Out of the spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area In the last two years, a number of international organizations have expressed concern over Greece’s failure to respect the right to housing of the Roma. On 11 June 2003, in a letter of urgent appeal, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as a Component of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living inquired about alleged forced evictions carried out by the municipal authorities against the Roma population living in Aspropygros, near Athens. In the letter, the Special Rapporteur expressed concern about such forced evictions violating international law and standards related to the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights, including access to running water and other essential services. 93 The authorities responded a month later, with a letter providing general information on the housing situation of Roma people in Greece and on the IAP, a policy framework put in place in 1996 to address the serious problems that Greek Roma face regarding health, education, vocational training, social insurance and housing. In fact, reports of the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) show that many of the Romani groups in Greece have been forcibly evicted from their settlements in the last ten years.94 In a report on Roma and Sinti rights published in 2003, the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) stated that “Greece is unfortunately a bad example in this field [as 93 For a summary of this communication see “Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Miloon Kothari, Addendum: Summary of information transmitted to Governments and replies received” E/CN.4/2005/48/Add.1, published on 17 January 2005. 94 Cleaning Operations: Excluding Roma in Greece, Country Report Series No. 12, ERRC and GHM, April 2003. Amnesty International 5 October 2005 48 one of the]… old member states of the EU, that created the Copenhagen criteria and the Helsinki Guidelines for the new member states, [that] do not comply with these standards in their own country.”95 The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), in its December 2003 report, expressed concern “over allegations that forcible collective evictions of Roma families have taken place without any resettlement alternative being proposed”. It further found “especially alarming reports to the effect that some of these evictions are unlawful and/or are followed by immediate destruction of the camps by bulldozer, despite the fact that all the personal possessions of the families remain there”. ECRI recommended “that the Greek authorities maintain and increase their efforts to end all the direct or indirect discrimination suffered by the Roma”. It also urged “the Greek authorities to raise the awareness of local authorities, such as municipalities or local administrative agencies, to the need to respect the rights and the culture of the Roma” and “to impose sanctions on municipal councillors who make racist remarks or do not comply with the regulations and decisions that bind them”. 96 The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in its review of Greece’s report in 2004 stated that it was “gravely concerned about numerous reports on the extrajudicial demolition of dwellings and forced evictions of Roma from their settlements by municipal authorities … frequently without payment of adequate compensation or provision of alternative housing”. 97 Furthermore, the CESCR 95 OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Roma and Sinti: Report, Vienna, 10-11 April 2003, p.51. 96 ECRI, Third Report on Greece Adopted on 5 December 2003, Strasbourg, 8 June 2004, document reference number: CRI (2004) 24. 97 CESCR, Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights : Greece, 07/06/2004, E/C.12/1/Add.97. AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005