Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) held a thematic discussion on Roma in August 2000 and released a statement that included information from Greek nongovernmental organizations that Roma communities near Athens were being evicted to clear land for facilities for the 2004 Olympics.

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

A March 2000 report by the OSCE high commissioner on national minorities on the situation of Roma and Sinti criticized Greece for evictions of Roma, noting that lack of political will at the highest levels of government resulted in inadequate Roma policy implementation by mid-level policy makers and at the local level.

Council of Europe

The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance's (ECRI) "Second Report on Greece (June 2000)" stated that problems of exclusion and discrimination against Roma, immigrants, and Muslims persisted; it encouraged the government to raise public awareness of the "multicultural reality" of Greek society. Rejecting the recommendation, the government denied that Greece is a multicultural society.

In December 1999, the European Court of Human Rights found Greece in violation of religious freedom for convicting the mufti of Komotini of "pretense to authority." The court stated that punishing the religious leader of a group that willingly followed him was incompatible with the religious pluralism required by a democratic society.

The Greek government had not, as of this writing, published the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture report on its 1999 visit.

United States

The U. S. State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999 noted persistent discrimination against immigrants, religious and ethnic minorities, and Roma, but in an apparent contradiction asserted that "most" minorities are "integrated fully into society."