wr2014_web_0

WORLD REPORT 2014Roma experience discrimination and destitution across the EU. In June, the ECmade recommendations to guide member states in effectively implementingtheir Roma integration strategies. In September, France’s interior minister statedthat most Roma have no wish to integrate, while news emerged thatSwedish police kept unlawful Roma registries. In October, allegations thatproved unfounded of blonde-haired, blue-eyed children being abducted byRoma families in Greece and Ireland prompted CoE Commissioner Muižnieks towarn against irresponsible reporting.In February, Portugal became the first EU country to ratify the CoE Conventionon preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence,followed by Italy in September.In November, the ECtHR found that the exclusion of same-sex couples from civilunions in Greece violated anti-discrimination norms and the right to private andfamily life.CounterterrorismIn its first ruling on European complicity in CIA renditions, in December 2012the ECtHR found Macedonia had violated the torture prohibition and Germancitizen Khaled el-Masri’s rights to liberty and security, an effective remedy, andprivate and family life by illegally detaining him in 2003 and transferring him toUS custody, and for the failure of Macedonian authorities to effectively investigatehis allegations of ill-treatment.The similar cases of Guantánamo detainees Abu Zubaydah, against Poland andLithuania, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, against Poland and Romania, werepending before the ECtHR at time of writing. CoE Commissioner Muižnieks andthe European Parliament in September and October respectively reiterated callsfor accountability for European complicity and for US cooperation in investigations.In September, the EP opened an inquiry into the impact of the US NationalSecurity Agency’s surveillance program on EU citizens’ privacy. The EP isexpected to adopt conclusions and recommendations on the matter in January2014.434