Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

The Office for Human and Minority Rights, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit and Roma Information Centre held a round-table in order to analyse the accession process from the perspective of Chapter 23, with the emphasis on the protection of the rights of Roma men and women. The round-table speakers were: H.E. Hendrik G.C. van den Dool, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dr Suzana Paunović, Head of the Office for Human and Minority Rights, Ivan Sekulović, Manager of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit and Rozalija Ilić from the Roma Information Centre. The Moderator was Dr Saša Gajin.

In the context of the opening of Chapters 23 and 24, the Roma community’s status is of the immediate significance for the realization of human and minority rights, therefore, the Roma community issue is one of the most important ones, it was stated at the “Challenges and protection of human and minority rights” discussion.

Professor Gajin said that, as a rule, those Chapters are first to be opened and last to be closed, as well as that there are four points of reference that must be completed for the Chapters to be opened. Two out of four points of reference refer to the legal and political status of Roma people, and they are the Strategy for Social Inclusion of the Roma Community and the Action Plan for improvement of the status of minorities in general. The third reference point is the adoption of the Law on Free Legal Aid that would enable a direct ‘access to justice’ for the Roma community, and the fourth represents the adoption of the Law on Personal Data Protection.

On this occasion, Head of the Roma Information Centre from Kragujevac, Rozalija Ilić, presented the results of the survey regarding Chapter 23 – Protection of Roma Minority Rights.