Council of Europe work on Romani women

The Council of Europe has promoted and supported Romani women’s and Romani youth issues both at international and national level since 1995, when the CoE Steering Committee on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women organised a hearing of Romani women in the European parliament in Strasbourg, and when the Youth Directorate of the Council of Europe organised a training for young Roma leaders, which led to the establishment of the Forum of European Roma Young People in 1998. The Coe has intensified its support in 2003 when it started to facilitate a series of conferences, hearings, training and internships for Romani women and youth.

In 2003, the Council of Europe picked up again the issue of Romani women through a series of training, campaigns, meetings and studies. Thus in 2003, the Migration and Roma/Gypsy Division conducted together with the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities the study on “Breaking the Barriers - Romani Women and Access to Public Health Care”. The Report aimed to help policy and lawmakers understand the nature of healthcare access for Romani women and to assist them to improve the design and implementation of policies on Romani women and health.

 As of 2007 a number of member states have joined the Council of Europe in an effort to increase the visibility of Romani women and girls’ concerns at the international level, while providing a bigger forum for Romani women to exchange experiences and elaborate common agenda.

Thus, as of 2007, the Council of Europe has organised together with the Swedish Government the 1st International Conference of Romani women in Stockholm followed by the 2nd International Conference of Romani Women in Athens together with the Greek government and the 3rd Romani Women’s Congress in Granada together with the Spanish Government. On the 17-18 September 2013, the Government of Finland organized in Helsinki the 4th International Romani Women’s Conference in cooperation with the Council of Europe.[1]

The 2013 International Conference of Romani Women in Finland has gathered more than one hundred Romani women from various European countries in order to take stock of past initiatives and developments at policy and Roma community level. In the context where Romani women expressed concerns over the worsening situation of Romani women at national level and the need for more sustainable ways to act as a network and cooperate with other stakeholders on various priority issues, the process of organising the 4th International Romani Women’s Conference provided mechanisms for wider consultations with Romani women and engagement of national governments. Thus the Finnish Government organised together with the Romanian government (the National Roma Cultural Institute) and in cooperation with the Council of Europe a brainstorming meeting of Romani women’s experts and activists in Bucharest, which prepared the groundwork for the international conference and defined ways for an inclusive consultation and involvement of Romani women in the outcome of the conference. This included the creation of online consultations via questionnaires for defining priority areas, open calls for participation in the conference and online streaming of the conference in Helsinki.

During the Helsinki conference, Romani emphasised the need to build on previous developments and come up with a strategic joint document that can represent a platform for common action of Romani women in Europe and beyond. Thus, Romani women participating at the conference contributed to the development of a Strategy on the advancement of Romani women and girls in Europe, 2014-2020. In addition, a platform initiative called Phenjalipe (“Sisterhood”) was launched at the conference with the aim to support the implementation of the strategic outcome document and to further facilitate exchanges of information and coordination at regional level on issues related to Romani women and girls. While the Strategy is still being finalised, a draft version is enclosed.

Finally, at the Conference in Helsinki, Romani women representing Turkey have expressed an increased interest in having Turkey host the 5th International Romani Women’s Conference and thus celebrating 5 years of joint efforts and cooperation between Romani women, Council of Europe and its members states on promoting and supporting priorities of Romani women in Europe; the (elaboration and) starting of the implementation of a six year European Strategy of Romani women on the advancement of Romani Women and Girls (2014-2020) and to assess the work of the Phenjalipe platform of Romani women towards the implementation of the Strategy.

As a follow up to the proposal of the Turkish Romani women in the Finnish Conference to have Turkey host the 5th International Romani Women’s Conference the Council of Europe/Support Team of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Roma Issues is co-organising together with the Turkish authorities a small brainstorming meeting in Istanbul on 19 March 2014 to assess the possibility of having Turkey host the 5th International Romani Women’s Conference. The meeting will host around 30 people, among which Romani women.



[1] More information about the series of International Conferences of Romani women in the CoE member states can be found at: http://hub.coe.int/roma-women