By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ROME, Italy – This week Rome began implementing a plan to demolish over 200 illegal Roma camps around the Italian capital.  The plan calls for the destruction of 4-5 camps per week over the coming months, displacing an estimated 1,000 Roma (otherwise known as Gypsies).

Local authorities have said they are giving displaced Roma options of resettlement, integration, or repatriation.  Sveva Belviso, who works for the mayor of Rome, said less than 1,000 Roma will be evicted and the city will “offer assistance to the young, old, and sick.”  The city is also preparing at least 10 official camps on the outskirts of the city, which will accommodate approximately 6,000 Roma.  Read more...

By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KHARKIV, Ukraine – Local news outlets reported on Wednesday that a key witness in the case of missing Ukrainian journalist, Vasyl Klymentyev, is also missing.  Petro Matviyenko, another witness in the case and Klymentyev’s colleague, would not reveal the name of the missing witness but stated he had confirmed the disappearance with law enforcement.

The police are believed to be involved in the disappearance and possible death of Klymentyev, who was last seen getting into a car with an unidentified man on August 11, 2010 after leaving his home in Kharkiv.  His cell phone and keys were later found on an empty boat floating in a reservoir near Kharkiv.  Read more...

By Tristan Simoneau
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France - On Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered authorities to expel Gypsy illegal immigrants and dismantle their camps.  This announcement comes after last week’s riot in the town of Saint Aignan where dozens of Gypsies armed with crude weapons attacked a police station and burned cars after police shot dead a Gypsy during a car chase.  In response to the violence in Saint Aignan, Sarkozy stated that some members of the migrating minorities pose security “problems.”

By Tristan Simoneau
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Photo: Cars burn during rioting in Belfast on July 12th. [Source: CNN]

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - On July 11th, riots erupted in Belfast when a Protestant march passed through areas mainly populated by Catholics.  Despite the calm in the region since a 1998 peace deal, violence still often breaks out around July 12th as Catholics try to prevent marches.  Known as The Twelfth, the holiday has been marred by violence and has been a continuing source of tension between Catholics and Protestants. The date marks Prince William of Orange’s victory over the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.  The month of July is the height of the “marching season”, a six-month period in which the pro-British Protestant fraternal organization, the Orange Order, takes to the streets to celebrate the ascension of William of Orange to the British throne.  The past decade has seen a gradual decrease of tension between the groups, until this year.  Read more...

ICC judges issued an arrest warrant charging al-Bashir with three counts of genocide: by killing, by causing mental and physical harm, and "by deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction." (Photo Courtesy of ABC)

By Sovereign Hager
Managing Editor- News, Impunity Watch

THE HAGUE, Netherlands-The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a second arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir. The chamber found reasonable grounds to believe Bashir responsible for three counts of genocide committed against the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups.  Read more...

By Yoohwan Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Photo: Relatives gathered to mourn the deaths of their husbands and sons, victims of the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre. [Source:  AP]

SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina – On Sunday, July 11, more than 50,000 people gathered for a ceremony at the Potocari cemetery near Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina to commemorate the 15th anniversary of one of the worst atrocities in Europe, when Bosnian Serb paramilitaries executed nearly 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys.  Read more...

By Tristan Simoneau
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Photo: Cardinal Godfried Danneels. [Source: Catholic News Agency

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By Yoohwan Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France – The French parliament begins their debate today on a controversial bill to ban full-face veils, such as the burqa and the niqab, worn by some Muslim women in public.  The proposed bill is the focus of the ongoing conflict between Islam and France’s secular system, which rigorously separates the church and the state.  Read more...

By Tristan Simonu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Photo: Natalka, the three year old victim of the arson attack. [Source: White Watch]

VITKOV, Czech Republic – Natalka Kudrikova is a three year old girl recovering from severe burns she suffered last year after a Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of her family home in Vitkov.  Read more...

By Yoohwan Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Photo: All EU member states do not allow same sex marriages. [Source: Justout.com]

STRASBOURG, France – On June 24 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that European nations are not legally obliged to allow and recognize same sex marriages.

An Austrian couple, Hörst Schalk and Johann Kopf, brought a case against Austria in 2004 after the couple sought a marriage permit in Vienna in 2002.  Austrian law only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman, and the country refused to give the gay couple a marriage license.  Read more...