Roma Rights Network Publishes Definitive Account of Antigypsyism in Europe

Roma Rights Network Publishes Definitive Account of Antigypsyism in Europe

07 August 2026

Brussels, 11 August 2026: The Roma Rights Network today published the first issue of the relaunched Roma Rights Review, the most comprehensive assessment of the human rights situation of Europe's largest ethnic minority. Built on the direct testimony, casework, analysis, and field documentation of 34 member organisations across 18 countries, the Roma Rights Review stands as the authoritative source on the situation of Roma Rights on the continent. On 8 June 2026, the Roma Rights Network issued a joint declaration warning that the situation had entered a state of acute crisis for Roma in Europe. This publication is the evidence behind that declaration.

The scale of discrimination

The Summer 2026 Review documents a rights landscape that has deteriorated sharply. In Greece, militarised police raids on Romani neighbourhoods under Operation ENTOS have reached twice-weekly frequency, with more than 100 documented police actions since September 2025. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece in separate cases involving police torture, beatings, racist abuse, and failed investigations. Cases have been documented from across the continent of far-right extremists marching on the streets, firebombing sleeping families, forming vigilante groups that break into Romani homes, and targeting Roma for mob violence and arson; all while centre-right parties across the EU continue to build tactical alliances with far-right political movements.

Governments in Italy, Slovenia, and Hungary have passed anti-Roma legislation that criminalises Romani communities, enables mass surveillance, permits child removal before birth, and allows municipalities to exclude Roma from taking up residence. Romani children continue to face segregated schooling, systemic abuse in state care, trafficking, and racially motivated violence. Romani women are being denied protection from domestic violence, subjected to obstetric violence, and stripped of parental rights.

The Review also documents what activists have called "Europe's silent forced evictions scandal", with evictions continuing apace from Italy to Albania to Bulgaria, leaving thousands homeless, relocated to toxic sites, or stranded without water, electricity, or legal recognition. In North Macedonia, the North of Ireland, and Bulgaria, communities have been terrorised by mob violence and ethnic expulsions. Throughout Europe, Roma continue to live in segregated informal housing built beside landfills and mines, without access to clean water, adequate housing, or basic services, their children bearing the brunt of generational poverty, educational exclusion, and institutional neglect.

Meanwhile, the proposed EU budget for 2028-2034 threatens to strip away ring-fenced funding for Roma equality, dissolving dedicated structures into generic pots that governments influenced by far-right rhetoric can redirect at will.

A call for universal action

As the editorial states: "The persecution of Roma is no longer a matter of policy failure or neglect, but a deliberate political project."

The Roma Rights Network calls upon EU institutions, principled politicians in Member States, and international donors to move beyond rhetoric and take immediate, concrete action: to work to repeal laws that criminalise Romani communities, to enforce accountability for state state-sponsored violence, to make a stand to protect fundamental rights (no matter how unpopular) and to protect the operational space of human rights defenders before it is too late.

About the Summer 2026 Review

The Roma Rights Review is the successor to the Roma Rights Journal, the first and oldest academic human rights journal dedicated to Roma in Europe, published from 1996 until 2017. Reimagined for the current political climate, it carries forward that legacy at a time when human rights watchdogs are themselves being targeted and defunded, and narratives around Roma are increasingly distorted by rising fascism.

Compiled primarily through direct input from the Roma Rights Network's member organisations and supplemented by media reports, court rulings, and official government statements, the Roma Rights Review moves beyond abstract analysis. It provides consolidated information, documented cases of abuse, legal victories, and strategic insights from activists working on the ground across Europe. It is designed as a usable and actionable tool for anyone seeking to understand and improve the situation of Roma rights.

About the Roma Rights Network

The Roma Rights Network is a strategic coalition of 34 member organisations from 18 countries across Europe, convened and coordinated by the European Roma Rights Centre. Its members work through collaborative litigation, policy advocacy, strategic research, and public mobilisation to challenge systemic racism and promote the full inclusion of Roma as equal citizens.

The Roma Rights Review is published in English and available here.

This press release is also available in Albanian, Bulgarian, Czech, French, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Macedonian, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

For further information, or to arrange an interview please contact:

Email: [email protected] Tel: +32 49 288 76 79

This publication has been produced with the financial support of the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the EU nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.*