In most European societies, Roma young people have a hard time in asserting their rights and affirming their identity and ethnic belonging. Other problems faced by Roma and Traveller communities are reflected in young Roma and Travellers’ transition to adulthood, namely poverty, exclusion and lack of opportunities within and outside the community, as well as difficulties in accessing their human rights.
This situation puts specific groups of young Roma and Travellers at a serious risk of multiple discrimination. The Council of Europe action in this area aims at double mainstreaming youth-related matters in all policies dealing with Roma and Travellers issues on the one hand and Roma and Travellers issues in youth policies on the other hand. The Roma and Travellers Team also contributes to the Council of Europe Roma Youth Action Plan implemented by the Youth Department and has started addressing the situation of young Roma and Traveller LGBTI and the mainstreaming of their concerns in international LGBTI movements in close cooperation with the Youth Department and the SOGI Unit.
The Roma and Travellers Team also contributes to the Council of Europe’s updated Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2016-2021) with a focus on the access of Roma and Traveller children to inclusive and quality education, and the reduction of school drop-outs and absenteeism, in particular of girls. Other important issues addressed by the Council of Europe include street children’s situation, abuses in bringing Roma and Traveller children to foster care, as well as the negative consequences of forced evictions, forced begging, street children, early/child marriage, domestic violence, human trafficking and prostitution for Roma and Traveller children.
Roma Youth Action Plan
The Roma Youth Action Plan is a response of the Council of Europe to challenges faced by Roma young people in Europe, particularly in relation to their empowerment, participation in policy decision-making processes and structures at European level, and multiple realities of discrimination.
The Roma Youth Action Plan gives priority to human rights and intercultural dialogue as responses to discrimination and antigypsyism, together with the development and capacity building of Roma youth organisations and movements. Training and capacity building has, thus, an important role in the Roma Youth Action Plan, not only because of what individual Roma youth leaders may learn and develop individually, but also and especially by what they will experience and do together.
Year : 2015
Country : Greece (Sofades) & Croatia (Kuršances)
Language : English
Good practices against discrimination of Roma children in school
Interview with Stance Dimkovska, Vice-President of the Association for Roma Community Development Sumnal (''The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia'')
Year : 2013
Country : France (Strasbourg)
Language : English
Roma family in Pavlorgad, Ukraine - succesful story
Year : 2017
Country : Ukraine
Language : Ukrainian / English subtitles
Tobias Zech, member of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Germany, EPP/CD) on promoting the inclusion of Roma and Travellers
Year : 2016
Country : France (Strasbourg)
Language : English
