A report by the European Roma Rights Centre, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Milan Simecka Foundation and Osservazione

This study explores the representation and human rights situation of Romani children in institutional care in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Slovakia. It follows a report issued by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in 2007 entitled, “Dis-Interest of the Child: Romani Children in the Hungarian Child Protection System”:http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2960, which analysed the situation of Romani children in State child protection institutions in Hungary. Its findings pointed to several particularly troubling problems which disproportionately affect Romani children: 1. Compared to their overall numbers in the population, Romani children are overrepresented in institutional care in Hungary; 2. Child protection and social service systems do not adequately support families and children, especially Romani families, to avoid child endangerment and the placement of children in institutional care; 3. A child’s ethnicity negatively affects its likelihood of adoption once in institutional care; and 4. Many Romani children in State care are categorised as mentally disabled without adequate supervison of the diagnosis procedure. This study presents the main findings of extensive desk and field research by the partners across Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Slovakia. It is the first transnational effort to collect data on the proportion of Romani children in State care and to identify factors that contribute to the overrepresentation of Romani children in institutional care. It is intended to assist policy-makers and advocates in protecting and promoting the rights of Romani children as one of the most vulnerable segments of Europe’s most marginalised minority group. By identifying problems commonly experienced by Roma across various EU Member States vis-a-vis child protection systems, this study is intended to help set future priorities for EU and Member State policy and action.

 

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