Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues The OSCE Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area, adopted in 2003, remains the foundation of ODIHR’s activities on issues related to Roma and Sinti. This, in conjunction with Ministerial Council Decision No. 6/08, “Enhancing OSCE Efforts to Implement the Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti Within the OSCE Area” (Helsinki, 2008) and Ministerial Council Decision No. 8/09, “Enhancing OSCE Efforts to Ensure Roma and Sinti Sustainable Integration” (Athens, 2009), guides the work of ODIHR’s Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues. The need to enhance access to education for Roma and Sinti children and to develop and implement comprehensive school-desegregation programmes is recognized in the 2003 Action Plan. In 2012, ODIHR paid particular attention to the marginalization and segregation of Roma and Sinti in education and conducted a field visit to the Czech Republic, in co-operation with the Irish OSCE Chairmanship and the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. An apparent rise in anti–Roma racist rhetoric, extremist movements, the number of incidents of racially motivated violence and the number of Roma asylum-seekers are troubling issues witnessed in a number of participating States in 2012, exacerbated in some cases by the current economic and financial crisis in Europe. ODIHR worked to raise awareness of these developments throughout the year, at the U.S. Helsinki Commission, at various conferences and meetings OSCE Human Dimension events and a number of conferences organized by other stakeholders. Roma and Sinti women’s issues were a particular focus of ODIHR’s agenda this year. The empowerment of Roma and Sinti women was a specifically selected topic at the 2012 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. In addition, at various conferences and meetings ODIHR addressed multiple forms of discrimination against and the vulnerability of Roma and Sinti women. As in the previous years, ODIHR continued to provide assistance to participating States in the development of national Roma-integration strategies. The Office also engaged in raising awareness of the Roma genocide and participated in the opening of the memorial to Roma Holocaust victims in October in Berlin. Activities Based on the 2003 Action Plan, and subsequent Ministerial Council Decisions, ODIHR’s activities in this sphere in 2012 focused on: II Improving Roma access to education; II Combating hate crimes and discrimination against Roma throughout the OSCE area; II Supporting the empowerment of Roma and Sinti representatives, particularly Roma and Sinti women and youth; II Supporting governments and enhancing policy instruments; and II Increasing co-operation with intergovernmental and international organizations. Improving access to education ODIHR, in co-operation with the Irish OSCE Chairmanship and the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, conducted a field visit to the Czech 64 ODIHR Annual Report 2012