Essay On Roma Rights Crisis

In most cases of human rights abuses, it’s easy to identify the problem, but it’s infinitely more difficult to find viable solutions. What’s difficult about the Roma rights crisis is that it’s difficult to convince people that a problem even exists in the first place. The question for the average French citizen isn 't "How do we solve the problem?"; it more closely resembles “Is there a problem?” or “Should we fix it?” This is not unprecedented: those who benefit from a system of oppression often believe the system is fair, that the racial disparity is justified. One of the first steps to fighting the Roma rights crisis is to boldly declare that the identified structural violence is worth fixing. Despite their necessity, policies to help the Roma are overwhelmingly unpopular with the French public. Some may argue that no action should be taken to integrate the Roma because integration policies lack public support. The will of the people is not always moral; lest we forget the Nazi party was democratically elected. The opinion of the majority cannot undermine the minority’s right to human decency. When public opinion dictates that a certain set of people don’t deserve the …show more content…
To do so, I will examine the current state of Roma rights in France through the lens of Rise, Ropp, and Sikkink’s spiral model, using Hans Peter Schmitz’s application of the model to Kenya and Uganda as theoretical framework. France’s response to the Roma rights crisis is now in Phase 3 of 5 of the spiral model. France remained in Phase 1, deteriorating human rights conditions, for centuries (Schmitz 41). Only in the past century had France’s reaction moved through Phase 2: initial mobilizations of NGO networks and government denial; and has since transitioned into Phase 3: tactical concessions and increased domestic mobilization (Schmitz 44,