PROFILE OF ETEPE – GHM – MRG-G - SOKADRE

 
Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), founded in 1993, monitors, publishes, lobbies, and litigates on human and minority rights and anti-discrimination issues in Greece and, from time to time, in the Balkans. It also monitors Greek and, when opportunity arises, Balkan media for stereotypes and hate speech. It issues press releases and prepares (usually jointly with other NGOs) detailed annual reports; parallel reports to UN Treaty Bodies; and specialized reports on ill-treatment and on ethno-national, ethno-linguistic, religious and immigrant communities, in Greece and in other Balkan countries. It operates a web site (http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr) and two web lists covering human rights issues and comprehensive and comparable presentations of minorities in the Balkan region.

 
Minority Rights Group - Greece (MRG-G), founded in 1992, focuses on studies of minorities, in Greece and in the Balkans. In 1998, MRG-G co-founded with GHM the Center of Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe – Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE) which contributes to GHMΆs web site and two web lists with material on minorities in the region. It has prepared comprehensive reports on ethno-national, ethno-linguistic, and religious communities in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, and Romania, available at http://www.cedime.net. In 1999-2002, MRG-G organized in Greece training and regional seminars for minorities as well as a mentoring program for tent-dwelling Roma. Out of the latter emerged, in 2001, the Coordinated Organizations and Communities for Roma Human Rights in Greece (SOKADRE), a network of 30 Roma communities and 5 Roma and non-Roma NGOs.

 
The Coordinated Organizations and Communities for Roma Human Rights in Greece (SOKADRE) is a network founded in 2001; its members include 30 Roma communities and 5 Greek NGOs that have been working on Roma rights. It is legally registered in Greece through its managing NGO Communication and Political Research Society (ETEPE), accredited as NGO by the Greek Ministry of Foreign AffairsΆ Hellenic International Development Cooperation Department - Hellenic Aid (YDAS). SOKADRE advocates for and litigates on the rights of the destitute Roma of Greece, mainly in the areas of housing and preventing evictions, education, access to social services, proper civil registration, ill-treatment and non-discrimination including fighting racial profiling by law enforcement agencies. It operates through a network of volunteer representatives in the 30 member communities and in several other non-member communities. 

 
GHM, MRG-G, and SOKADRE are legally registered in Greece through their managing NGO Communication and Political Research Society (ETEPE), accredited as NGO by the Greek Ministry of Foreign AffairsΆ Hellenic International Development Cooperation Department – ΅Hellenic AidΆ (No. 306/2004). ETEPE is managed and legally represented by its manager Panayote Dimitras.

Contact

Address: P.O. Box 60820, GR-15304 Glyka Nera

Telephone: (+30) 2103472259 Fax: (+30) 2106018760