The Legal Defence
Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities (NEKI) was established
in 1994 within the framework of the Otherness Foundation. It was
established in order to provide legal defence for persons whose
rights were violated as a result of their ethnic origin.
During
12 years of operation, we have received thousands of
complaints from thousands of complainants, resulting in hundreds
of cases being represented by our organisation. However our work
cannot be measured on the basis of statistics alone. There are
individuals behind every number who have suffered discrimination
during job interviews, judicial procedures, the administration
of local councils, in healthcare and in many other areas of
everyday life for the simple reason that they happened to be
born Roma. These are the very people we provide legal defence
for.
Our representative cases
are published annually in the White Booklet. This publication,
however, can never truly reflect the tireless work of our
attorneys and other specialists working either in our office or
outside it, nor can it truly show the will and hard work of our
clients, which they need during the procedures often lasting for
many years. This struggle requires true devotion to the aims of
the organisation on behalf of all the people involved. It is not
the high number of successful test cases that I consider our
real achievement. It is rather the fact that there are more and
more people who now understand that human dignity is on a par
with human life. The violation of neither of them can go
unpunished.
dr. Imre Furmann
curator
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