Some progress, but Roma still face many difficulties

Some progress, but Roma still face many difficulties

Mihajlovic told Tanjug that "some tangible results" have been achieved in the country's education system through affirmative measures in high schools and universities, while 173 elementary schools now have Roma pedagogical assistants, "who serve as a link between teachers, Roma students, and their parents."

According to him, this has resulted in a 20 percent increase in the number of Roma children attending elementary schools.

Dragoljub Atanackovic, deputy director of the Government Office for Human and Minority Rights, said he was only partially satisfied with the implementation of a strategy aimed at improving the position of Roma citizens, adding that "we have not seen much benefit other than its theoretical part that has been produced."

Atanackovic said that Roma face numerous problems, mostly related to their economic and social position, housing, and political representation.

Statistics show that "a Roma is seven times more poor than the poorest Serb," he said, and added that only 20 percent of this minority are functionally literate.

Serbian Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic warned that the Roma continued to be the most vulnerable minority group in Serbia, and that key obstacles to their social and economic integration were yet to be removed.

Jankovic said that no progress would be made unless affirmative action was fully implemented in the education of Roma.

The Praxis non-governmental organization reported that Serbia's Roma lived in serious poverty, facing human rights violations, discrimination, anti-Roma rhetoric and violence that threatened their lives and hurt their dignity.

"Serbia cannot make any progress if part of its society is left at the margins," the NGO argued today.

Vojvodina's protector of citizens said that the position of the Coordinator for Roma Issues was still very difficult, even though Serbia accepted its responsibilities arising from the ratified international documents governing human and minority rights, and from the Decade of Roma.

"The coordinators are often the only link between the Roma community and government agencies. After years of volunteering or part-time engagement, however, not a single coordinator is permanently employed with a local self-government agency," the provincial ombudsman warned.

Most of the local self-governments failed to endorse strategic documents or action plans to improve the position of Roma, the office said, Beta reported.

International Roma Day is celebrated to mark the anniversary of the first meeting of the World Roma Congress on April 8, 1971 in London, UK.

Members of Serbia's National Council of the Roma Community will be received by President Tomislav Nikolic this Wednesday, his office announced.

"Greater inclusion"

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Kori Udovicki extended her greetings on Tuesday to all Roma people in Serbia on the occasion of the International Roma Day on April 8.

Strengthening the rule of law, greater social inclusion and rooting out discrimination and marginalization of Roma people will contribute to promoting the position of members of the Roma national minority in our country, Udovicki underlined.

“It is only through a greater inclusion of the Roma national minority in all segments of the society that we can contribute to the social integration of Roma people, and improve their living standard to a great extent with the necessary preservation of their tradition, culture and language,” she said.

"I firmly believe that we will manage to further improve the existing laws and ensure their full implementation by holding regular meetings with representatives of the national minorities and working on the action plan for the promotion of the position of national minorities as part of negotiating Chapter 23, Udovicki said."