Roma women experience triple discrimination in Ukraine

The Roma women experience double and sometimes triple discrimination in Ukraine.

The Roma women are discriminated by their own patriarchal community and the Ukrainian community, the Charitable Foundation “Development” notes.

According to the human rights activists, the main reasons for violation of rights of the Roma women are the following:

• Justification of child marriage by the traditional way of life of the Roma people;
• Gender inequality in all the aspects of public life;
• Poverty in the social and domestic life;
• National and regional policy of ignoring the issue of the Roma people;
• Romophobia, as a derivative of xenophobia;
• Critically low level of education among the Roma women in Zakarpattia region in western Ukraine.

The Foundation experts calculated that 380 Roma women were among 550 women in Mukachevo (Zakarpattia region), who received assistance for pregnancy and childbirth in 2014. The same situation is observed with the low-income families, including 40 minor families.

“It is the teenage pregnancy which becomes an irrevocable obstacle to enforcement of all human rights of the Roma women in general and their individual self-realization in particular. Early pregnancy is a sign of the poverty, the failure to shape their own future, the full-fledged pressure from society and the state. However, the early marriage and pregnancy are the obstacle not only for the Roma girls. Some of the boys as future fathers also cease their studies in order to get low-paid work and support their future family,” the Foundation’s experts note.

According to the human rights activists, the early pregnancy may result in the violation of the right to education, health care, and social rights of the Roma girls.

The Roma girls are often unable to overcome the double and triple discrimination because of the lack of information and limited access to educational resources.