CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Mihalache, Oana Luiza |
|---|---|
| Title | STATE RESPONSES TO HATE CRIME AND VIOLENCE AGAINST ROMA IN HUNGARY AND ROMANIA: LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE US EXPERIENCE |
| Summary | The thesis is seeking answers to the question of what were the factors that influenced the hate crime and violence victims’ quest for justice. The thesis will focus on these two countries, Romania and Hungary, as the situations are comparable from various angles, presenting similarities, as well as significant differences. It is useful to see the experiences of the two countries as to seek prevention tools. The first chapter aims at setting the background for the thesis. The reader will be introduced to the main events in Roma history, particularly in Romanian and Hungarian contexts. This section briefly introduces historical data, referring to Roma in Romania and Hungary, focusing primarily on how historical events have influenced the perception of the majority with regard to Roma. Historical events such as the slavery in Romanian territories, the Holocaust and deportation of Roma, are presented from the perspective of their impact on the society’s perception of Roma. The communist regime in the two countries and its role on interethnic relations is also portrayed in this section. As the Roma is, atypically, a stateless nation, it is significantly important to see how they have been received by countries such as Hungary and Romania. It is relevant for the purpose of the thesis to see how the majority populations in both countries have perceived Roma as “newcomers” or “outsiders”, and how that influenced what happened to Roma people throughout history, as well as their current status. While there is significant literature focusing on the causes of hate crime, anti-Gypsyism and prejudice against Roma, in general, there is no analysis on what the states’ responses were or should be, especially from a comparative perspective. A literature review section will be included in the Background chapter. The second chapter focuses on defining, according to existent literature, key concepts which will be used throughout the thesis: hate crime, inter-ethnic violence, inter-ethnic conflict or inter-ethnic tension, legal redress or remedies. The second chapter further addresses the legal provisions on hate crime in each country and their effectiveness (Romania, Hungary and U.S). This chapter will analyse at whether the legal provisions are appropriate in order to respond adequately to hate crimes. The third chapter will start building answers to the research question, by looking on how hate-crime legislation is being implemented, how effective it is and especially why it works the way it does in each compared state. The international pressure on the states to address hate crime and violence targeting Roma will also be analysed, particularly from the perspective of its effect on the existent legislation. The third chapter further brings to discussion the interethnic relations in Hungary and Romania, in a comparative perspective. The de facto situation in each country will be presented, by briefly mentioning well-known incidents (either hate crime incidents or inter-ethnic conflicts). This chapter will look at how the legal system has worked particularly, for victims of hate crime and violence of the two case studies analysed. It will assess the effectiveness of the juridical approaches of the states, by looking at the police, prosecution and courts responses. Finally, the fourth chapter looks at what the role of the civil society was and is in ensuring victims access adequate remedies. It firstly looks at what was the impact of regional and international pressure on how the civil society articulated their reactions. Actions of Roma self-organizing and non-Roma organizations will be analysed. Secondly, it looks on the legal approaches of the civil society, in all three jurisdictions. Thirdly, it reviews the civil rights movement’s role in addressing mass racial violence in U.S. The comparative focus of this chapter is the lack of mass movements of Roma, unlike the U.S. African-American experience in order to highlight whether such Roma mass movement would make a difference in responding to hate crime and violence. |
| Supervisor | Farkas, Lilla; Bárd, Petra |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/mihalache_oana.pdf |
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