Roma MEP Warns of Human Rights Violations in Bulgaria

17 April 2005, Sunday.

A Roma MEP from Hungary has warned that the human rights record in Bulgaria and Romania should not be overlooked even after the successful European Parliament vote to back the two country’s EU entry.

Viktória Mohácsi, who voted in favour of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria on Wednesday, said that too much attention has been focused on corruption in the two candidates.

"Human rights are part of the fundamental values of the European Union. It is safe to say that neither candidate is free of human rights violations, with Roma in particular subject to abuse," said Mohácsi in the latest issue of the Parliament Magazine.

"Let’s go in with our eyes wide open. To improve the situation of the Roma, Romania and Bulgaria should step forward by reinforcing the protection of minority rights and combating racial discrimination, in particularly within state institutions."

According to Mohácsi a generation of Roma children are being denied a future by being racially segregated in mainstream schools and placed into institutions normally reserved for the mentally disabled.

"The fall in Communism in 1989 [has] brought with it an increased fervor in segregated schooling for Roma," argues Mohácsi. "A model not unlike the Nazi-style special schools of the Third Reich."

Roma children are separated from an early age into ‘special schools’ in many central and Eastern member states, says Mohácsi.

Racial discrimination is a fact of life across central and Eastern Europe and needs to be urgently tackled, warns the Roma MEP.

Source: Sofia News Agency