Romania

Romanian court victory: Forced eviction of Roma in Cluj-Napoca illegal

The Cluj-Napoca County Court (Tribunal) decided that the Mayor’s decision to forcibly evict around 300 Roma in December 2010, to a site adjacent to a waste dump, was illegal.

Check the responses received from countries for the security of tenure questionnaire

Read the responses sent by governments to the Questionnaire on Security of Tenure. They will inform the Special Rapporteur’s final report to the HRC and other related guidance.

Romanian authorities leave 15 Roma families homeless and many more at risk

The Romanian authorities must immediately halt all forced evictions and provide those Romani families who were recently forced out of their homes with alternative housing, Amnesty International said after 15 families (at least 60 people) were left homeless in the city of Baia Mare yesterday.

The housing situation of Roma communities

Roma are more likely to live in poverty than non-Roma citizens. They have a higher risk of unemployment, stay in school for fewer years, and many live without access to drinking water, sanitation and electricity. Roma are more likely to suffer from chronic illness and have less access to health services. UNDP works with national partners to promote inclusion of Roma into economic, social, political and community life and in this publication they analyze the housing situation in Roma communities and the discrepancies regarding their non-Roma neighbors.

The Roma who were evicted to live by a landfill site in Romania

Two years ago the local authorities of Cluj-Napoca forcibly evicted around 300 people – mostly Roma – from Coastei Street in the centre of the Romanian city. Since then, most of them have been living close to the landfill and a chemical waste dump in an area on the outskirts known as Pata Rât, where they were moved by the municipality. Soon after their eviction, Romani people started a long struggle for justice.

2012 Communications Report available for viewing

The UN Human Rights Council has already made available for viewing the report with all communications sent by the Special Rapporteurs, as well as the answers received by the Member States.

Scores of Roma face imminent forced eviction in Romania

September 06, 2012 More than 100 Romani adults and children will be forcibly evicted from an informal settlement in northern Romania unless local authorities back down on a pledge to demolish their homes, Amnesty International said today. Local officials in the northern town of Baia Mare have given 26 Romani families living in the Pirita […]

Romania Walls In Its Roma

July 20, 2012 The Roma are the largest ethnic minority in the European Union. And most live as second class citizens, in abject poverty. In the Romanian town of Baia Mare, a mayor has come up with a radical solution – he’s rehousing families in dilapidated communist-era offices and building a wall that closes them […]

Rehousing Romania’s Roma signals swing to extremes

June 29, 2012 Building a wall that closes in a Roma neighborhood and rehousing families in a dilapidated communist-era office block have earned Catalin Chereches accusations of racism. But the actions have also helped the mayor of the northern Romanian town of Baia Mare to become the country’s most popular local politician and shown how […]

Nils Muižnieks concerned by eviction of Roma families to Romanian “toxic dump”

June 12, 2012 Re-locating more than 300 Romanian Roma families to buildings of a disused chemical factory, breaches housing rights and may be life-threatening, the human rights commissioner has warned. Commissioner Nils Muižnieks wants the authorities in the Romanian city of Baia Mare to rehouse the families, following reports that 22 children and two adults […]