policy recommendations Archives

Romani children in South East Europe. The challenge of overcoming centuries of distrust and discrimination

Romani children in South East Europe. The challenge of overcoming centuries of distrust and discrimination. (2007)

The report provides an overview of the situation of Romani children in South East Europe. It is shown, on the base of available data, that Romani children experience human rights abuses on a large scale. Within every country in South East Europe, they are the ones that are the most vulnerable to poverty, deprivation and lack access to healthcare and education. The report examines the various national action plans analyzing their potential to ensure the realization of Romani children’s rights.

The results say that all of the NAPs (10-year National Action Plans) are aimed to increase the ‘employability’ of Roma but don’t focus on children’s needs. The report also puts forward a number of recommendations for strengthening the effectiveness of the government action with the aim of sustainable progress for children.

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Roma Early Childhood Inclusion – Overview Report (2012)

The Roma Early Childhood Inclusion (RECI) reports build a detailed picture of early childhood policy and provision frameworks, highlighting the barriers and opportunities for improving the access of Roma children to appropriate and high-quality early childhood services. The principal objective of the Reports is to make information and data on young Roma children’s exclusion available to decision makers and key stakeholders with a view to advocate for equitable early childhood policies and programmes. In the first chapter, the report shows the gathered data and information about the inclusion of young Roma children in the early childhood services of four countries: the Czech Republic, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia. In the second chapter, it underlines issues – identified in each National Report – related to slow policy progress, low education level, poverty, discrimination, failures of kindergarten and primary school services as well as the lack of disaggregated data on young children and their participation in education. In the last part, the report provides recommendations for more comprehensive and inclusive early childhood services and suggests a clear policy agenda with actions to be taken by governments.