Report: Growing Patterns of Violence Against Roma in Hungary Sound Alarms

Hungarian Guard induction ceremony - FXB Report — New members are shown being inducted into the Hungarian Guard, a paramilitary, racist, extremist organization that was dissolved by the Hungarian courts in December 2008 for activities that infringed upon the Roma people’s right to freedom and security. Credit: Photo taken from “Without a Chance,” a documentary produced by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and released on January 7, 2014.

February 4, 2014 — The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights today released a report documenting “Accelerating Patterns of Anti-Roma Violence in Hungary.” The report is intended to alert the United Nations and the international community to the persistent patterns of violent attacks and actions against the Roma (pejoratively called Gypsies). The report calls upon the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, the Hungarian Government, and the European Union to take responsibility and act to avoid the dangers that the Roma and other minority groups in Hungary have been exposed to in recent years.

In the report, the FXB Center makes the case that Hungary’s mounting incidence of hate crimes, racist propaganda, discrimination, and exclusionary ideologies indicates a need for measures to ensure the physical and psychological safety of the Roma and other minority groups. It suggests that warning signs exist that should sound alarms in the international community.

Read the complete report here, and additional coverage in Foreign Policy in Focus, The Conversation, NPR’s Code Switch, The Huffington Post, and the Montreal Gazette.