Voices of the Voiceless - NOHA Alumni Community

Nick van Praag © The World Bank
8 ...C’neCt - 16 th Edition / July 2013
demonstrated by the increase in
infant mortality among this ethnic
group. Victims of child marriage
also face heightened vulnerability
to poverty, severe forms of exploitation
and domestic violence. There
has not yet been any real effort
of any international or national
authority to address the problem
of child marriage among the Roma
community, and to a certain extent
this silence also rules in civil society
groups.
At
the same time, discrimination
against the Roma on
the basis of race and sex is common
in several social services.
School segregation, employment
discrimination and limited access
to health care are reported in many
European countries. They remain
far behind others in terms of educational
attainment, employment
levels, housing and health standards
and they have almost no political
representation. Their exclusion
from society encourages prejudices
and makes them victims of
flagrant racism. As concluded by
the EU agency for human rights
(FRA) “Roma are Europe's most
discriminated minority”.
St
ates have the responsibility
to protect, preserve
and develop minority cultures as
part of the European Heritage,
but this work must go hand in
hand with specific efforts to prevent
practices that harm individuals
and restrain their fundamental
human rights. It is time to
implement concrete actions, from
the policy level to on-the-ground
education that guarantees all women
and girls their fundamental
freedoms and rights even if this
means going against traditional
customs and practices. As mere
individuals, we all know that negative
attitudes towards Roma are
not just a concern for national
authorities and international organisations,
but also for us all.
Paula Fernández Seijo
Sexual
Violence
Against
Men
On
a cold October day in
Berlin, Salome Atim
addressed a full room of humanitarian
workers, doctors, and students
(including some Bochum
NOHAs) and said in a matter-offact
tone: ‘The police attitude is
that men cannot be raped.’
At
im, a counseling psychologist,
spoke alongside
Wynne Russell, an Australian
researcher, about the challenges
and realities facing male survivors
of sexual violence in her
home country of Uganda. She
talked about the difficulties these
men face when they seek help in
their homophobic country, citing
examples of counseling staff reacting
with ‘Are you homosexual?’
when a client reports that he
has been raped.
‘The police attitude is
that men cannot be
raped.’
“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” ― Anne Frank