The Roma LGBTIQ Minority and its Status in Selected EU Countries (CZ, SK and HU)

The present analytical report on the situation of LGBTIQ Roma is part of the project Roma LGBTIQ go visible: supporting activities for Roma LGBTIQ minority, implemented by ARA ART in conjunction with Quo Vadis and Diverse Youth Network, and funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic research study of its kind within the European Union (EU) that provides not just theoretical, but also practical insight into multiple/intersectional discrimination with respect to the situation of LGBTIQ Roma from the perspective of public authorities and CSOs working in the field. Research in the three countries has found that there is both a conceptual and a legal vacuum with respect to multiple/intersectional discrimination: vacuums that exist against a backdrop of human rights protections for ethnic/racial and sexual/gender minorities being reversed, along with a general trend of weakening equality bodies. Importantly, however, some stakeholders have been able to find constructive solutions and there is some leeway for addressing cases of multiple/ intersectional discrimination, including those concerning LGBTIQ Roma. The analytical report consists of five parts. Part 1, Methodology, provides an outline of the methodological framework of the study, including how it was devised and why it was devised that way, response rates and their impact on the quality of the data collected, analysed and interpreted for each of the three countries. Part 2 describes the institutional context of multiple/intersectional discrimination with respect to equality bodies and other institutional watchdogs ensuring the implementation and upholding of equal treatment and non-discrimination as founding principles of the EU and in each of the three Member States. Part 3 offers key findings, emanating from the analysis and interpretation of the responses given by public authorities and CSOs, as well as from the desk research that complemented the data collection. This has been done as a general overview of the overall situation in the three countries under investigation, with emphasis put on realistic, feasible and constructive recommendations following each of the three key findings concerning multiple/ intersectional discrimination, including in relation to the position of LGBTIQ Roma. Part 4 offers country-specific findings in each of the three countries. This entails a more detailed analysis and description of the overall socio-legal situation with respect to multiple/intersectional discrimination in each country as captured in the responses by public authorities and CSOs and emanating from the additional desk research. Having gone from more general findings in Part 3 to specific findings in Part 4, Part 5, looks at some common trends observed in the three countries thus far and speculates as to what they may mean for future developments regarding human rights, fundamental freedoms, non-discrimination and equality not only in the Visegrad Four (V4) region of which they are a part, but also within the wider EU. The report concludes that given the backlash against equality, human rights, minority rights and gender discourses currently underway in the V4, the EU, and globally, as well as given the uncertainty of the global pandemic, forming intersectional alliances, using an intersectional approach and embedding intersectionality at the heart of national and transnational ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ law seem to be some of the possible and plausible solutions that would open avenues for participation and action across different demographic groups, regional areas, disciplines and issues.