Discrimination Against a Romani Woman Before the European Court of Human Rights
Discrimination Against a Romani Woman Before the European Court of Human Rights

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the case of “la Nena”, a Spanish Romani woman who was denied the right to receive a widow's pension by the highest court in Spain, the Spanish Constitutional Court, in a decision dated 24 May 2007. The woman, María Luisa Muñoz, took her case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg, with the help of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano. Europe's highest court recognised her right to receive a widow's pension in its ruling of 8 December 2009, which concluded that the refusal of the Spanish government to grant a pension because she had been married in accordance with Romani rites was discriminatory and ordered the Spanish government to pay compensation in the sum of 70,000 EUR in damages caused to the plaintiff.

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