In the circumstances of COVID 19 epidemic, which we all have been facing for a year now, the problems of the Roma community have become even more visible, said Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic at the presentation of the report “Roma in Serbia: Challenges of Discrimination” made by CSO Praxis.

Roma men and women continue to be marginalized and face great difficulties in all segments of life, while one of the biggest problems is the high poverty rate. Roma are often exposed to open and widespread hate speech, and discrimination against Roma is most expressed in the areas of education, employment, health care and housing – said Commissioner.

She reminded of the research conducted by the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality in cooperation with the German Organization for International Cooperation (GIZ), according to which surveyed Roma women believe that they are denied rights and services just because they are Roma. Encouraging is the data that 88% of respondents recognize education as the most important for achieving an equal position in society, which only confirms the fact that we need to work on the education of Roma children and youth and their full inclusion in all segments of society.

Commissioner emphasized that there are many challenges on the way to raising the awareness of our citizens about how harmful discriminatory behavior is, and that Roma are citizens of this country who have the same rights as all other members of our society.