A/HRC/31/CRP.2 Roma in Colombia no longer travel or maintain itinerant lifestyles due to the ongoing conflict in the country, which impedes their ability to move freely. 24. The Roma community in Ecuador is small and largely invisible. Roma arrived in the country at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, travelling throughout the country. Today, Ecuador’s Roma predominantly reside in the provinces of Carchi, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, El Oro, Guayas, Imbabura, Manabí, Pichincha and Tungurahua. It is estimated that there are approximately 5000 Roma in Ecuador today. 25. There is, however, no official data on the Roma population in Ecuador, and Roma is not an ethnic category in the national Census. In response to the questionnaire issued by the Special Rapporteur in preparation for her global study on Roma, the Government of Ecuador noted that despite their best efforts, they had been unable to locate or get in contact with any community members.12 In 2012 the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) noted with regret that the Government of Ecuador ‘considers the Ecuadorian population of Roma origin to be a foreign group and that it does not have up-todate information on the enjoyment by the Ecuadorian people of Roma origin of their rights’.13 26. The Roma community in Peru numbers approximately 5,000, although no official data exists to confirm this estimate. In general, Roma live collectively, grouped around central family ties. Many members of the community are descendants of the Central European Roma who migrated in the 1930s in order to escape Nazism in Europe. The population is currently expanding, however, as a number of Mexican Roma have moved to Peru in recent years. The newly arrived Mexican Roma have sought to maintain their own distinct identity away from the Peruvian Roma community, and have established their own communities of approximately 50–60 persons. B. Awareness and understanding of Roma communities 27. Throughout the Americas, Roma are very proud of their distinct cultures, identities, languages, traditions and roots. They hope to be able to maintain their distinct identities, and to be afforded the respect and recognition they deserve. All regret, however, that apart from negative stereotypes, there are so few references in historical documents or literature to their existence as minorities and the contributions they have made to their countries. All the participants reported the existence of discriminatory attitudes towards Roma in the societies in which they live. Stereotypes such as the ‘lazy Gypsy’ prevail, and Roma are often characterized as “vagabonds, kidnappers and criminals who steal and cheat or participate in sorcery, fortune telling and witchcraft”. Roma complain that these stereotypes are perpetuated by the mainstream media. Participants reported that as Roma they regularly experience direct discrimination on account of their ethnicity. 28. Participants from Argentina noted the widespread negative and discriminatory attitudes of the general public towards Roma. They mentioned incidents of police harassment and violence experienced by Roma communities, and that they believe that they are the victims of racial profiling. So-called preventative raids have been carried out on Roma houses by law-enforcement authorities without any legal basis, purely because of presumptions made about criminality based on the ethnicity of the occupants. Participants 12 13 The response of the Government of Ecuador to the Questionnaire issued by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Roma worldwide is available from http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/IEMinorities/ProtectionRoma/Ecuador.pdf. CERD, Concluding observations on the combined 20th to 22nd periodic reports of Ecuador, adopted by the Committee at its eighty-first session, 6–31 August 2012, CERD/C/ECU/CO/20-22, para. 13. 7