Pavee Point attended the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting in Vienna in October. The meeting, organized jointly by the Ukrainian 2013 OSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), marked the 10th anniversary of the Action Plan on Roma and Sinti inclusion and presented the ODIHR’s 2013 Status Report on its implementation. The participating States discussed lessons learned from past integration initiatives and examined further measures needed to improve the situation of Roma and Sinti.
The keynote speaker at the meeting was Lívia Járóka, the only Roma Member of the European Parliament and the Vice-chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.
Along with representatives of Roma and Traveller civil society across Europe, Pavee Point raised concerns about the media sensationalisation and State actions in relation to Roma children being taken from their homes.
Pavee Point made the following recommendations to the ODHIR.
– That the Irish Government to officially recognise Irish Travellers as a minority ethnic group as recommended by human rights bodies at the UN and EU level.
– We call on the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to formally make a public statement in relation to Roma children being removed from their families, since incidents such as these are an obstacle to improving the situation of Roma, Sinti and Travellers,
– We call on member states to meet their obligations in relation to developing progressive National Roma Strategies in line with the Common Basic Principles on Roma Inclusion and for the OSCE to support member states and to work with the European Commission in ensuring that this happens.
– We call on funding to be re-invested in Roma and Traveller initiatives in Ireland. We strongly state that recession does not negate human rights obligations and call on the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to emphasise this with member states.
You can click here to read Pavee Point’s Submission.