Mauro is a well-known Italian AIDS activist who previously worked as a chair of GNP+, an advocate group, and recently works for the International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute. He is a former injecting drug user and he lives with HIV/AIDS.He was interviewed by our crew at the International Conference on the Drug Related Harms in Warsaw, 2007.
On June 13, 2013 the trial of the actio popularis against the Heves County Police begins at the County Court of Eger. The lawsuit was initiated by the HCLU against the Police for discriminating against the Roma in Gyöngyöspata based on their ethnicity and skin color during and following the extremist “patrols” of 2011. At stake: will the court hold the state responsible for the discriminative treatment of the Roma?
Under the guise of observations "in service of the residents”, uniformed men terrorize children and harass adults based on their ethnicity or national status in Magyarbánhegyes. According to this, it seems as if police did not defend locals against persecution. (The Civil Guard Association for a Better Future with other extremist anti-Roma groups – pretending to be militiamen and vindicating the right to maintain public order – have started a systematic campaign of intimidation against the Roma for weeks in Gyöngyöspata, Hungary in April 2011. They illegally patrolled the village and provoked the Roma adults and children.The HCLU published its Shadow Report and a documentary video about the events. The summary of the Shadow Report can be found here.
Harm reduction centres in Budapest are running out of supplies, posing the threat of an HIV epidemic.