EUMAP and ERRC Release Report on Roma and Sinti Women in Germany

The first-ever report specifically analyzing the situation of Sinti and Roma women in Germany has found that women of this minority group face intersectional discrimination, cumulating the effects of both gender and ethnic or racial discrimination. According to the report's conclusions, Sinti and Roma women in Germany are clearly disadvantaged in a number of key areas such as education, employment, health care, and participation in public and political life, and have not enjoyed the progress that other German women have achieved in recent years. Foreign Romani women are particularly disadvantaged.

This "shadow" report was jointly submitted to the UN gender anti-discrimination body CEDAW by the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) and OSI's European Union Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP). The report, considered today in the framework of a regular review of Germany's record in the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, calls on the German government to stop ignoring these major problems; to adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation; and to fulfil its long overdue obligations under European and international law.