When the protection of, research on and advocacy for human rights meet.
It has been a great honour for the Minority Issues Research Institute (MIRI) representative to participate in the meeting with the Public Defender of Rights (PDOR) JUDr. Róbert Dobrovodský, PhD., LL.M. on October 21, 2024.
The PDOR is an independent body of the Slovak Republic which seeks to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens and controls if they are in line with the rule of law and democratic principles. He scrutinizes if these rights are violated by the state and public policies, actions or even nonactivity.
Meeting at the Office of the Public Defender of Rights. From the left Svetluša Surová, Róbert Dobrovodský and Roman Lysina.
What Was Meeting About
Our President and Senior Research Dr Svetluša Surová presented to the PDOR the results of her research on the securitization and militarized quarantines of Roma settlements during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia.
Further, Dr Surová presented the conclusions of her recently published chapter "Targeting Marginalized Roma Communities (MRCs) in Slovakia: An Analysis of Official Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic", where she analyzed the acts of the Regional Offices of Public Health (58) that were specifically targeting MRCs in the first and second waves of the pandemic.
She has shown to PDOR the "Database of the Official Acts of Regional Offices of Public Health (ROPH) targeting Marginalized Roma Communities (MRCs) in the first and second wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia" which has served as supplementary material for the above-mentioned chapter.
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Publication #3: Targeting Marginalised Roma Communities in Slovakia: Analysis of Official Measures during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Militarized quarantines limited or seriously violated the fundamental rights and freedoms of the members of the Marginalized Roma Communities in Slovakia. (Svetluša Surová)
Why Is This Topic So Important?
At the meeting, parties were discussing the complaint from 2021 filed by Dr Surová to PDOR in which she requested a review of the legality of one quarantine of the Roma settlement Glejovka in Pezinok during the second wave of the pandemic.
The PDOR concluded that the rights and freedoms of people in this settlement were violated by the Regional Office of Public Health in Bratislava and the city of Pezinok. PDOR informed that his office will suggest based on this case among others the change in the law on public health.
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Svetluša Surová gave Róbert Dobrovodský the book "The D-Word: Perspectives on Democracy in Tumultuous Times" edited by C van der Westhuizen, S Dube and Z Jolobe was published in Gqeberha by Mandela University Press in 2023, which includes her research chapter.
Advocacy for the rights of those affected by illegal measures during pandemic
Besides research, and writing scientific papers, Dr Surová published articles on the topic for the general public to warn about the illegality and severe violations of rights of the members of Roma communities by state actors during the pandemic. She has also been doing advocacy on this particular matter from the beginning of the pandemic till now at the international and national levels at different forums and platforms.
Minority Issues Research Institute (MIRI) will propose on Dr Surová’s extensive research on quarantining Roma settlements during the pandemic in Slovakia evidence-based recommendations to improve policies and practices during the crisis towards the general public and also Marginalized Roma Communities (MRCs).
So far interventions
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