Nowadays, in Ukraine are living almost 50.000 Roma people. Having in consideration the population of the state, which is more than 42 millions, Roma minority represents a very small percentage. Even though the number is really small, the problems that the community is facing are pretty big. As in many countries in Europe, we talk about stigmatization, racism, forced eviction, but also, which is the worst, hate crimes.
Only this year took place two big violations of human rights regarding roma communities all around the country. All started in the district of Kiev, where one month before the Eurovision song contest Roma community received threats regarding their lifes. The authorities, instead of investigating the case, they just decided to evict the 100 families, more than 300 persons due to complaints made by the rest of the inhabitants in the area regarding the level of criminality that raised higher since the Roma came in the area. Of course, after a police inquiry, everybody was able to see that this level never changed and it’s still the same in the area.
Unfortunately, next day after the eviction, the threats were put in practice and several Roma homes were attacked with Molotov cocktails. This event remembered of what happened also in Ukraine in August 2016 in the district of Odessa, where all the Roma population was forced to flee due to an angry mob that later burned their homes. Again, the authorities held a meeting and they decided to support the will of the majority that wanted Roma to be evicted and they started the process in order to protect the rest of the community…
Everything culminated on the 16th of May, the Romani Resistance day, in Olshany a village in the district of Kharkov where Police have charged a non-Roma regional councilor with the premeditated murder of a Romani man during an anti-Romani pogrom.
After an investigation, Police got to the conclusion that the one who is considered to be culpable of the murder is a regional councilor, Alexey Litvinov that also started the riot against the Roma and ended up shooting and killing one Roma person.
In this context, as we can see, there is no respect and obey of the law in Ukraine regarding Roma rights and this has to stop. After the incident in Kiew, also Valeriu Nicolae, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Roma Issues made a clear statement regarding the issue and also urged the Ukraine authorities to fight violence against Roma on their territory, enforce the law based on equality principles and non-discrimination.
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