Important Issues

Roma routinely suffer assaults in city streets and other public places.
Attackers have sought out whole families in their homes, or whole communities in settlements across Europe: for example, Racist attacks on campsites have been reported in Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom.
Racist violence against Roma is gravely under reported. Official monitoring of hate crimes in Europe is limited and even countries with adequate monitoring systems on racist violence do not provide disaggregated data on violence against Roma.
Roma are often viewed as a scapegoat for broader societal ills, often characterized as outsiders who are less than citizens and are unwanted in their respective communities.
Police and local public authorities are sometimes complicit in driving Roma from their homes and seeking their relocation to other towns or cities. In Ukraine, police illegally arrest and harass members of Roma communities.
The bias-motivated violence against Roma often occurs in a hostile environment, as political leaders speak openly of desire to expel Roma from their communities. In Italy, a campaign of vilification of Roma involved members of the highest levels of government, while Roma became the object of a national clamor for expulsion from cities and deportation encouraged by political leaders.
Anti-Romani discrimination has intensified and grown into a broader framework, extending to the full range of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. In many areas of Europe, Roma are confined to segregated camps or ghettos, are denied access to basic education and prospects for formal
employment, and may even be refused recognition as citizens in their own countries.

Also See:

Violence Against Roma: Hate Crime Survey (HRF)
Anti-Romani Speech in Europe’s Public Space (DRC)
Human Rights office concerned about continuing attacks and hate speech (RRN)

The escalation of severe poverty among Roma in Central and Eastern Europe has been one of the most striking developments in the region over the past twelve years.
Poverty rates for Roma range between four and ten times that of non-Roma. Roma are both poorer than other population groups and are more likely to fall into poverty and remain poor.
The plight of Roma poverty has multiple and interrelated causes—poor health and education status, limited chances in the labor market, discrimination, and unique aspects of Roma social organization, which together contribute to their social exclusion.
Geographic isolation of settlements heightens barriers to access to services such as education, health care, and waste collection, and thus further increases poverty over the long run.

Also See:
Extreme Poverty, Human Rights and Roma (ERRC)

Persistent disadvantages in education, including low school attendance and overrepresentation in special schools, which limit future opportunities, create a high probability that without policy interventions the next generation of Roma will continue to remain in poverty.
Because Roma frequently live in quasi-legal circumstances or remote areas, they may lack the documentation necessary for enrolling in school and claiming social assistance or health benefits.
Roma parents sometimes feel they are protecting their children by sending them to special needs schools with other Roma children, but the education they receive there ill-prepares them for labor markets, again exacerbating the risks of poverty and exclusion over the long term.
Due to language barriers and low education levels, Roma face difficulty communicating with teachers, understanding health professionals, and maneuvering through local government offices to access social assistance.

Take Action:
End School Segregation - For generations, millions of Roma and Sinti people - often referred to as gypsies - have been excluded from mainstream schools in Europe. But the European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that this was discrimination, against the continent's largest ethnic minority. Despite this, real change is slow to filter through.

Also See:
The Impact of Legislation and Policies on School Segregation of Romani Children (ERRC)
Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma (OSI)
D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic (Justice Initiative)

Data on the health status of Roma are scarce and fragmented. Yet the information that exists paints a bleak picture, pointing to significant gaps in health status between the Roma and non-Roma populations.
Because of substandard living conditions, Roma communities are particularly susceptible to communicable diseases, including hepatitis and tuberculosis. There are increasing indications that Roma have a higher incidence of health problems associated with unhealthy life styles, including drug and alcohol addiction and HIV/AIDS.
Poor living conditions, such as overcrowding and lack of adequate sanitation facilities make Roma communities more susceptible to infectious diseases than other groups.
Reports of epidemics of hepatitis, tuberculosis and parasitic diseases were common, during and after the socialist period.

Take Action:
Sterilisation Compensation - Czechoslovakia carried out a policy of sterilisation of Roma women, starting in 1973. The dissidents of the Charter 77 denounced it in 1977-78 as a "genocide", but the practice continued through the Velvet Revolution of 1989. A 2005 report by the Czech government's independent ombudsman, Otakar Motejl, identified dozens of cases of coercive sterilisation between 1979 and 2001, and called for criminal investigations and possible prosecution against several health care workers and administrators.

Also See:
Ambulance Not on the Way: The Disgrace of Health Care for Roma in Europe (ERRC)
Body and Soul: Forced Sterilization and Other Assaults on Roma Reproductive Freedom (CRR)

While most Roma had jobs during the socialist era, formal unemployment is now widespread.
The high prevalence of Roma in informal sector employment also limits their access to insurance-based benefits, including health care and unemployment insurance.
Cultural factors affect access and interactions with social service providers.
Compounded by discrimination and low expectations of employers, Roma have had more difficulty re-entering the job market than other groups, and have consequently become caught in a cycle of impoverishment.

Also See:
The Glass Box: Exclusion of Roma From Employment (ERRC)

There is a misperception that personal data protection laws prohibit the gathering of ethnic data.
Ethnic Statistics are of a strategic importance to ethnic monitoring for the fight against discrimination.
Some governments fear that they may be embarrassed if statistics reveals ugly corners in their societies.
Who should be counted as “Roma”, those who state their Romani ethnicity or a much larger group defined through external attribution.
Some Roma refuse to “admit” their ethnic belonging - a refusal which differs widely across space and sub-ethnic identity.

Also See:
Ethnic Statistics (ERRC)
The United Nations Development Programme's Vulnerability Projects: Roma and Ethnic Data (ERRC)
Ethnic data as a tool in the fight against discrimination - PDF (OSI)