Projects / Programmes
Barriers for decent life of members of Roma settlements in the areas defined in the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.05.00 |
Social sciences |
Law |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S110 |
Social sciences |
Juridical sciences |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.05 |
Social Sciences |
Law |
Roma, right to drinking water, education, employment, health care, suggestions, measures
Researchers (6)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Slovenian legislation regulates the special position of the members of the Roma population from the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia downwards. Even though the regulation grants a special status to the members of the Roma population in Slovenia, they are still regularly facing barriers in accessing adequate living conditions, education, employment and health care, which indicates violations of the fundamental human rights, including the right to drinking water. The violation of the latter brings various barriers to the access to drinking water for the members of the Roma population in Slovenia. Consequently, with a limited level of concluded education, the Roma members find it hard to gain employment. Additionally, due to their poor health status, the younger members are more susceptible to disease and find it harder to find legal protection in the field of health law.
Slovenia has been warned on the violations of these international legally binding rights also from the United Nations, Council of Europe and others (expl. the Special adviser of the United Nations for the right to water and sanitation, ...). Hence, it is necessary that these violations be remedied. The goal of this project is to prepare suggestions for a strategic framework to adopt measures to ensure access to drinking water, education, employment and health care, as well as to suggest concrete measures to prepare the National program of measures for the Roma for the period after 2021.
The project will be divided into eight working packages (WP), which will address interconnected questions and it is thus key, that some of these WP are carried out at the same time.
The introductory work on the project will be carried out in WP1, where we will analyse anthropologic studies on access to drinking water in relation to living conditions and analyse examples of best practices. We will prepare a overview of anthropologic studies on water, since anthropology of water addresses water as a source and also as a substance which connects various areas of social life. The anthropologic approach will focus on intercultural comparisons that study examples of society which deal with the challenge of access to water. This will be supplemented also with the interdisciplinary approach in relation to the question of non-equality of global health, public health and with the approach of the study of infrastructure (water networks, sanitation networks, alternative sources of water, etc.). This will be followed by studies of examples of best practice of access to drinking water. The field work will provide the basis for a more detailed examination of how are the poor living conditions connected with the access/lack of access to water and what are the barriers (social exclusion due to lack of hygiene) that the Roma community has to deal with due to the lack of access to drinking water.
In the WP 2, 3 and 4 we will analyse the agents, reasons and barriers to inclusion of the members of the Roma community into education (WP2), employment (WP 3) and health care (WP4) processes in relation to the access to drinking water. As part of all these three WP we will carry out interviews with the members of the Roma community in Slovenia and with various stakeholders in the fields of education, employment and health care on the question of the relation between the access to drinking water and inclusion of the Roma in the relevant access areas. The interviews will be carried out in the towns where the violations of human right to water and other related human rights of the Roma population are the most serious. As a comparison, interviews will also be carried our in towns where the Roma population has bot difficulties in accessing drinking water.
On the basis of the interviews and the analysis thereof, we will prepare in WP 5 the Mapping of agents and barriers to access drinking water and the fundamental living resources, education, employment and health care. The mapping, which will
Significance for science
The anthropologic part of the project will provide an outlook into the anthropology of water and anthropological studies on the Roma. Several documents on the implementation of the Roma policies indicate, that there are historical reasons that the patterns of Roma's habitats are located at the edged of villages or towns. Thus the project is also important, as it will present what are these historical reasons. As part of the contemporary studies on the mobility of populations, it is indicated that the perception of the Roma as nomads or mobile populations is one of the root causes for the late address of the adequate living conditions of the Roma populations. We are therefore anticipating that the data collected in the field will enable us to better understand the implementation of the Roma minority policies before and after 1991. The politics of large empires and later national state, have greatly affected the patterns of the location of Roma settlements and have co-created their nomadic lifestyle, mobility or sedentarization. The Results of this project will also importantly contribute to the understanding that also when it comes to historical reasons, the dynamic of politics and the relationship between the majority and the minority population have affected their status. Additionally, it will also indicate that even if the reasons for the location of the Roma settlements are historic, they can still be socially unfair, unacceptable and can lead to the reproduction of segregation and social inclusion.
Besides the above, the project will present culturally specific nominations of water in different local communities. We are anticipating that the project will also indicate the difference in the understanding of water in various cultural groups in various local societies. No such research has been carried out in Slovenia and this project will thus crucially contribute to the development of the understanding of the right to water and the access to drinking water. These results will not be important only from the perception of the Roma populations, but also from the perception of addressing other problems related to the access to drinking water, such as climate change or security and prevention of armed conflict.
Finally, the project will also contribute to the development of the international legal science, as it will research the issue of the right to water in great details and will provide various options for implementation of this right in various different surroundings, among various cultural groups, and in the relation to addressing discrimination in this field.
Significance for the country
The project contributes to the cultural development of our society, as the factual and not only declaratory access to drinking water ensures the respect of the right to water as the findamental human right, whih indicated the civilizational level of Slovenia.
With the explanations of various cultural characteristics relevant for the understanding and use of water, which will be available to various actors challenged by the access to drinking water (local communities – municipalities, Roma and non/Roma population in various local surroundings, institution for education, employment and health), the project will also offer an opportunity to identify also other conflicts that stem from the current infrastructural solutions.
The project will also have an important role on the economy. The question of the access to drinking water in areas where there access is difficult or scarce, presents a special challenge for the economy in the search of alternative and innovative sollutions and methods of ensuring access to drinking water. The sollution to shi challenges in times of climate change is an economic challenge all around the World. Hence, the project will present an basis for the further develoment of ideas and sollutions by different companies, coprotations and start-ups.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2020
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2019
