| Improving status of Roma "challenge to Serbia" |
| 6 November 2009 | 17:20
| Source:
Tanjug |
BELGRADE --
Minister of Human and Minority Rights Svetozar Čiplić stated on Friday that providing housing for the Roma is a "challenge to Serbia".
He also mentioned legalizing of their existing settlements and improving their social status and health care in that context.
Speaking at a conference, entitled "Roma in Serbia – Between Discrimination and Integration", Čiplić said that "the story of the position of the Roma in Serbia and Europe is a story of centuries of discrimination".
According to him, the idea behind the Decade of Roma Inclusion initiative – a joint effort by 12 European countries – is to bring every Romani citizen "out of discrimination and into integration".
Čiplić remarked that all of the Decade's member countries had agreed that education, housing, employment and health care were priorities and the foundation on which to build the status of the Roma.
UNHCR Associate Protection Officer Davor Rako said that the Roma were the most underprivileged ethnic minority in Serbia and the Western Balkans according to the UN data published in 2008.
He added that the Roma faced discrimination and obstacles in realizing their basic social, economic and political rights.
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