Targeting Marginalised Roma Communities in Slovakia: An Analysis of Official Measures During the Covid-19 Pandemic
President and Senior Research of the Minority Issues Research Institute Dr Svetluša Surová has written a chapter “Targeting Marginalised Roma Communities in Slovakia: An Analysis of Official Measures During the Covid-19 Pandemic.” in the book The D-Word: Perspectives on Democracy in Tumultuous Times, edited by Christi van der Westhuizen, Siphiwe Dube and Zwelethu Jolobe published in Gqeberha by Mandela University Press.
In her chapter Dr Svetluša Surová analyses measures that targeted members of MRCs during the pandemic in Slovakia from a rights-based perspective. The main research questions focus on how these anti-coronavirus measures were issued: which actor ordered the measure, what kind of measure, on what legal basis, and for what reasons. While these measures limited and even violated the fundamental rights and freedoms of MRC members, they are scrutinised in terms of legality, proportionality, and temporariness.
The book engages international debates about the current challenges facing democracy. Given the proliferation of “crisis” literature on democracy, this volume finds its distinctive niche in presenting perspectives from the global margins that bridge disciplinary, sectoral, national and conceptual divides. South Africans converse with scholars and activists from elsewhere in the Global South, including the Arab world and the rest of Africa, and from the European periphery. Insights on democracy are offered from a diversity of perspectives and voices, spanning philosophy, socio-legal and political studies, sociology, public administration, and queer and gender studies and activism. The book will be of interest to academics, activists, policymakers, development planners, and the general public.