From the moment a Roma person becomes an educated person, fully integrated socially and professionally, that person is not considered a Roma anymore, this is what happened to me" Margaret Hochin, a local government counselor, who is also Roma working in the lasi local government in Romania. Roma: Europe's largest and most vulnerable minority caught in vicious cycle of poverty and discrimination

In Romania, the Roma continue to be severely affected by poverty, discrimination, segregation and exclusion despite constituting almost 10 percent of the population. Despite several government initiatives which allow ethnic minorities to have political representation and other specific initiatives regarding the Roma including a The National Office for Roma, poverty and social marginalization continue. Although implementing rights for the Roma were expressed by the European Union as one stipulation for accession remaining on track for 2007, it is evident there is a lot more work to be done.

Roma reality in Romania - home to Europe's largest Roma population: Romania has the largest Roma minority in Europe, where they constitute ten percent of the population. (UNDP 2003) More than 88 percent of the Roma in Romania live below the poverty line. (unicef 2006) 57 percent of abandoned children in medical institutions in Romania are Roma (unicef 2006) 40 percent of Roma children feel permanently hungry Adult literacy is 72 percent 91 percent of the Romanian population regarded the Roma to be involved in criminal activity (2006 poll by The National Council for Combating Discrimination in Romania) 49 percent of Romanians believe that the Roma as "so different that they will never be fully accepted by other members of Romanian society". (2006 poll by The National Council for Combating Discrimination in Romania) Over 65 percent of Roma in Romania live in rural areas and have different characteristics and opportunities to urban Roma (WV roma consulation documentation)

Life has always been difficult for the Roma people in Albania. After the flood, some Roma people took it as just another 'thing' to get through, with a peculiar strength", said World Vision staff Flood Reveals Plight of the Roma & Role of Education to Break Poverty Cycle

Education and protection for Roma children is a major concern A programme has been established to enroll youth into public school and support their literacy classes. At the same time income generating projects for their families were launched. Civil society awareness on the importance of education for Roma children is another crucial component of World Vision's activities in this country.

There are many prejudices about the Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "They're dirty," people say. "They mess up the place. They send their kids out to beg and wash car windscreens for money." But with WV's help, the Roma in Sarajevo and Doboj are showing that they can organise themselves for a better life, and make a positive contribution to their communities Roma people clean up in Bosnia and Herzegovina

World Vision aims to obtain regular school certification for Roma youth and adults, who wish to participate in the public education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the Kakanj municipality, World Vision works on building an environment that encourages the inclusion, participation and retention of Roma children within the regular education system.

The project "Support Roma to Return" aims to create the conditions that support the Roma population and Serb return population in to achieve long-term solutions to their housing, livelihood and social integration.

Roma communities have been very successful in environmental projects, which are cleaning up Bosnia rivers banks and other areas and at the same time changing the image of the Roma.

Through their service company "Eko-Sekund" the Roma have been cleaning the banks of the Miljacka and Bosna rivers; now we aim to begin to change attitudes towards the Roma by creating a positive association in people's minds with something they very much want - a cleaner environment A better image for Rivers and Roma

Roma or gypsy children "seldom attend school" and when they do they are "treated as something of a curiosity," said a recent report by the Albanian government's Task Force on Education. Thus, Denisa Kalemi, 13, and 15 other students in a Roma literacy class in the village of Novosela aren't wasting their time. This is their second chance at education and they want to succeed this time. It is especially important for Denisa who has watched her mother rise slowly through their rigid, patriarchal culture to a position in a local women's group. Roma girl determined to succeed at second chance for education

Snjezana Husejnovic's name means Snow White but her life is no fairy tale. Her family is among the poorest of the poor in her community and getting poorer, losing ground every month. There is no Prince Charming in her future. She is most likely to marry while she is still in her teens, to some young man as poor as she is. Snjezana, 11, is a Roma and cannot read or write. She hasn't returned to school since that terrible first day... Snow White, her bad school day & need for second chance at education

Poor and marginalised, the Roma marry young, have little or no education and few saleable skills. A lack of money for clothing and books keeps up to 90% of Roma children out of school in Bosnia and Herzegovina. World Vision is helping several Roma communities but more needs to be done to get children in classrooms and break the cycle of poverty Photogallery: Second chance for Bosnia's Roma children

Madame Chair, distinguished Members of the Committee,

It is a privilege for me and for the organizations I represent, Romani CRISS and European Roma Rights Centre, to address the Committee and to express our concerns regarding the situation of Roma women in Romania.

My presentation here today will focus on 3 main critical concerns:

1) Violence against women
In Romania we have documented cases where the Roma women have fallen victims of violent behavior by representatives of local institutions, mainly the police and Special Forces, and in most of the episodes concerned, no adequate remedies were provided to the victims.

