Romanian Court Judgment Affirms the Responsibility of Authorities to Provide Adequate Housing to Evicted Romani Community

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) welcomes the judgment of the Constanţa
Court of Appeal in southern Romania which found that the Tulcea municipality is
liable for inadequate housing conditions it had provided to a previously evicted
Romani community. The court awarded financial compensation to the plaintiffs for
the moral damage they suffered. The ERRC supported the evicted Romani community
in taking the case before the national courts.

On

11 October 2006 approximately 110 Romani people were evicted from a building
they had occupied for approximately seven years. Some were relocated by the
municipality

to the abandoned buildings of a former military garrison, well outside the
city, near the industrial port. Others were left homeless for more than a month
in extreme weather conditions, before the municipality provided them with mobile
homes placed on the former municipal garbage dump at Urzicii Street. Both
locations are extremely overcrowded and lack basic sanitary facilities.

By a recent judgment, “taking into consideration the living conditions,
especially the overcrowded and unhealthy environment and its effects on their
health and well-being in conjunction with the extended period during which the
plaintiffs had to live in such conditions and the general attitude of the
authorities”, the Constanţa Court of Appeal found the municipality liable
and awarded compensation “for the moral damage suffered by the plaintiffs,
the unsuitable living conditions being of a nature which affects their human
dignity and right to respect for their private life and housing”. This
ruling presents a ground-breaking interpretation of liability under the Romanian
Civil Code taken together with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human
Rights.

On the right to education of the children affected by the eviction, the court
held that “the behaviour of the authorities, consisting in the failure to
facilitate access to education for the plaintiffs by taking appropriate measures,
including by providing easy access by public transportation to schools which are
located a considerable distance from plaintiffs’ homes, constitutes an illegal
act causing injury”.

The ERRC salutes the decision of the Court of Appeal and calls on all
authorities across Romania to respect international standards on the right to
adequate housing, including the provision of adequate alternative housing in
case of eviction. The Chair of the Board of the ERRC, Robert Kushen said, that "This
judgment sends a clear message to municipalities throughout Romania, from Eforie
to Cluj-Napoca and Baia Mare, that the provision of adequate housing for evicted
Roma is a right which can be secured through the courts, and its disregard has
real consequences".

To secure a sustainable solution for the evicted Roma community, the ERRC has
also been pursuing the case before the European Court of Human Rights.