A Roma wall or Gypsy wall is a wall built by local authorities in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
and
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
to
segregate the
Roma minority from the rest of the population. Such practices have been criticised by both
human rights organization A human rights group, or human rights organization, is a non-governmental organization which advocates for human rights through identification of their violation, collecting incident data, its analysis and publication, promotion of public awareness ...
s and the European Union, who see it as a case of racial segregation.
Czech Republic
Ústí nad Labem
A 2-metre high, 65-metre long wall along Matiční street
was built in the Czech town of
Ústí nad Labem
Ústí nad Labem (, , ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 92,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of its eponymous region and district. It is a major industrial centre and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway ju ...
in 1999 following complaints of the locals that the Roma were "noisy and unhygienic".
The local authorities argued that it's a "noise barrier" that will also keep the Roma children from running into the street
and that it's part of an "urban renewal programme".
Following opposition from the European Union (Commissioner
Guenter Verheugen called it "a violation of
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
"
), the Czech Republic promised that it would be torn down, and it was demolished on November 24, 1999.
The government provided the local authorities money for social welfare programmes, but much of the money was used for buying the houses of the non-Roma residents, thus creating a local Roma-only "
ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
".
In April 2000, the
Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic
The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic ( cz, Ústavní soud České republiky) is a specialized type of court which primarily works to protect the people in the Czech Republic against violations of the Constitution by either the legisl ...
ruled that the MPs exceeded their legal powers when they ordered the demolition of the wall, as this was a matter of local
self-government
__NOTOC__
Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...
.
Romania
Baia Mare
In
Baia Mare
Baia Mare ( , ; hu, Nagybánya; german: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt; la, Rivulus Dominarum) is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramureș ...
, Romania, the local administration built a wall between the road Strada Horea and an area of social housing that houses 1000 Roma people into one-room apartments, some without water or electricity.
According to the mayor, this wall was designed to "prevent traffic accidents",
while pro-democracy organizations say it amounts to "institutionalized racism".
In 2011, the national anti-discrimination council fined mayor
Cătălin Cherecheș
Cătălin Cherecheș (born July 7, 1978) is a Romanian politician who is currently serving as mayor of Baia Mare since 2011.
Biography
Between 2005 and 2007, Cherecheș was the vice president and spokesperson of the Maramureș County organizatio ...
for the building of the wall and ordered it to be pulled down.
The wall nevertheless proved popular with the majority population and the mayor was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2012.
Slovakia
Ostrovany
In
Ostrovany
Ostrovany is a village and municipality in Sabinov District in the Prešov Region of north-eastern Slovakia.
History
In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1248. In 1790 and 1865, two rich finds from the burial of a Vandalic k ...
, Slovakia, a 150-metre long wall was built by the local government separating the Roma from the rest of the population. According to the mayor, the goal was to "stop vandalism and theft".
Slovaks accuse the Roma of stealing their fruit, vegetables and metal fence posts.
[Nick Thorpe]
Slovakia's separation barrier to keep out Roma
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, March 9, 2010. Unlike in other cases, in Ostrovany, the Roma form the majority of the population (1200 of the 1786 residents), making it even more unjust, according to critics, who argue that separating people is not a solution to social problems.
.
complained about the wall arguing that it "violates the EU's stand against racism" by segregating the Roma people
, which the town bears this year.