CA: Position of Roma unsatisfactory [Dan]
- Details
- Monday, 05 October 2015 14:16
In order to remind of the status and position of Roma in Europe, the European Association for the Fight against Racism, whose meber Civic Alliance (CA is a member, organized today a simultaneous action in 17 countries in Europe within the Roma Pride events.
Program Coordinator, Edin Koljenović, said that in recent years evident progress was made with concrete results, but there are still a number of areas that are critical, and where the situation is unsatisfactory.
- In Montenegro we still have a major problem with education of Roma, an employment is still characterized by a high degree of discrimination, while not enough was done to promote the employment of the population, a large number of them still live in informal settlements without constructed infrastructure. On this day, when organizations dealing with minority rights and the rights of the Roma are trying to be louder in the struggle for their rights throughout Europe, we feel a special need to emphasize the need for further intensive and dedicated work of all social groups and institutions, especially in the implementation of reforms and strategic policy - said Koljenović.
He added that the lack of political representation of Roma is also hindering the protecting of the rights of minority communities.
- Roma and Egyptians do not have authentic representatives in the Parliament or in local assemblies. This right, however, has been provided to all other national communities. Despite the amendments to the Law on Minority Rights and Freedoms and the election of councilors and MPs, the electoral system does not provide for representation of the Roma minority through guaranteed mandates, as in the case of the Croatian national minority, and consequently there is no possibility of influencing the legislative authority - said Koljenović.
He added that Montenegro established a framework for the implementation of the program of political inclusion of Roma, which is constituted by legal regulations and Government mechanisms that are supposed to carry out the tasks of planning and coordinating the implementation of this program policy.