Despite all the efforts and significant changes, when it comes to the position of the Roma, they are still exposed to discrimination in all areas of social life, and negative attitudes and prejudices against the Roma are often repeated, said the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Janković, at the presentation of the report on lessons learned. “Building trust in equality: improving access to justice for Roma in Hungary and Serbia”.

The Commissioner pointed out that the changes and improvement in the position of Roma have occurred mainly in the field of education thanks, among other things, to affirmative measures which significantly increased the number of highly educated Roma, secondary school students, and those completing elementary education. She said that it is necessary to continue with those measures and make significant efforts to improve the position of the Roma community and strengthen their capacities, primarily at the local level. In order to improve the position of Roma, the Commissioner continuously makes recommendations and implements various projects, and one of the latest is the “Roma against Racism” campaign, which is implemented in cooperation with the European Roma Rights Center and the Vojvodina Roma Center.

As part of the project “Towards Roma equality through improved access to rights”, the organizations Praxis and European Group for Minority Rights presented a report on the knowledge they gained during fieldwork and on cases of discrimination in the territory of Serbia and Hungary.