Spanish Oddities
Spanish gypsy widow takes her case to the European Court of Human Rights
By m.p.
Oct 17, 2007 - 6:59 PM

El Mundo newspaper reports on Wednesday of the case of a gypsy woman who has been refused a widow’s pension by the state because she and her husband married gypsy style. María Luisa Muñoz is now taking her claim to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after seven years of fighting in the courts in Spain have proved unsuccessful.

She married Mariano Jiménez in 1971, and had six children with him before his death in December 2000. The INSS National Social Security Institute refused her application for a widow’s pension, on the grounds that she was not his spouse, despite his many years of paying into the system.

María Luisa’s first claim to a social court in Madrid was upheld, but was later overturned by a higher court on an appeal placed by the INSS. Her last resort was the Constitutional Court, where all but one of the magistrates voted in the court’s ruling earlier this year that she had not suffered discrimination because of her race.

The Fundación Secretariado Gitano, a non-profit organisation which works for the promotion of the Roma community and who are giving their legal support to María Luisa in her claim, says her situation is a clear example of discrimination and a ‘violation of human rights.’

The FSG also points out that the couple’s marriage took place some years before the 1978 Constitution, at a time when laws which expressly discriminated against the gypsy people were still in force.