THE WORLD DAY OF ROMA SOCIETY
- LATEST NEWS - Sunday, April 9th 2006, Radio Television of Serbia
Serbia and Montenegro's Ministry of Human and Minority Rights has once again drawn the attention to the situation of the Roma national minority and pointed out that the improvement of the situation of the Roma must be another priority of systematic reforms.
According to estimates, there are around 500.000 citizens of Roma nationality living in Serbia, of which more than 200.000 are internallly displaced from Kosovo. The researches show that Roma are 6 times poorer than the average citizens in Serbia, whereas 10% of Roma live below the extreme poverty line. Statistics also show that 60% of the Roma don't finish elementary school and 90% of the employed Roma are unskilled labor. A large number of Roma live in around 600 settlements lacking adequate living conditions, which is another indicator of how marinalized they are in the society. A special problem is the lack of access to personal documents for a certain number of Roma population.
When the Law on the protection of rights and freedoms of national minority was adopted, Serbia and Montenegro's Ministry of Human and Minority Rights drafted a Strategy for the Integration of Roma, based on which action plans have been adopted in the areas of education, employment, health care and housing, as priority areas in the regional "Decade of Roma Integration 2005-2015" program. In 2006, programs are started for the improvement of the accessibility of preschool education for Roma children, development of the functional elementary education, stimulation of self-employment, improvement of health care, and in some municipalities projects are started dealing with the improvement of the living conditions in the settlements.
Serbia and Montenegro's Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, through the readmission project, provides help for returnees, of which a large number are Roma. The Ministry also works on the engagement of coordinators for Roma issues in local self-governments. The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights appeals to the competent institutions to continue and intensify the efforts on the improvement of the living conditions of the Roma. At the same time, the Ministry points out that the improvement of the situation of the Roma must be one of the priorities of the systematic reforms.
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