One of the most recent cases happened right in Bucharest, when the municipality and community police not only demolished and evacuated Roma families at -15 degrees (Celsius), but also verbally abused and threatened the women. Many other similar cases are included in our shadow report and it appears that this practice is a pattern of the police behavior in Roma communities.

Recommendations
1) We ask the Committee to urge the Government to undertake effective actions to address all forms of violence against Roma women and to ensure that the perpetrators, including police representatives are effectively prosecuted and punished.
2) We also ask the Committee to urge the Government to implement the policies and laws regarding women and minorities at the local level.

2) Access to health
Although measures have been taken by the State in relation to Roma women and access to health (I am referring to the health mediation system), Roma women still suffer exclusion from public health-care services due to inequitable geographic distribution of health-care units and, most critical, due to the discrimination on ethnic criteria.

We are mostly concerned with the discrimination faced by Romani women in relation to the medical personnel. Our organisation's reports and work in the field have shown that there were strong concerns about the cases of Romani women hospitalized in "special" rooms, especially in the case of maternities. Besides that, the medical and extra-medical services (hygienic services, changing of sheets, etc) are not appropriate, according to patients' declarations (our shadow report includes more detailed information).

Recommendations
1) We believe it is important that the Romanian Government and its relevant institutions design not only programs, training courses (that are usually developed in partnership with NGOs) but diversity and human rights courses within the curricula for medical personnel in order to decrease the level of discrimination and other specific behaviors towards Roma or other minority women patients.
2) We ask the Committee to urge the Government to undertake effective actions to address all forms of discrimination against Roma women in accessing health services and to ensure that the promoters of such practices are effectively prosecuted.

3) Access to employment
UNDP study "Faces of Poverty, faces of Hope" shows that 35% of Roma women aged 25-54 are unemployed, a percentage four times higher than in the majority population. These differences are the result of low level of education, lack or poor professional training, but also discrimination of the employers.

We appreciate current Government efforts to address this issue, but not enough is being done. It is a fact that 65% of the National Agency for Roma's employees are women (approximately 30 persons).It is also a fact that approximately 350 Roma health mediators are contracted though the Ministry of Health agencies to work at local level. Different policies were developed in order to increase the level of employability of Roma, including Roma women.

All these policies and actions do not reach the Roma women in the communities (exception of the health mediators) who are still discriminated against when apply for a job and who still have less opportunities.

Recommendations
1) In order to ensure substantive equality of the Roma women, the Romanian Government should allocate funds specially targeting the Roma women in order to access micro credits, vocational trainings.

Sincerely,

Margareta Matache

Living with discrimination and segregation: A personal testimony by Mr Gruia I. Bumbu, Roma Counsellor for Marko Bella - Secretary of State for the Romanian Government

"It doesn't matter what social status you have, what family you come from or what education level your family has, stereotypes and prejudices are reflected within the whole social context.

In Romanian schools, if a child sees or hears his/her colleague is a Roma, a child will then marginalise his Roma schoolmate and adopt a superior attitude. An inferior-superior rapport is established that simply in the relationships between Roma children and Romanian children.

I descend from a family of Roma intellectuals and because my father was an officer in the Romanian army, I had a different status. My grandparents had nine children and seven of them went to University. Nevertheless, I had to learn twice as much as a Romanian child not to be put in the back desk, inside the classroom. Despite my small height, as a Roma child I left to only in the two last desks, in the back row. Those were reserved for us as Roma children, so I had to make great efforts to stay in "the honor-desk" (first bank in the middle) to be able to hear the lessons and to attend school classes effectively.

It was very hard to make and keep good connections with my Romanian colleagues. I remember I had other three colleagues who were Roma. As I'm coming from an intellectual family, my parents afforded to keep me in school, buy school supplies and other things I needed. Unfortunately, my colleagues families didn't have the same social status, so by the end of eight grade they already abandoned school. Because of their living conditions, the first priority for their families was to find means to subsist. When you don't have electricity, running water or money for basic, essential things, it is normal not to consider education as more important than other things.

Stigma was the same for me as for them, but I think for them was thousands times harder to succeed in life, because they didn't have the same chances in life as I had. My grandmother used to say I have a moral responsibility to help my Roma "brothers" and fight for them to have better living conditions. My grandmother printed deep in my soul the burning will to make a change for the life of other Roma.

Both my grandparents fought in the Second World War side by side with Romanians and they told me Roma and Romanians were brothers in arms. Immediately after the war finished, the relationships between Romanian and Roma changed. Life entered into its "normal" course and Roma re-became those "tzigani" who should be kept at the margins of the society. Didn't matter they gave their life one for each other and they shared the same slice of bread. Meanwhile, many Roma were deported in Transnistria (officially known as Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Republica, (PMR,) short form Pridnestrovie, a region of the Republic of Moldova, in Eastern Europe). You give your life for somebody and soon after danger passes that person rises against you and oppresses you, only for the simple reason you are a Roma and you don't have the same skin color or your culture and traditions are different!

