Meeting with the Mayor of Niksic Municipality

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Friday, 02 July 2021 10:49

On July 1, the Executive Director of the NGO Young Roma, Mr. Samir Jaha, participated in a meeting with the new Mayor of Nikšić, Mr. Marko Kovačević. On that occasion, he congratulated him on his new position and pointed out that the Roma community has higher expectations from the new authorities for a stronger commitment and solving the problems of the Roma community at the local level. He introduced him to the activities of the ROMACTED programme in the first phase, the most important of which was the opening and equipping of the office for social inclusion associates in the local school.

The Municipality of Nikšić is the first Municipality to create and adopt a Local Action Plan for the inclusion of Roma back in 2008 at the initiative of the NGO Pocetak. Later, two more action plans were made and adopted, one of which is still active - until 2022. Niksic is the second municipality in terms of the number of Roma and Egyptians and has close to 1000 members. What makes the municipality of Niksic also specific in relation to other cities is that it has close to 10 Roma organizations and various activists who have carried out or are carrying out various activities that contribute to the inclusion of this community to a certain extent. In addition to all the efforts and funds invested so far by various actors, the problems still exist. The housing of the Roma community is an unavoidable topic of any meeting, including this one. We also learned today that the president extended the contract of the only member of the Roma community who is employed in the municipality, and who started working last year. There will be similar meetings in the coming period, and we believe in concrete results.

The meeting was initiated by the Council of Europe office within the ROMACTED programme. The meeting was also attended by a representative of the Ministry of Justice, Human and Minority Rights, Mr. Sokolj Beganaj. The President and the Head of the Cabinet were informed by the project officer of the ROMACTED programme, Ms. Milica Kovačević, about the planned activities and opportunities for cooperation and contribution to the Roma community within the second phase of the ROMACTED programme.