Damages for illegal Swedish registry of Roma citizens

May 24, 2017 11:17 AM

"Today, the Chancellor of Justice announced that the Swedish state will not appeal the decision by the Svea Court of Appeal regarding the case of the police’s registration of Swedish Roma citizens. Damages will be paid to all persons included in the illegal registry. Civil Rights Defenders, which represented eleven of a total of about 4 700 people included in the registry, won the court case against the Swedish state in the Svea Court of Appeal on April 28, 2017. The state was found guilty of ethnic registration and discrimination, and ordered to pay 30 000 SEK in damages to each of the eleven Roma plaintiffs."

Discrimination against the Roma people has a long and dishonourable history in Sweden, as elsewhere in Europe. In 2010 a Swedish investigation into the rights of the Roma called for a "truth commission." In 2014 the Swedish government published a white paper "on the historic treatment of Roma, detailing systemic abuse and police opinion that it would be best to kill them off."

posted by Bella Donna (7 comments total)

For those who are less familiar with the value of the krona: 30,000 SEK is ~3500 USD, or about $16.5 million in total.
posted by jedicus at 11:41 AM on May 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's crazy/fascinating that places where they pride themselves on civil rights and rule of law have no problem making huge exceptions for their treatment of the Romani.
posted by thecjm at 4:27 PM on May 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I guess every culture, no matter how progressive, has its blind spots.
posted by rokusan at 11:05 PM on May 24, 2017

Thanks for posting this.

Here in Italy, too, widespread unadmitted, institutionalised anti-Roma sentiment, reporting, and discrimination is the norm. (I've also started picking up on all-too-enthusiastic Soros-bashing becoming a common theme, with no one ever mentioning its dog-whistle function.) Ominous signs in the country modern fascism comes from.
posted by progosk at 12:25 AM on May 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think it is more interesting to identify countries where systematic discrimination towards Travelers/Roma does not or has not existed. I personally can not think of any country where a significant number of persons do not passively or actively discriminate, or harbor suspicion and ill will) against travels. There are things that some/a few highly visible Travelers do that just irritate and alienate people.
posted by rmhsinc at 8:37 AM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I personally can not think of any country where a significant number of persons do not passively or actively discriminate, or harbor suspicion and ill will) against travels.

I can't think of any. I arrived in Ireland having no idea what a Traveller was, a fully formed bleeding heart liberal with literally zero preconceived notions and zero prejudices against Travellers. I remain sensitive to the fact that this is a tiny minority culture that is deeply oppressed. I also belatedly discovered that I am completely capable of harbouring an ethnic prejudice acquired over the last decade, and I have to actively and consciously combat that now. I can't cope with the animal welfare issues.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:10 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Travellers are almost certainly not ethnically Romani, despite the UK trying to lump them together.
posted by Etrigan at 5:40 PM on May 25, 2017