assembly welcomes the adoption by many European States
in recent years of strategies for Roma inclusion which include elements
devoted to improving the access of Roma and Travellers to adequate housing.
However, it regrets that these strategies are frequently not accompanied
by the allocation of sufficient funding, and that local, regional
and national authorities often do not make use of funds provided
at European and international level that could contribute to eliminating
human rights violations in this field. It is clear that much remains
to be done in order to make the right to adequate housing and accommodation
a reality for Roma and Travellers in Europe.
11. In the light of the above considerations, the Assembly urges
member States of the Council of Europe, in co-operation with local
and regional authorities competent in the field of housing, including
the provision of halting sites for Travellers, and always in close
consultation with representatives of Roma and Travellers, to:
11.1 map the housing and accommodation
needs of Roma and Travellers living in or travelling through the
areas for which they are responsible, and co-operate with neighbouring
authorities to ensure that a holistic perspective is taken, guaranteeing
that these needs will be fully provided for;
11.2 explore all measures that could respond to the needs identified
in their State and that would enable Roma and Travellers seeking
permanent housing to have access to it, including measures such as
the legalisation of existing homes, including caravans; ensure that
persons living without legal title to property can benefit from
security of tenure; provide or facilitate access to microcredits
enabling the acquisition of property; increase the provision of
social housing and revise the criteria of access to it in order
to ensure that Roma and Travellers are not arbitrarily excluded;
11.3 ensure that the measures implemented provide sustainable
and holistic solutions, including by providing necessary infrastructures
such as access to running water, sewerage systems, electricity and gas,
as well as adequate roads ensuring access to indispensable public
services such as schooling, healthcare and public transport;
11.4 ensure that the measures implemented do not themselves
contribute to creating or maintaining the segregation of Roma and
Travellers, but on the contrary encourage their full inclusion in
local communities;
11.5 allocate sufficient funding to these measures and make
use to the fullest extent possible of European and international
sources of funding;
11.6 put an immediate end to forced evictions of Roma and Travellers,
and notably:
11.6.1 carry out evictions only as a last resort
and in the most exceptional circumstances, where no other alternative
exists, and following full consultation of and negotiation with
the persons concerned;
11.6.2 provide adequate notice of any planned evictions, ensure
that all Roma and Travellers subject to eviction are fully informed
of their rights and make available to them effective and affordable
legal remedies, including access to legal assistance;
11.6.3 propose adequate alternative accommodation to all individuals
concerned prior to any eviction, ensuring that such accommodation
does not lead to or perpetuate segregation;
11.6.4 ensure respect for the best interests of the child at
all times, and take full account in this context of the need to
ensure that families are not separated and that equal access to
education and healthcare is guaranteed;
11.6.5 ensure that any evictions are carried out without violence,
harassment or discrimination and without endangering the health,
life or well-being of the persons evicted, and that no evictions are
carried out during the winter or periods of cold weather;
11.6.6 ensure that Roma and Travellers subject to eviction are
able to salvage their belongings and are not coerced into destroying
their homes.
12. The Assembly considers that fulfilling the right of Roma and
Travellers to adequate housing requires broader support measures,
and therefore calls upon member States to:
12.1 ensure that international human rights standards with
respect to the right to adequate housing, including with respect
to the prevention of forced evictions, are fully incorporated into
domestic legislation, and that such legislation also covers the
right to live in mobile housing;
12.2 enact and strictly enforce legislation to prevent the
carrying out of evictions contrary to the above safeguards;
12.3 ensure that national anti-discrimination legislation applies
to the right to housing and that acts of discrimination against
Roma and Travellers in this field are effectively sanctioned;
12.4 support civil society organisations working to combat
discrimination against Roma and Travellers and ensure that Roma
and Travellers are not arbitrarily excluded from access to legal
aid and assistance in cases concerning the right to adequate housing
and to be free from discrimination in this field;
12.5 work together with local authorities and communities,
including with civil society representatives and other relevant
stakeholders, to improve communication, mutual understanding and
trust, which is the most effective means of identifying and implementing
long-term solutions to prevent human rights violations in this field.
13. The Assembly welcomes the continued attention paid by the
Committee of Ministers to the realisation of the rights of Roma
and Travellers through the adoption of the Council of Europe Strategic
Action Plan for Roma and Traveller Inclusion (2020-2025). It welcomes
the latter’s recognition that antigypsyism and discrimination in
the field of housing perpetuate the marginalisation of Roma and
Traveller communities and individuals and hinder policy initiatives
to improve their situation, and considers it crucial that these
issues are covered in the monitoring of the implementation of the
action plan.
14. It also welcomes the continuing co-operation between the Council
of Europe and the European Union in this field, notably through
the implementation of their ROMACT and ROMACTED joint programmes,
which aim to assist mayors and municipal authorities to work together
with local Roma communities to design policies and public services
that are inclusive of all, including Roma, and to improve the responsiveness
and accountability of local authorities to marginalised Roma communities.
15. Given the unique mandate of the Council of Europe Development
Bank (CEB) to promote social cohesion in Europe, the Assembly calls
for local, regional and national policy makers to consider opportunities for
collaboration with the CEB in the provision of such housing needs,
and in particular through loans for financing sustainable and affordable
housing for vulnerable populations.
16. The Assembly urges all member States to tackle antigypsyism
and anti-nomadism effectively, by recognising these phenomena as
forms of racism that must be covered by criminal and civil law provisions prohibiting
racism and racial discrimination, and working together with Roma
and Travellers to overcome stereotypes and prejudice within the
broader community and overcome mutual distrust.
17. The Assembly further invites national parliaments to support
the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance, its mandate and its functioning.
