Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues I. Combating racism and discrimination Racism and discrimination against Roma and Sinti — sometimes called “anti-gypsyism” — has been on the rise in the last decade and a half. The deep-rooted types of racism that emerged after the collapse of the communist bloc persist, while new forms of hostility, rejection, and hate speech continue to be expressed across the OSCE region. As a result of this discrimi- ANNUAL REPORT 2005 A young girl holds a child near a dilapidated shack in Deponija, a Roma settlement in Belgrade. MILAN OBRADOVIC Examples of best practices across participating States are collected and shared, as are lessons learned from challenges that arise when implementing national Roma-related strategies at the local level. The ODIHR encourages greater interaction among OSCE structures, governments, international organizations, and Roma or Romafocused non-governmental organizations to develop a common approach to programmes and projects. This is done by collecting information from OSCE countries on legislative and other measures related to improving the situation of Roma and Sinti and making this available to relevant actors. As a mechanism for early warning, the ODIHR has been effective in signaling instances of increased tensions between Roma and Sinti and majority populations and calling for crisis management in cases where the potential for conflict exists. In implementing its programmes and projects, the ODIHR pays special attention to the advancement of fundamental human rights for Roma and Sinti, including those agreed upon by OSCE participating States and elaborated in the Action Plan, through an integrated strategy. The objective is to eliminate the disparities that affect Roma and Sinti populations’ ability to participate fully in political and public life, to gain access to social services on equal terms, and to enjoy the same economic opportunities as others. In October 2005, the ODIHR hosted and coorganized an international conference to discuss ways of encouraging the participating States to implement the OSCE Action Plan as well as national strategies for Roma and Sinti. nation, many Roma and Sinti communities have developed strong group-centred identities that can lead, in certain countries, to a sense of marginalization and alienation. On the other hand, groups that are linguistically and culturally assimilated to the majority population can find themselves defined as Gypsies for purely racial reasons. Such attitudes and racial stereotyping are often reflected in the mass media, where the majority of news items and headlines about Roma and Sinti are linked with criminality and “otherness”. In contrast, Roma and Sinti victims of racist attacks receive virtually no media coverage. In 2005, the ODIHR commissioned a report to examine the possible correlation between anti-gypsyism in European mass media and popular anti-Roma sentiments. The study also examines how, in some countries, the media have been calling for certain actions to be taken against Roma and Sinti, such as evictions, 75