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Version of the report approved by the experts of the thematic group and to be transmitted to the CAHROM for endorsement at its 6th CAHROM plenary meeting (Rome, 28-31 October 2013)
CAHROM (2013)18
Strasbourg, 9September 2013
AD HOC COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS ON ROMA ISSUES[1] (CAHROM)
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THEMATIC REPORT ON
SOCIAL HOUSING FOR ROMA AND LEGALISATION OF ROMA SETTLEMENTS AND HOUSES
(further to the CAHROM thematic visit to Tirana, Albania, from 15 to 17 April 2013)
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Experts from ALBANIA, requesting country:
Ms Blerina Zoto Tepelena, Technical Secretariat on Roma, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities(CAHROM member)
MrGentian Kaprata, Director,Ministry of Public Works and Transport
Ms Manjola Veizi, Roma expert, Roma Women Rights Centre
Experts fromBOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA and “THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA”, partner countries:
Bosnia and Herzegovina:MrMilan Jovanović, Head of Minority Department, Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ms Ljiljana Šantić, Expert Advisor and Coordinator for Roma Housing in the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees(CAHROM member)
Ms Hedina Sijercić, Roma expert, Coordinator for Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina
“The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”: Ms Mabera Kamberi, Head of the Sector for Coordination and Technical Assistance, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy(CAHROM member)
Ms Sara Shabani, Coordinator of ZELS (Association of Local Self-Government Units)
Mr Neizir Huseini, Roma expert, Programme Manager at Roma Democratic Development Association SONCE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTIONpage 3
1.1Background of the thematic report and visitpage 3
1.2Composition of the thematic group of expertspage 3
1.3Agenda of the thematic visitpage 4
II. CONTEXT AND EXPECTATIONSpage 4
2.1Context and purpose of the thematic report and visitpage 4
2.2Expectations and items for discussionpage 5
2.3Size and composition of the Roma groups in the participating countriespage 5
2.3.1 Albaniapage 5
2.3.2 Bosnia and Herzegovinapage 6
2.3.3 “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”page 7
2.4 Housing situation of Roma and main problems encounteredpage 7
2.4.1 Albaniapage 7
2.4.2 Bosnia and Herzegovinapage 9
2.4.3 “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”page 9
III. RELEVANT EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND
REFERENCE TEXTSpage 10
IV. LEGISLATION, POLICIES, STRUCTURES AND SPECIFIC MEASURESpage 11
4.1Albaniapage 11
4.1.1 Roma and housing policiespage 11
4.1.2 Social housing (for Roma)page 12
4.1.3 Partnership between the public and private sectorspage 12
4.1.4 Role of international actors and national NGOs in Roma housingpage 12
4.1.5 Other housing projectspage 13
4.2Bosnia and Herzegovinapage 14
4.2.1 Roma and housing policiespage 14
4.2.2 Social housing (for Roma)page 15
4.2.3 Role of international actors and national NGOs in Roma housingpage 17
4.3“The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”page 18
4.3.1 Roma and housing policiespage 18
4.3.2 Social housing (for Roma)page 19
4.3.3Legalisation of (Roma) informal houses and settlementspage 21
4.3.4 Role of international actors and national NGOs in Roma housingpage 22
V. CONCLUSIONS, LESSONS LEARNT AND GOOD PRACTICES IDENTIFIEDpage 24
5.1General conclusions and lessons learnt page 24
5.2Specific conclusions and recommendationspage 24
5.3Follow-up and proposals for future thematic groups/visitspage 29
5.4Good practices identifiedpage 29
APPENDICES:page 31
Appendix 1: Formal invitation received from Albaniapage 31
Appendix 2:Agenda of the thematic visitpage 31
Appendix 3:List of experts and participants of the thematic visitpage 31
Appendix 4: European and international standards and reference texts page 31
Note: An ADDENDUM TO THE THEMATIC REPORT including all presentations collected during the CAHROM thematic visit is available to the Secretariat upon request.
I. INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of the thematic report and visit
A thematic group on the legalisation of Roma houses/settlementswas set up at the request of the Albanian CAHROM memberat the 4thCAHROM meeting (Strasbourg, 28-30 November 2012)[2]. A letter from the Albanian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy confirming the invitation sent to the CAHROM’s group of experts to visit Tirana on 15-17 April 2013 was received by the Secretariat on 4 April 2013 (see Appendix 1).
The CAHROM members of Bosnia and Herzegovina and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, which had participated in a previous CAHROM thematic group on “Social housing for Roma”, expressed interest to join this group as partner countries[3]. Both countries have a shared common history as countries from ex-Yugoslavia. They have also a similar agenda and policy approach in the field of Roma housing: i.e. to develop a legal basis for the legalisation of Roma settlements and to develop social housing programmes that will include a large number of Roma families. It was therefore useful to compare the different measures which had been undertaken by these two countries with the policy and measures undertaken in the requesting country, Albania.
