Description
The project is about preventing discrimination because of ethnic origin of members of the Romani minority living in Poland. The need to take up action results from the low visibility of the problem, its scale and ignorance of authorities on various levels, insufficient awareness of the Romani people of their rights and their lack of trust in institutions. The objective of the project is monitoring, documenting, informing and taking up interventions in response to intolerance, acts of aggression, discrimination in daily life, hate speech on the Internet, as well as bringing to justice people responsible for discrimination. A telephone hotline and a webpage enabling reporting the abovementioned incidents will also be created. Legal interventions will also be carried out in response to such incidents in daily life and on the web.
Summary of project results
"Roma minority is the most discriminated minority in Poland, which has been demonstrated in the reports from various organizations: Ministry of Administration and Digitization reports for the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights reports and OSCE reports. Recently attacks on Roma community have increased. Disparaging comments are also on the rise online. Authorities of various levels ignore the problem and the discriminated Roma are often unaware of their rights. The objective of the project was to monitor, document and disseminate information, as well as to intervene in case of intolerance, aggression, discrimination in everyday life and hate speech online targeted at Roma people. 10,566 entries were found online (and archived) insulting Roma minority and inciting hatred against them. As a result of the interventions 4,529 entries were deleted. All over the country 29 cases of discrimination, racism, xenophobia and hate speech against Roma were registered. The project covered also direct legal assistance for the Roma victims. A final Report summarizing project activities and results was published in 600 copies. A hotline and an online subpage to report discrimination incidents were also developed under the project. The main beneficiaries of the activities were people from the Roma community, who felt threatened by or were the victims/witnesses of discrimination, racism, xenophobia and hate speech. At least 134 people benefited from the project."
Summary of bilateral results