Roma women’s participation in public life – conference report
The EU Affairs Office recently participated in a conference on Roma women’s participation in public life organized by the European Economic and Social Committee. The event highlighted some of the key challenges Roma women face and some of the obstacles to their participation such as lower levels of education, lack of confidence, discrimination, early marriages and poverty.
The conference brought together a number of international organisations, agencies and NGOs working on Roma inclusion. Mr Topolasnky of EESC stressed that we all have responsibility to ensure women’s participation but some have more power than others – decision makers need to come up with systemic solutions. Anti-gypsyism is flowing through the veins of society and is a blatant form of racism he said.
Ms Balova from the European Commission explained that they had received criticism that the gender dimension was not in the 2011 EU Roma Framework for Roma Integration Strategies and admitted that it requires more attention. However she pointed out that the 2013 Council Recommendation was the first legal instrument on the Roma issue and is huge success from legal and political view. She stressed the need to make a change at local level which is why The European Commission has pushed for national Roma platforms which the Member States will receive money to organise to facilitate dialogue at national and local level. Therefore The Salvation Army where active with Roma communities have the opportunity to get engaged with these national/ local level platforms organised precisely to dialogue with civil society. Information about these events will be put on the national websites according to the Commission.
Other speakers included Swedish MEP Soraya Post, The Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) as well as the Council of Europe. Representatives of The European Roma and Travellers Forum as well as ERIO (European Roma Information Office) were also key speakers at the event.
Tags: Europe