Press Release - Regional Roma Council

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Thursday, 10 September 2015 10:40

On the occasion of the 28th International Steering Committee Meeting of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, as well as the Final Conference of the Decade of the Roma, to be held on 10-11 September in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will address the achievements and results in four areas of the Decade of Roma activities: employment, housing, health and education.

Roma non-governmental organizations, members of the Regional Roma Council (RRC), forerunners of the coalitions of Roma and pro-Roma NGOs in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia, with a view to effectively involving Roma communities in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of public policies affecting Roma, believe it is essential and absolutely necessary to maintain the continuation of the Decade of Roma process, thus point to the launching of the Second Decade of Roma which would have significant and favourable internal and external implications in all the countries where this process would be launched. On this occasion, the Regional Roma Council adopted the Declaration on 21 July 2015 in Belgrade, to be proposed on the Final Conference in Sarajevo.

The Declaration of the Regional Roma Council points, inter alia, to the following:

Recognizing the necessity of the continuous development and emancipation of Roma and harmonized action between the  established mechanisms and institutions working on this issue, which requires a multi-generational commitment to the idea of Roma inclusion in the society of the European citizens as well as the use of the overall institutional, scientific, academic and political experience gained during the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, with the aim of establishing a new European policy towards Roma based on the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, ensuring the participation of Roma in such policy and contributing to a better life of Roma  citizens, security, peace and stability in the region, in the adopted Declaration the Romani NGOs, members of the Regional Roma Council:

1. Undertake to continue the activities
2. Commit themselves to evaluating the results and achievements professionally, precisely and accurately, and to informing the national and international public thereof. Commit themselves also to proposing to the governments a new methodology for monitoring and measuring the results achieved in Roma inclusion, in accordance with EU practice in Roma inclusion, poverty reduction, the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform and in the EU accession process;
3. Call on their governments and governments of other countries and international organizations to launch a new Decade of Roma Inclusion in order to continue the systematic work on this matter which began with the first Decade and started yielding results according to the established goal that has yet to be achieved, based on the decisions already made and the Declaration signed within the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 on the continuation thereof;
4. Request adequate policies, institutional and professional capacities for implementation thereof and precisely defined financial resources for this purpose from the states and from the European Commission.
5. Request the European Commission, in particular, and all  international organizations and relevant governments, in general, to ensure active and substantial participation of organizations gathered at the Regional Council of Roma in the processes related to policies towards Roma, so that these organizations would have the possibility to hold the governments responsible for achieving the goals of these policies and to prevent declarative assumption of responsibility and marginalization of all these policies;
6. Request their governments, the governments of other states and the European Commission to regularly inform the public
7. This Declaration entered into force on 1 September 2015. The Regional Roma Council calls on all governments, international organizations and other parties interested in the emancipation of Roma and their inclusion into society to take part in, as well as to acknowledge and implement this Declaration.