Launch of the project Challenging Online and Offline Roma Discrimination in Europe COORDE

PRESS RELEASE

Launch of the project Challenging Online and Offline Roma Discrimination in Europe COORDE

The Association of Roma Lawyers in Romania ROMAJUST, in partnership with the European Roma Rights Centre, Forum for Human Rights (Slovakia) and the Equal Opportunities Initiative Association (Bulgaria) launches the project Challenging Online and Offline Roma Discrimination in Europe COORDE EC 2022/1. 04.2022-31.03.2024, funded by the European Commission through the Programme "Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values" (CERV-2021-EQUAL), addressing the phenomenon of discrimination and hate speech against Roma online.

"In recent years, the online environment in Romania has been a space that has favoured the exposure of the high degree of discrimination and racism of the Romanian population against Roma. The fact that there have been no clear and firm sanctioning regulations in the online environment by the Romanian authorities has led to an explosion of hate speech against Roma. This project is a necessity in order to draw attention to this phenomenon and to sanction such behaviours by engaging our experts through legal action in court against the aggressors," says Eugen Ghiță, President of ROMAJUST.

The organisations are concerned that hate does not stay online, but visibly manifests itself in hate-motivated behaviour, attitudes and crimes in the real world. This project will fight against this phenomenon through volunteer-led monitoring, documenting, and reporting as well as legal action.

The main activity of the project will be to set up of a group of young volunteer activists who will be responsible for monitoring the online environment in Romania in order to fight against digital antigypsyism together.

The project aims to combat hate speech against Roma and hate crimes by monitoring, reporting and filing complaints against public persons, media platforms and news corporations that amplify and spread racist content both offline and online, the ultimate goal being to ensure recognition of Roma rights in Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

The project will be launched online on Friday, the 27th of May 2022, at 1pm during an online meeting with Roma NGOs, human rights experts and monitors, lawyers, a member of the National Council for Combating Discrimination, other civil society representatives, and academics, and it will run for two years.

For further details, please contact us by email at:office.romajust@gmail.com

Contact persons for details and further information:

Ghiță Eugen, Phone:0751622112

Cornelia Banghea, Phone: 0766202063