Today, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the body monitoring states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, reviews Germany's compliance with the Covenant. On the occasion of the review, the ERRC has provided comprehensive documentation of a number of human rights issues facing Sinti and Roma in Germany to the Committee.

High levels of anti-Romani sentiment in Germany, arbitrary limitations on freedom of movement, racially motivated violence against Sinti and Roma in Germany, and the expulsion of Roma from Germany as a matter of policy raise serious concerns regarding the ability of Roma to realise the rights enshrined in the Covenant.

Permeating and underlying many aspects of Germany's poor human rights record with respect to Sinti and Roma are administrative efforts to prevent non-citizen Roma in Germany from integrating in Germany. Of particular concern is the status of "tolerated" ("geduldet"), through which many Roma factually in Germany for periods of often a decade or longer have been prevented from enjoying lives with dignity in Germany. Many of these persons live under threat of expulsion from Germany, and in recent years German authorities have in fact expelled large numbers of Roma from Germany. In a number of instances, German authorities have even forced Roma to go to Kosovo, where they face persecution.

In Germany, Sinti and Roma have also been targeted for racist attacks and have experienced degrading treatment at the hands of law enforcement officials. German authorities have for the most part failed to provide justice even in the most extreme attacks on Sinti and Roma, such as in the case of the 1992 firebombing of an asylum-seekers hostel in the northern German city of Rostock.

Germany has also not managed to keep pace with evolving standards on anti-discrimination law in Europe. Germany was under deadline to bring the substance of European Union rules combating racial discrimination into its domestic law by July 2003. To date, the German government has not yet done so. The German government has tabled a number of drafts of an anti-discrimination law, but it has not yet managed to adopt any of these draft bills into law. Also, the German government has not yet ratified Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, providing a comprehensive ban on discrimination on a number of grounds in the exercise of any right secured by law, nor has Germany ratified the Revised European Social Charter.

Issues presented in detail in the materials provided by the ERRC to the UN Human Rights Committee include: 
� Arbitrary Limitations on the Recognition of the Sinti and Roma Minority in Germany 
� Forcible Expulsion of Roma from Germany 
� Arbitrary Limitations on Freedom of Movement 
� Arbitrary Limitations on the Rights to Freedom of Expression and Assembly 
� Violence and Other Cruel and Degrading Treatment of Roma 
� Failure to Provide Sufficient Legal Protections against Racial Discrimination

The submission concludes with a number of recommendations aimed at providing a framework through which the very serious human rights issues facing Sinti and Roma in Germany can be remedied. The full text of the ERRC submission is available on the Internet at: http://www.errc.org/news.shtml