Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues nerable groups within Roma and Sinti communities such as women, young people, internally displaced persons, refugees, and returnees. Activities The ODIHR conducted activities in 2006 in the following areas: k Implementation and assessment of the Action Plan; k Combating racism and discrimination; k Addressing social issues; k Enhancing participation in public and political life; and k Ensuring that the fundamental rights of Roma and Sinti are respected in crisis and postcrisis situations. I. Implementation and assessment of the Action Plan A leaflet explaining the OSCE’s Roma and Sinti Action Plan. The main guidelines for supporting the rights and opportunities of Roma and related communities are found in the Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area. In this document, the participating States pledged to take steps to ensure that Roma, Sinti, and other groups are able to participate in all aspects of public and political life, effectively eliminating the obstacles caused by discrimination. The Action Plan provides the participating States with comprehensive recommendations and a range of possible measures to be undertaken as a remedy to existing challenges. It also underlines the fact that Roma and Sinti themselves should be actively involved in any actions targeting their communities. The overall objective of the OSCE’s Roma and Sinti Action Plan is to “reinforce the efforts of the participating States and relevant OSCE institutions and structures aimed at ensuring that Roma and Sinti people are able to play a full and equal part in our societies, and at eradicating discrimination against them.” — Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area, 2003 76 Annual Report  The ODIHR’s role in relation to the Action Plan is threefold: it is tasked with assisting the participating States in implementing the provisions of the Action Plan; it conducts its own activities aimed at improving the situation of Roma and Sinti; and it is also responsible for reporting on how participating States have been fulfilling the commitments made in the Action Plan. To promote implementation of the Action Plan, the ODIHR works with other international organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations and national and local governments, to harmonize Roma and Sintirelated policy-making processes and initiatives. In 2006, for example, the ODIHR organized a second conference, in Bucharest, on the implementation and harmonization of national policies on Roma, Sinti and Travellers, under the auspices of the OSCE Chairmanship, together with the Council of Europe, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, and the European Commission, including the European Roma and Travellers Forum, in follow-up to a similar conference held in Warsaw in 2005. As a step towards assessing implementation of the Action Plan, the ODIHR sent a questionnaire to all participating States to elicit feedback on initiatives that had been launched under the Plan, as well as on challenges that states had encountered in implementation. The Office is preparing a report that analyses the information received as part of a broader effort to develop a methodology for reviewing and assessing implementation of the Action Plan. The ODIHR used the occasion of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting to discuss the development of this methodology with interested partners. During the meeting, the ODIHR also facilitated a number of side events on various aspects of the Action Plan, including gender issues; policing in multiethnic societies; formalizing informal settlements; facilitating Roma integration into labour markets; and policies concerning Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians in the framework of Kosovo’s political status.