At the session held on 3 March, the Government of Serbia adopted the Strategy for the Social Inclusion of Roma in the Republic of Serbia for the period from 2016-2025. According to the announcement of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, this strategic document should enhance and improve the work of institutions dealing with issues of social inclusion and combating discrimination against Roma over a period of 9 years, and provide conditions for the achievement of full access to human rights for people of Roma nationality.
Having in mind that the envisaged measures and activities carried out under the auspices of the previous Strategy for the Improvement of the Status of Roma in the Republic of Serbia 2009-2015 in many segments have failed to contribute to the substantial improvement of the situation of the members of Roma community, the new Strategy arose from the need to improve the issues in a systematic and comprehensive manner and envisage more adequate measures of social inclusion of Roma, both at national and local level. This strategic document covers five priority areas - education, housing, employment, health and social protection.
Wanting with constructive comments that reflect experiences from practice to contribute to the quality of this document, and thus to improvement to the position of Roma, Praxis participated in the process of drafting the Strategy. In addition to the specific comments pertaining to different segments of the five priority areas and proposals for a more precise definition of individual measures, Praxis’ general observation referred to the lack of the text of the Action Plan. Respecting the commitment of the competent authorities to continue the work on promotion of the social inclusion of Roma, Praxis takes this opportunity to once again draw attention to the need for the measures provided for by the Strategy to be, as soon as possible, operationalized by the adoption of the Action Plan because only then the first and necessary precondition towards the achievement of the proclaimed goals will be fulfilled.