Hearing our ancestors' stories, as children we were always deeply worried that somebody would come and send us with a train to India. We used to run very fast from school back home and close the door tightly behind us.

In Romanian society the prejudice that Roma are an inferior human race still persist. It is very interesting to see, 60 years after war ending, that there are still people who strongly believe
Roma are inferior. As a child, I usually fought with my classmate for this reason. Didn't matter I had very good grades and I was a good student, the children always called me "tzigan" and "crow".

People call us "tzigani", without knowing what this word means. This word comes from Greek word "atinganoi"= untouched. In Greece, atinganoi were a heretic sect and because Roma were star readers and fortune tellers, they were assimilated with that sect. In Romani language the word "tzigan" doesn't even exist, and it is considered to be a word full of prejudices.

When I was in high-school I experienced once again what stigma means. I had a very good friend who was my schoolmate. We shared the same sandwich, shared the same desk and even did our homework together until the 10th grade when he found out I am a Roma. Starting that moment, the right place on my desk rested empty. He started to call me "tzigan" and to advised the other colleagues not to speak to me because I am Roma.

I think these things are happening because when Romanian childrenmisbehave, their parents threaten them "If you are not a good child I will give you to the "tzigani" to stick you in a bag". This big issue has roots in the family. Children are traumatised by "tzigani" word. Prejudice and stereotype that "tzigan" is evil are transmitted to the children through subliminal messages. In this context, it is normal for a Romanian child to react in a negative way when he finds out his schoolmate is Roma. Teachers reinforce this discriminations because their approach is the same: good-bad, superior-inferior.

In Romanian education system a Roma child will not find themselves in the History books. Nothing is mentioned about my ancestors. We were there, but nobody wants to mention this. And this thing can have a negative influence for the Roma children, whose self-esteem is under limit of perception. They don't know they were there and were part of this country's history.

Roma children education is very important and there are many educational programs. It is very important desegregation in educational system, especially in the rural area where this phenomenon is hardly accepted than in urban area. Desegregation is a complex action, because parents, both Romanians and Romas, should be involved in common activities, to know each other better, to respect values and traditions. In rural areas, more than 97% of population doesn't want to have Romas as neighbors. Segregation is a severe form of discrimination".

There is a need for mutual consideration of the culture of people you are living with, an equality feeling and respect for diversity. A multicultural society, with reciprocal respect for traditions and specificity, can progress.

Today the situation of Roma communities is disastrous and unacceptable.
It is unacceptable for 2006 to still have Roma children who live in houses like pigstys, with living conditions way below decent limits, or 16 people live in houses smaller than 2 meters by 2 meters, made by few branches and clay and coved with plastic bags, especially when outside temperatures are going under minus 30 grades Celsius.
It is unacceptable there are families without running water, without minimal living conditions and there are Roma communities without infrastructure, living in severe levels of poverty.

Offended and fighting for change: A personal testimony by Magda Matache Exectutive Director of Romani CRISS

I grew up in a village near Bucharest, far from the Roma community, surrounded only by Romanian neighbors and friends. I grew up was not being considered not a Roma by my friends or people around me, simply because I performed well in school, I could speak English and lately because I could work on a computer, and many other normal things for our century!

I always wondered: what's so special about that? Nothing special with me, but very special are the attitudes of my friends, very much stacked to their prejudices, which refuse to believe that a Roma can finish university, can work, can read, etc.
Some of them even tried to explain to me that I should not feel offended while they offend Roma, because I am not like them: dirty, stinky, and a thief!!!

I feel offended! I feel offended having racist fiends who do not even know they are racist; I feel offended living in a country where 74% of the population doesn't want to have Roma neighbors, I feel offended by the attitude of Romanian public figures towards Roma.

I live in a country where the Government succeeded to ensure the equal rights for Roma, but unfortunately only at formal level. Romania stopped at the first step of ensuring equality: strategies, laws and programs. As so far it helps to justify its efforts to improve minorities situation in front of international human rights bodies, there are not many chances to move towards de facto equality.

I was shocked, in May this year, sitting in a chair in a CEDAW (UN) meeting and listening to the Romanian Government giving arguments for the violence of police officers against Roma women in Romania despite the fact that those acts violates the CEDAW Convention General Recommendation 19 (and all domestic regulations in Romania)! It was not only a justified, but also a normal behavior in their opinion.

In year 2006, when Romania ratified most of the international human rights conventions, Governmental representatives still find arguments to explain racist, discriminatory attitudes.

Should we also feel used? Used , considering the fact that the arguments of the institutions about improvement of Roma situation rely very much on the partnership with NGOs( including ours), developments of agencies and offices for Roma but not at all on the actual implementation of policies at local level.

Shall we feel angry/ confused considering that the Notification against segregation issued by the Ministry of Education does not apply in Jibou.