Doubling Syndemics: Ethnographic Accounts of the Health Situation of Homeless Romanian Roma in Copenhagen

Camilla Ida Ravnbøl Abstract This study investigates health concerns and access to health services for Roma from Romania who live in homelessness in Copenhagen, Denmark. They collect refundable bottles and call themselves “badocari,” which in Romanian refers to “people who work with bottles.” Homeless Roma in Denmark have not previously been studied through ethnographic research. The study stresses the importance of a syndemic approach towards understanding badocari health concerns. Syndemics…

Securing a Right to Health: “Integration villages” and Medical Citizenship of Roma People in France

Daniel Manson Abstract A national deportation campaign targeting Romanian Roma in France has recently drawn international criticism from human rights organizations and the European Union. In this context, some French municipalities have created villages d’insertion—integration villages—for some of their Roma residents. Proponents of these spaces have declared that they are humanitarian solutions to the existence of Roma slums in the urban peripheries of many French cities. Yet the creation of…

Inconvenient Human Rights: Water and Sanitation in Sweden’s Informal Roma Settlements

Martha F. Davis and Natasha Ryan Abstract Following an increase in Roma migration under the European “freedom of movement” laws, Swedish municipalities initiated more than 80 evictions of informal Roma settlements on the grounds of poor sanitation between 2013 and 2016. These evictions echo policies from earlier in the 20th century, when Roma living in Sweden were often marginalized through the denial of access to water and sanitation facilities. The…

Intersectional Discrimination of Romani Women Forcibly Sterilized in the Former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic

Gwendolyn Albert and Marek Szilvasi  Abstract This paper reviews domestic and international activism seeking justice for Romani and other women harmed by coercive, forced, and involuntary sterilization in the former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic. Framed by Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower, it summarizes the history of these abuses and describes human rights campaigns involving domestic and international litigation, advocacy, and grassroots activism, as well as the responses of the Czech…

The Impact of Legal Advocacy Strategies to Advance Roma Health: The Case of Macedonia

Alphia Abdikeeva and Alina Covaci Abstract Across Europe, Roma face exclusion and obstacles in access to health services, resulting in poorer health. While there are legal and policy frameworks for Roma inclusion, implementation often lags behind. Increasing the grassroots capacity of Roma to advocate for accountability in health care and against systemic impediments has been a central focus of Open Society Foundations (OSF) support. This analysis discusses the impact of…

Foreword—Romani Global Diaspora: Implementation of the Right to Health

Rita Izsák-Ndiaye It has long been obvious that the general health status of Roma is much worse than that of non-Roma. Surveys have found that European Roma are disproportionately unvaccinated, have poorer-than-average nutrition, and experience higher rates of infant mortality and tuberculosis. Estimates in 12 European Union (EU) member states suggest that Roma live 7–20 fewer years than non-Roma.[1] However, the lack of standardized and systematic disaggregated data prevents us…

Where Public Health Meets Human Rights: Integrating Human Rights into the Validation of the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis

Eszter Kismödi, Karusa Kiragu, Olga Sawicki, Sally Smith, Sophie Brion, Aditi Sharma, Lilian Mworeko, and Alexandrina Iovita Abstract In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) initiated a process for validation of the elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and syphilis by countries. For the first time in such a process for the validation of disease elimination, WHO introduced norms and approaches that are grounded in human rights, gender equality,…

As the HIV Epidemic among Young Women Grows, Can We Look to the SDGs to Reverse the Trend?

Terry McGovern, Johanna Fine, Carolyn Crisp, and Emily Battistini Abstract To end the growing HIV epidemic among young women, human rights violations must be addressed. The Sustainable Development Goals have the potential to help, but only if political barriers are overcome and a rights-based approach is integrated. Introduction We have long known that biomedical interventions alone will not curb the HIV epidemic among young women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa.…

A Reporting System to Protect the Human Rights of People Living with HIV and Key Populations

R. Taylor Williamson, Vivian Fiscian, Ryan Ubuntu Olson, Fred Nana Poku, and Joseph Whittal Abstract People living with HIV and key populations face human rights violations that affect their access to health services, relationships in their communities, housing options, and employment. To address these violations, government and civil society organizations in Ghana developed a discrimination reporting system managed by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice that links people…

Perspective—Associations Between Police Harassment and HIV Vulnerabilities Among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women in Jamaica

Carmen H. Logie, Ashley Lacombe-Duncan, Kathleen S. Kenny, Kandasi Levermore, Nicolette Jones, Annecka Marshall, and Peter A. Newman Background The criminalization of same-sex practices constrains HIV prevention for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) and, in part due to the conflation of gender and sexuality, transgender women.1 Criminalization is a structural driver of HIV that indirectly influences HIV vulnerability through multiple pathways: decreased funding for…