Press conference: “Strengthening capacities of Roma for public activism – United we reach more!”

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Friday, 04 March 2016 10:18

Young Roma held a press release on 4 March 2016 at the EU Info Centre in Podgorica. The occasion was the presentation of the project "Strengthening capacities of Roma for public activism - United we can do more!".

 The project is supported by the European Commission through the EU Delegation to Montenegro and implemented by the NGO Young Roma, the Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro and the NGO Coalition Roma Circle.

Mladenka Tešić, Task Manager in the EU Delegation to Montenegro, said that it "essentially important to have one Roma non-governmental organization leading such project, which will, among other things, develop a platform for political and public activism of Roma. All this is aimed at increasing political representation of Roma and the establishment of the first trade union at the national level composed of workers who perform tasks in the area of city cleanliness”. According to her, “the project will contribute to unionisation and political engagement of Roma and, hopefully, soon will result in the first Roma representative in the national Parliament." Samir Jaha, Executive Director of the NGO Young Roma explained that the reasons which motivated the emergence of this project are, above all, in the fact that the process of political socialisation of Roma in Montenegro, is even today in 2016, at the mere beginning. "Montenegro is the only former Yugoslav country in which there are no Roma political parties nor Roma have authentic representatives in the local and national parliaments. On the other hand, when it comes to Roma employed in communal structures, our experiences from the field indicate that their labour rights are not sufficiently respected. We believe that we can significantly improve the economic, social and educational status of our community through capacity building for public activism and unionisation", said Jaha. Srđa Keković , Secretary General  from the Union of Free Trade Unions, employed members of the Roma population are especially vulnerable in the labour market due to insufficient training on the labour and trade union rights and the lack of internal organization. "For these reasons, Roma are often deprived of their employment rights and brought in an unequal position compared to other employees", said Keković. Veselj Beganaj, President of the NGO Coalition Roma Circle, thinks that the realisation of anticipated project activities will increase opportunities for exercise and protection of political rights and influence of Roma on the decision-making process. "Envisaged trainings will allow users to learn more on the mechanisms for the creation of public policies in the areas of greatest importance for the Roma community, namely: employment, information, education and health and social care," concluded Beganaj.

The project “Strengthening capacities of Roma for public activism – United we reach more!”aims at providing support to protection of the social, economic and political rights of Roma in Montenegro through capacity building and unionisation. The main activities envisaged by this action are organizing trainings for Roma activists on human rights advocacy, the political system of Montenegro, public policy and public relations. In addition, training for workers on maintenance of city cleanliness on unionisation will be organised.

The project will result in 1): Improved knowledge of Roma representatives to participate and effectively influence on decision-making process and public policies dealing with Roma issues; 2) Increased level of information and knowledge of Roma population on how to achieve political, economic and social rights; 3)established trade union of workers on maintenance of city cleanliness at the national level, and, hence, improved opportunities for economic and social protection of the target workers.  

The project is supported by European Commission, which provided 91,119.95 EUR for its implementation. The action will be implemented from February 2016 to April 2017.