celebration |pride | contribution

A seminar on celebration and pride for Roma youth participation
on the occasion of the International Roma Day

BACKGROUND

The Youth Sector Strategy 2030 of the Council of Europe aims to create spaces for young people to live together in peaceful and inclusive societies, with special emphasis on allowing young people, including those experiencing any form of discrimination and exclusion, to benefit from opportunities that develop their commitment to and exercise of democratic citizenship. It also emphasises the interest of the Council of Europe youth sector to develop a stronger profile regarding the inclusion of inter alia minorities and vulnerable groups, intersectionality, and inclusiveness across its programming

The Council of Europe new Strategy for Roma¹ and Traveller Inclusion (2026-2030) concurs in this priority by noting that:

The prevalent invisibility of Roma and Travellers in the political arena can lead to the isolation of communities, making them easy targets for vote-buying, tokenism, exploitation or neglect, which further undermines their ability to advocate for their rights and interests. Respecting the dignity and agency of Roma and Travellers, as a strategic imperative for democratic integrity, societal cohesion, and peace, is often overlooked. By addressing these challenges, mobilising relevant stakeholders and providing space for the empowerment of all Roma and Travellers, member States can achieve progress in advancing the inclusion of Roma and Travellers and strengthen democracy and human rights protection.

The Council of Europe Strategy for Roma and Traveller Inclusion contributes to implement the Organisation’s core mandate of protecting human rights, promoting democracy, and upholding the rule of law for all Europeans. Its priorities and objectives directly stem from the evaluation of the Council of Europe’s previous strategic documents on Roma and Traveller inclusion and the recommendations addressed to the member States by the Council of Europe monitoring bodies and Roma and Traveller civil society organisations.

In their Youth Statement issued on the occasion of 8 April 2021, the participants of the first Roma Youth Together seminar call on the Council of Europe member States to seek active dialogue with Roma youth organisations and to ensure lasting mechanisms of empowerment and participation of young Roma. These calls result from the fact that many Roma youth continue experiencing multiple discrimination, or live in specific situations of vulnerability, with impact on their social inclusion and lower levels of participation in society.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The Roma Youth Together 2026 seminar should highlight the contemporary contributions of Roma youth in Europe, emphasising Roma celebration, pride and contirbution.

The seminar aims at strengthening the confidence of Roma youth leaders from across Europe by celebrating the sense of Roma identity and belonging and developing their skills as agents of change. Its specific objectives are:

• to share experiences and realities of Roma youth across Europe, especially in relation to meaningful youth participation;
• to empower Roma youth and Roma civil society to act as agents of change and multipliers in their communities;
• to support participants' potential for leadership, advocacy and action for human rights and the fight against antigypsyism;
• To associate young Roma in the Council of Europe’s work on Roma youth participation, especially in relation to the New Democratic Pact for Europe;
• to celebrate the International Roma Day with Roma youth;
• ⁠to strengthen the sense of Roma youth community and connect with European youth organisations and networks in the field of Roma participation.

PROGRAMME AND METHODOLOGY

The methodology of the seminar will be based on the principles of human rights education particularly to address antigypsyism, peer to peer learning, exchange of practices and dialogue among participants by using the participatory methods of learning, such as working groups, creative workshops and facilitated discussions. It will be structured in connection to the previous work done by the Council of Europe in the area of Roma youth participation emphasising the Recommendation CM/Rec(2023)4 and its friendly-for Roma youth version.

Specific of the 2026 event is the focus on celebration, pride and contribution which will kick-off with the International Roma Day. These three interconnected phases of the programme emphasise the following:

• Celebration: Celebrating International Roma Day on 8 April as well as discussing achievements and good practices from the Roma youth communities across Europe and the related approaches of the Council of Europe and priorities of Roma youth organisations which support Roma youth participation.
• Pride: joining resources, skills, and knowledge to co-create narratives and content that promote Roma identity, heritage, and culture, and establishing working groups focussing on strategies to address anti-discrimination online and offline, advocacy and leadership.
• Contribution: enabling discussions on current state of democracy and the role of young people as a direct contribution to the process towards a “New Democratic Pact for Europe”.

[1] The term “Roma and Travellers” is used at the Council of Europe to encompass the wide diversity of the groups covered by the work of the Council of Europe in this field: on the one hand a) Roma, Sinti/Manush, Calé, Kaale, Romanichals, Boyash/Rudari; b) Balkan Egyptians (Egyptians and Ashkali); c) Eastern groups (Dom, Lom and Abdal); and, on the other hand, groups such as Travellers, Yenish, and the populations designated under the administrative term “Gens du voyage”, as well as persons who identify themselves as Gypsies. The present is an explanatory footnote, not a definition of Roma and/or Travellers.