March 27, 2011

Office of the Prime Minister, Borut Pahor
Gregorčičeva 20, 25
1000 Ljubljana
SLOVENIA
gp.kpv@gov.si

Dear Prime Minister:

I’ve learned that Silvana Hudorovac and her family live in a Roma settlement near Ponova vas, with no water or sanitation while nearly 100% of Europeans, like Americans, enjoy free water anytime.

I can’t imagine the world she describes, but for Silvana the daily burden of finding drinkable water is a painful reality. She said, “We have to use the water from the stream which is very dirty. Children vomit and get diarrhea. They don’t allow us to take water from the pipe at the cemetery and at the petrol station; they say that Gypsies should go away.”

Silvana’s struggle for clean water, sanitation and electricity is the same plight of all families subsisting in the many isolated Roma settlements throughout Slovenia, all of which fall far below normal European health and sanitation standards. Roma people are denied these vital public services because their homes are in “irregular settlements,” but widespread discrimination in Slovenia forces Roma families out of towns and into these wastelands. Discrimination against Roma people in Slovenia is so entrenched that entire communities and local authorities prohibit Roma families from moving into towns and villages.

The only other option, social or subsidized housing, is extremely scarce.

I know you would agree that housing, water and sanitation are essential human rights and must be accessible to every person in Slovenia. I urge you to:

•  Ensure immediate provision of at least the minimum amount of safe water for personal and domestic use and a basic level of adequate sanitation to all informal settlements;

•  Ensure security of tenure to all residents of informal settlements and offer alternative housing options, in consultation with the affected Roma communities, which do not lead to further segregation;

•  Address the discrimination that the Roma face every day, especially in access to standard housing; and provide effective remedies for Slovenian victims of human rights violations.

(Based on a template for one of 3 cases presented in March 2011 by Amnesty International Freedom Writers Network, a letter-writing campaign on behalf of people facing human rights abuses worldwide.)