Centuries of discrimination have deprived the Roma of the educational and vocational opportunities and so of the social and economic benefits of modern societies.

The most urgent problem facing the Roma today is, however, mere survival in a society which has always felt free to treat them as scapegoats, to marginalize them by preventing access to jobs, housing, and other necessities, to incite and to use violence ag ainst them. Violence, incitement and other forms of human rights violation against Roma are generally not sanctioned in Europe. This concerns especially the newly established political systems in eastern Europe. But also western governments have failed to guarantee the Roma the special protection against discrimination which their situation demands. A full catalog of human rights violations against Roma cannot be provided here; a number of reports by human rights agencies have dealt with specific measures a nd incident.

Government-directed human rights violation acts range from active measures such as:

• 'ethnic evacuation', as in Yugoslavia,

• enforced sterilization, as in the former CSFR,

• enforced resettlement, as in Hungary and Germany,

• systematic police surveillance, as in Germany and France,

• withdrawal of citizen and resident rights, as in Germany, the new Republics of

• former Yugoslavia, Rumania or the Czech Rep.,

• mass deportations of Romani refugees,

and on to passive measures, such as:

• refusal to grant protection against violent attacks on the part of racist groups,

• refusal to prosecute persons and groups responsible for such attacks or to take measures againstracist incitement in press, publications or political propaganda, which is the case all over eastern Europe and in Germany,

• refusal to acknowledge the Romani population as an national minority entitled to recognized political representation, as in die Republics of former Yugoslavia and in Germany,

• refusal to grant Romani refugees a protective Status in accordance with die Geneva Convention, and refusal to implement the series of recommendations and resolutions adapted by die European Parliament, die Committee of Ministers and the Council of Europe, as in Germany and a number of other member states, and many more.