OSCE Mission, on International Roma Day, urges further empowerment of Roma community

The OSCE supports better integration of the Roma community in Montenegro and promotes their right to legal aid and better access to social services, Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, Ambassador Janina Hrebickova, said at an event in Bijelo Polje on 7 April 2014 to mark International Roma Day. 

“We are all witnesses that unlike other minority nations and communities, Roma and Egyptians are members of the most vulnerable and marginalized minority national community in Montene-gro,” she said. “The OSCE Mission has taken a number of steps for improving their situation and helps them to obtain documentation from their country of origin, as well as to access public ser-vices.”

The OSCE Mission opened the Office for Roma issues in Bijelo Polje to support the community on issues of education and enrolment of children in primary schools, as well as to promote their access to health.

“Only decade ago in Montenegro there were only 100 pupils enrolled in primary schools, whereas today there are more than 1,500,” said Minister of Human and Minority Rights Suad Numanovic. He also said that there is much more to be done for improving the integration of Roma, and “the Ministry is supporting Roma children’s integration in education, by providing free text books for school.”

Following the event, 43 Roma pupils enrolled in primary schools in Bijelo Polje received educa-tional materials. 

This activity is organized within the OSCE project Empowerment of Roma community and is im-plemented with the support of the “E-roma” non-governmental organization and the Municipality of Bijelo Polje. The Mission is planning to organize in 2014 various roundtable discussions on the importance of education and access to health and social services, as well as field visits to the Roma settlement in Bijelo Polje for data collection.