The Helsinki Committee in the March report on the human rights situation reported that the Commission for Protection against Discrimination established direct discrimination in access to goods and services for two persons of Roma ethnicity from Art Cafe Aporea from Prilep based on skin color and ethnicity .
Testing a situation is a method used in cases of discrimination in which facts and evidence are missing and which is difficult to prove.
In order to determine this discriminatory practice, a situation was tested in Art Cafe Aporea Prilep, through which the access and quality of service in the cafe bar of Roma were tested, by setting up comparators - control testers - that is, non-Roma people.
Namely, when the testers arrived in front of the cafe bar and, according to the test script, they tried to get into the building and order a drink, before the door of the coffee bar they were welcomed by a waiter who did not let them enter with an explanation that there was no place. On the question of the testers why they can not enter the cafe bar and the indication that there are free tables on the cafe bar terrace, the waiter told them that all the tables were reserved and repeated to them that they could not enter.
On the other hand, control testers, persons of Macedonian ethnicity, said that they had access to the cafe bar, that is, at the entrance of the cafe bar they were welcomed by a waiter who asked them where they wanted to sit down, accompanied them to the desired table and immediately after the order was brought their order.
Control testers said the waiter behaved kindly and culturally.
This restriction on the access of persons of Roma ethnicity by Art Cafe Aporea Prilep based on their ethnicity and skin color is a direct discrimination in access to goods and services.
Recommendation: The Helsinki Committee welcomes this opinion of the Commission for Protection against Discrimination, adopted in the legally prescribed time frame, based on the conducted testing of the situation as a method of proving discrimination. We appeal to Art Cafe Aporea Prilep in the future to provide uninterrupted and equal access and quality of service to persons of Roma ethnicity. In addition, we invite all citizens who feel discriminated on any grounds, to report the same to the Helsinki Committee.
