The Roma Community and International Institutions: Only Relative Success in the Protection of Human and Minority Rights

The paper treats problems pertaining to the legislative framework, as well as to the practical implementation of mechanisms for the protection of the human and minority rights of the Roma community. Special emphasis is placed on international and European protective mechanisms, on the pressure that they exert on national states, as well as on their frameworks for protecting the human rights of the Roma community, which – in view of the absence of a mother state in this case – is the only guarantee for the respect of Roma human rights. International frameworks and activities are also the only guarantee assuring the social integration of the Roma, a goal towards which modern European society strives. The paper attempts to determine the position of Croatia in respect to European countries in this matter, with special reference to problems in education faced by the Roma community and on the experience of the non-governmental and donator sector in regard to work with the Roma community. An overview of existing documents and acts reveals that a legislative framework for respecting Roma rights already exists, and that the European Union just has to supplement it with a legislative document exclusively dealing with the problems of the Roma, given the specific aspects of realising the human rights of members of this community. In the implementation of legislative acts, however, there is a series of inconsistencies, resulting from inadequate monitoring of the implementation of European documents, from an absence of repercussions for non-implementing them and from an imbalanced approach to old and new members of the European Union. In the context of association with the European community of states, Croatia has an opportunity to improve the position of its Roma community in a relatively short period of time and to accelerate the social integration of the Roma, although – due to an unsatisfactory and non-systematic approach, no consultations with experts and slow responses of the system’s institutions – this chance has not been adequately utilised.