During the 5th CAHROM meeting (Strasbourg, 14-16 May 2013), following a preliminary discussion about the main outcomes of the thematic visit to Tirana, which reflected the fact that discussions went beyond the topic of legalisation, the Committee agreed to rename this report as follows: “social housing for Roma and legalisation of Roma settlements and houses”[4].
The present thematic report should therefore be read in complement to the thematic report on “Social housing for Roma”(with “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” as a requesting country, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Spain as partner countries) endorsed by the CAHROM at its 4th meeting[5].
With a view to preparing the thematic report and visit, each expert of the thematic group was asked to provide background information about the situation of Roma, the legislative framework and measures pertinent to the legalisation of Roma settlements/houses and social housing for Roma. Written background documents submitted by the requesting and partner countries, as well as presentations made during the visit, appear in an Addendum to this report available from the CAHROM Secretariat.
In the two partner countries covered by this report, Roma are considered as a national minority under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and benefit from targeted and positive discrimination measures in the context of respective national Roma strategies. In Albania, Roma are considered as an ethno-linguistic minority which is covered by the Framework Convention.
The three countries also participate in the Decade for Roma Inclusion (2005-2015) and have developed Decade Action Plans, including in the area of housing[6]. The present report takes into consideration some of the findings of the Civil Society Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategyand Decade Action Plan on 2012 in Albania[7] and in “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”[8].
1.2Composition of the thematic group of experts
The thematic group of experts was composed of experts from the respective ministries in charge of Roma and/or housing policies:
- For Albania, the Technical Secretariat on Roma within the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs andEqual Opportunities and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport in Albania;
- For “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy”, the Ministry of Transport[9], as well as the Association of Local Self-Government Units;
- For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees.
The OSCE-ODIHR through its project “Best Practices for Roma Integration (BPRI)” funded by the EU and participating States, has ensured the participation in this thematic group of an additional expert of Roma origin from each of the three participating countries.The list of experts and participants appears in Appendix 2.
1.3Agenda of the thematic visit
The agenda of the thematic visit, which appears in Appendix 3, was organised by the Technical Secretariat on Roma within the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. It included a round table and bilateral meetings which involved the People’s Advocate, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Municipality of Tirana, the UNDP, UNICEF and Council of Europe Offices in Tirana, as well as representatives from civil society. In addition, the group of experts visited two informal Roma settlements in Tirana, Shkoza and Bregu I Lumit.The morning of the 3rd day was devoted to a debriefing meeting between experts of the thematic group and the Secretariat and to which a representative of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport was associated.
II. CONTEXT AND EXPECTATIONS
2.1Context and purpose of the thematic report and visit
The thematic exchange on social housing for Roma and legalisation of Roma settlements and houseswas timely for the three countries concerned by this report.
Amendments to the national social housing policy (Law no. 9232) were approved by the Albanian Government in May 2012. The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities which is in charge of monitoring national inclusion strategies and which is currently in the process of revising its national Action Plans for the Decade of Roma Inclusion, including the housing Action Plan, was interested to gain experience from countries of the Balkan region being engaged in a similar process such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.
There was also a particular interest among the group of experts for collecting information regarding legislation on legalisation of settlements, social housing-related legislation and methodology used to select beneficiaries for social housing programmes. Albania is also engaged in the decentralisation of powers to local and regional authorities and was therefore interested to know more about the degree of involvement of local and regional actors in the implementation of housing-related policies.
The thematic visit toTirana was itself timely since the municipality is engaged in a process of providing 385 social housing units for vulnerable categories of the population, including Roma families. The People’s Advocate also considered the CAHROM visit as being timely as ECRI had just published recommendations to Albania. Following the CAHROM group of experts’ visit to Tirana, the People’s Advocate provided the group of experts with the Executive Summary of his Recommendations to state institutions of Albania with regard to minority rights, pre-university educational system; protection from discrimination and living conditions of the Roma minority in Albania[10].
It washowever mentioned during the visit that elections in June 2013 did not constitute the ideal moment for engaging in any immediate reform. The Albanian interlocutors were nevertheless confident that by the time of the endorsement by the CAHROM of the thematic report, i.e. in late October 2013, national and local authorities would be more receptive and could use the results of this thematic exercise as a valuable source of inspiration for their housing policy.
2.2Expectations and items for discussion
Albania, as a requesting country showed interest in tackling two aspects: social housing programmes, and in particular selection criteria for beneficiaries, and models of partnerships between the public and the private sector. The Albanian CAHROM member had provided the group of experts with the following two items for discussion prior to the thematic visit.
1)Social housing programmes: Is there any intervention in partner countries that could be done in determining the criteria for Roma, including interventions in the legislativefield and/or initiativesthat could ensure a sustainable development of the process of completing the documentation for housing of the Roma community?[11]
2)Successfulmodels of partnershipbetween the public and private sectors:How can this type of cooperation solve the problems faced by the Roma community? Are there any concrete models of public and private partnership? If not, which are the difficulties faced on the development of this process?[12]
Other questions identified by the group of experts prior to the thematic visit are listed below:
-Have any steps been taken under the Decade Action Plan to broaden the scope of housing interventions, urban planning and rural development and making them part of a comprehensive cross-sectorial approach?[13]
-Which process of legalisation of illegally constructed buildings has been followed?
