The Swedish government’s Delegation for Roma Issues is investigating reparations and even a possible Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to come to grips with five centuries of persecution against one of the most oppressed minorities in Europe. A radio report.

A coalition of NGOs launched this report on the deterioration of the human rights situation of Roma and Sinti in Italy, on the occasion of the OSCE’s Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Sustainable Policies for Roma and Sinti Integration in Vienna. Coalition members include the European Roma Rights Centre, the Open Society Institute, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Romani Criss and the Roma Civic Alliance of Romania. The report includes a concise summary of a series of discriminatory legal and policy measures targeting Roma recently enacted by the right-wing Italian government, in place since the April 2008 elections. The report also contains the results of first-hand documentation conducted by the Coalition in Romani camps Italy at the end of May 2008, exploring the effects of these measures on members of Italy’s Roma and Sinti communities

David Hutchison, a research fellow in media policy at Glasgow Caledonian University, is co-editor of the recently-published The Media in Scotland. Here, from a chapter in the book, he considers the Scottish newspaper industry during the last half century.

"Segregated schools produce unemployed Roma people," and this is one of the most important problems that the Roma living in Hungary has to face today. This is one of the main points Erzsébet Mohácsi, social pedagogue and director of the Chance for Children Foundation, highlights in this interview. Text and video.

In its Communication, the Commission renews its commitment to ensuring that everyone is given an equal chance to realize their potential. This Communication aims to present a comprehensive approach to step up action against discrimination and promote equal opportunities. In particular, this Communication is accompanied by a proposal for a new directive prohibiting discrimination on grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief outside the employment sphere. It also proposes actions to give new impetus to the dialogue on non-discrimination policy and to make more effective use of the instruments available, both in general and with particular emphasis on promoting the social inclusion of Roma.

This staff working document sets out to list and examine the existing policies and instruments as a response to the European Council request calling urgently for a comprehensive European framework strategy on Roma. The Commission Communication on nondiscrimination policy draws conclusions from the thorough analysis of ongoing activities, opportunities and gaps identified in this document and lays down the framework and for further steps towards Roma inclusion.

This report by Minority Rights Group International discovers divergence between the EU messages and the realities that minority communities face in their day-to-day lives in SEE countries. This is partly because the EU lacks an institutionalized mechanism for involving local minority communities in the accession process, the report says. MRG, in an analysis of EU progress reports on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia since 2001, points to the EU’s lack of depth and consistency in its criticism across the different countries and minority groups. The analysis shows that while in the Progress Reports Roma dominate analysis on education and employment; they do not appear in the sections on representation and political participation.

In anticipation of 2007, the Year of Equal Opportunities for All, the European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities commissioned a survey about discrimination and inequality in Europe, conducted in the summer of 2006. This report represents a follow-up to this survey, tracking how perceptions and opinion with regard to discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation have changed in the intervening year. Several new questions are also asked in the follow-up survey, for example dealing with the subject of ‘multiple discrimination’.

Under the lead, "The dismal lives and unhappy prospects of Europe's biggest stateless minority," the Economist explores the problems, dilemmas, developments and pitfalls of European policy on the Roma.

The report identifies differences in treatment and protection by the law for LGBT people, and a lack of full and equal enjoyment of rights in areas of EU competence particularly with regard to same sex partnerships. It also highlights that homophobic hate speech and hate crime represent obstacles to the possibility for individuals to exercise their free movement and other rights in a non-discriminatory manner. The report finds that 18 out of 27 EU Member States have already gone beyond the minimum requirements of EU anti-discrimination legislation and have provided for legal protection against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the areas of employment, access to public goods and services, housing and social benefits. It concludes that more comprehensive legal protection, as well as wider powers and resources for equality bodies are required, and urges that the new measures on non-discrimination discussed by the EU would ensure this.