Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues Elzbieta Mirga I. Implementation and assessment of the Action Plan the most vulnerable groups within Roma and Sinti communities such as women, young people, internally displaced persons, refugees, and returnees. kk Trafficking in human beings: Factors such as endemic poverty, social marginalization, the collapse of institutional support structures, and widespread discrimination make Roma and Sinti communities particularly vulnerable to trafficking in human beings and exploitation of children. Activities ODIHR conducted activities in 2007 in the following areas: kk Implementation and assessment of the Action Plan; kk Combating racism and discrimination; kk Enhancing participation in public and political life; kk Ensuring that the fundamental rights of Roma and Sinti are respected in crisis and post-crisis situations; kk Co-operation with international organizations and NGOs. 62 Annual Report 2007 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 and Sinti 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 addressing their communities. 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 reports on how participating States have been fulfilling the commitments made in the Action Plan. For example, ODIHR has been working on a status report on implementation of the Action Plan since 2006, when a questionnaire was circulated among all participating States in order to get feedback on how they had been fulfilling their commitments. Based on the responses to the questionnaire, ODIHR produced a draft report that was shared with participating States in 2007. Publication of the final status report is planned for 2008. The purpose of the report is to highlight the current state of implementation of the Action Plan, to provide some key findings, and to discuss the limited progress and few substantial achievements that have been made so far. This is, in part, due to the low level of political commitment on the part of some governments, reflected in the rather insignificant funding to ensure implementation of Roma-related measures or policies. Negative trends of racism and intolerance, police violence, and forced evictions