The Open Society Institute established by the global investor and philanthropist George Soros provided initial funding of $400,000 for a new initiative to defend the human rights of Roma in Europe and to empower Roma through law. The European Roma Rights Center was launched in March as an autonomous international non-governmental human rights organization governed by a Board of nine. Andras Biro, who last year received the Alternative Nobel Prize for his successful in come-generating projects For Hungarian Roma, is chairing the Board, which includes the top Strasbourg litigator Lord Anthony Lester, leading Romani activists Nicolae Gheorghe, Rudko Kawczynski, and Khristo Kyuchukov, U.S. expert on funding non profits Deborha Harding, French sociologist Edgar Morin, human rights advocate Ina Zoon, and writer Isabel Fonseca. The ERRCis directed by Dimitrina Petrova, a Bulgarian human rights advocate who was the recipient of the human rights award of the American Bar Association. Under her leadership since 1992, the Human Rights Project, a Roma rights group in Bulgaria, successfully sued the Ministry ofinterior for authorizing police brutality against Roma, and for the first time in Eastern Europe, police received prison sentences for beating Roma.The ERRC statement of mission says the organization will work to give the Roma tools to combat discrimination through the courts and gainequal access to government, education, employment, health care, housing and public services. The ERRC will pursue its objective in the frame workof following programs: * Research: monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation of Roma * Legal defence: providing and sponsoring legal services ( consultations, litigation,etc. ) for Roma victims of human rights abuse * Education: cultivating a generation of educated human rights activistsrecruited from the Roma community * Advocacy: promoting Roma rights in domestic and international governmental andnon-governmental settings * Documentation: creating a Roma rights archive and publishing reports and newsletters.For more information, contact: Ms. Csilla Der, Executive Assistant,Nador u. 11, 11051- Budapest. Tel. ( 361 ) 327-3117 : Fax ( 361 )327-3103 : E-mail: derc@osi.hu