Photo by Jozef Kotulič from Wikimedia Commons
The League of Human Rights Advocates (LHRA) in Slovakia has developed a network of volunteer human rights monitors within the minority Roma population. They did this to ensure that international human rights treaties are implemented at the local level. As part of its work to become a member of the European Union, Slovakia ratified a number of treaties relating to human rights and was vulnerable to criticism of their human rights record. In addition, the constitution of the Slovak Republic gives priority, over domestic laws, to international human rights treaties ratified and passed into law by its parliament.
Monitoring Approach Bridges Policy Gaps
LHRA’s monitoring approach helps to bridge the gap between the locus of abuse and the policies, laws and treaties created to prevent or stop a violation. Often the only discussion of these abuses and the laws or policies to prevent them occurs in high-level political and diplomatic forums. The LHRA recruits people from the disenfranchised population to serve as human rights monitors. The monitors learn, often for the first time, about their own rights under national and international law. They then work with the LHRA to enforce those rights — signed into existence in far-off capitals — in their own town halls, police stations, schools and communities. The information from local monitors presents the true, on-the-ground impact of national and international laws in the country.
The Roma monitors are recruited through word of mouth. LHRA educates them about the relevant human rights instruments and the government authorities responsible for their implementation. They then arrange introductory meetings with the police, mayors, community leaders and others, adding legitimacy and authority to the monitors’ work. The network is divided into eight regions. Regional coordinators work with LHRA headquarters to recruit and train monitors (roughly 48 in all).
Compiling Information From Victims, Authorities
When the monitors prepare for their work, they receive an LHRA identity card. They are provided with letters of introduction to present to local authorities. When an alleged abuse occurs, they go to the community to compile information from victims and from the involved authorities. The monitoring focuses on a number of issues. These include employment, living conditions, education, health care, political participation, racially motivated violence and access to public facilities and services.
LHRA’s national office synthesizes all the monitors’ work into regular national reports and publishes its own periodical. As a result of this monitoring tactic, a range of human rights abuses occurring at the local level have been exposed. More victims of abuse have started to come forward with more complaints. The government, over time, has implemented policies to address discrimination in education, housing and employment.
For more information on this tactic, read our in-depth case study.