-Are there any negotiations with authorities in order to legalize settlements?
-Are there any quantifiable indications as to the number of people, among them, the number of Roma people affected by such measures?
-Are there any concrete measures to improve the availability, affordability and quality of social housing with access to affordable services?
-Are there any baseline data available on the number and proportion of Roma living with no access to public utilities and social service infrastructure?
-How many illegal settlements are there?
-Are there any quantifiable indication as to the change in the number of Roma with improved access to public utilities and social services infrastructure?
-Are there any contradictions between mainstream housing/regional policies and the priority?
-Identify what measures have been adopted to promote the legalisation of Roma settlements.
2.3Size and composition of the Roma groups in the participating countries
2.3.1Albania
In Albania there are two different groups: Roma and Egyptians. Currently Roma and Egyptians in Albania differ from each other having completely different identities[14].
According to the population census from 2011, 8,301 persons declared themselves as Roma (0.30% of the total population). Estimates on the size of the Roma population in Albania differ from 40,000 to 120,000[15]. Roma live all over the country, but the biggest communities are concentrated in and around Tirana, the towns of Fier, Gjirokaster and Berat, and around the town of Korce[16].A great majority of them are living in deplorable conditions and faced with extreme poverty and social marginalization. A regional study of the UNDP published in 2006[17] reported that the rates of poverty and extreme poverty rates of Roma in Albania are particularly high (78% and 39%). The fact that a Roma woman in Albania earns 36% of the average wage of an Albanian woman is another example of the socio-economic situation of the Roma minority in Albania[18].
Unlike Roma, Egyptians do not speak the Romani language. Their distinctive features include particular activities such as smith ironing, to play music, etc. They have a syncretic religion (which combines different parts of Islam, Orthodox religion and Animism). Unlike the Roma, Egyptians have been sedentary and usually have lived in “separate neighbourhoods”, near the centre of cities or large villages which often even took their name[19]. Compared to the Roma they are more integrated in the Albanian society. Women’s clothing, oral tradition, social organisation and the lifestyle are completely different between Roma and Egyptians. Both groups used to have little social contact and marriages between them used to be rare. This has changed in the last ten years with increasing interactions and intermarriages between the two communities.
Referring back to the conclusions of the World Bank qualitative needs assessment study carried out by a World Bank team from January 2002 to June 2003[20], “in comparison with the majority of the population, the percentage of the "very poor" group of households among Roma and Egyptians is apparently much higher: respectively 75 percent and 70 percent, while for the majority population, it is 28.8 percent. These communities are distinguished by two extremes, the 80 percent defined as the "very poor" and "poor" households, and a 5 percent minority in relatively good financial shape”.
See the table below for a distribution of identified poverty categories among Roma, Egyptians, and Albanians:
Source: 2002 World Bank qualitative needs assessment study on poverty in Albania.
As regards the housing situation, the same report concluded that “more than 40 percent of Roma and 30 percent of Egyptian families do not have running water in their homes because water connections have not been installed. The majority of these families live in makeshift or dilapidated housing with surface areas much lower than the national average. They also face difficulties obtaining state assistance and other forms of social assistance”. Though some progress has been made over the last ten years in several Roma policy areas, the above description regarding the housing situation of Roma remains globally relevant.
2.3.2Bosnia and Herzegovina
Between 25,000 and 30,000 Roma are estimated tolive in Bosnia and Herzegovina according to recent research. 19,500 persons or 4,500 households require some type of assistance described in the Strategy and Action Plan. Other estimates consider that Roma population in Bosnia and Herzegovina could be around 76,000 persons or 2% of the total population[21].
2.3.3“The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”
According to the 2002 population census, the official number of Roma is 53,000, i.e. 2.6% of the total population, though estimate figures suggest that the total number could be over 150,000, reaching above 9% of the total population.
Roma are recognised as a distinct ethnicity in the preamble of the Constitution. The Skopje neighbourhood of Shuto Orizari is Europe's first Roma municipality (led by a Roma mayor) and the only one in the world where the Romani language was granted an official status.
Roma do not concentrate in a particular region of the country, but are spread all over the territory. According to the 2002 population census, twenty-seven municipalities have a share of Roma exceeding 1%; ten of them having a share of Roma exceeding 4%. Ethnic differences are less relevant than the way of life, costume and appearance that the members of this group share. Most of them still speak their own language, Romani, together with the language that dominates in the regions where they are located, i.e. Macedonian and/or Albanian. A number of Roma in “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” are Muslim, although some of them practise other religions too.
2.4Housing situation of Roma and main problems encountered
The right to adequate and secure housing is a key human right and is enshrined in international human rights law. The UNDP/WB/EC regional Roma survey from 2011 provides information regarding the percentage of households facing multiple deprivations (see table below[22]).