ANNUAL REPORT 2003 Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues Roma and elections 1. Advancing the political rights of Roma and Sinti The Contact Point has been monitoring the participation of Roma in elections since 1999. In line with the objective of in- In recent years, Roma have begun to participate more in so- creasing Roma participation in elections, various activities ciety in general and in political life in particular. Nonetheless, have been devised, including awareness-raising programmes the scale of participation has remained very limited. The for Roma voters, training courses for Roma candidates and number of Roma participating in elections, either as voters political parties, and the production of voter guidelines. or as candidates, is still disproportionately low. With only 11 members of parliament, some 20 mayors, and representa- Within the framework of ODIHR election observation missions, tives in municipal councils (mainly in Bulgaria, Slovakia, the the Contact Point seconded Roma observers to study the par- former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Romania) in ticipation of Roma in a number of elections in 2003, including the whole of Europe, Roma also remain vastly underrepre- in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of sented in public office, in spite of constituting significant mi- Macedonia, Moldova, and Serbia and Montenegro. norities in many countries. The Contact Point also works to promote democratic strucThis underrepresentation is partially due to institutional ob- tures and mechanisms, including elections, within Roma stacles and the general marginalization of Roma within the communities and their organizations themselves. It is hoped societies in which they live. Another significant factor, how- that such initiatives will increase the legitimacy of, and en- ever, is a lack of knowledge by many Roma of their civil and gender broad-based confidence in, Roma represented in var- political rights and of the existing institutional means to ious forums at the local, national, or international level. make effective use of those rights to influence politics in their home countries. Roma political participation Without coherent institutional representation, Roma are typ- Through a number of meetings led by the Contact Point in ically not involved in the decision-making processes aimed at 2003, Roma who serve as elected officials in several states improving their living conditions; rather, they find them- were brought together to share ideas and to discuss the selves treated as objects of support and assistance by na- work of international organizations. A series of meetings in tional authorities, aid agencies, and international organiza- Moldova (June 2003) and in Slovakia (December 2003) tions. Notwithstanding this, there have been a number of brought together candidates and Roma who had been elect- initiatives recently by Roma organizations and various gov- ed to local councils to share experiences, build networks, ernments designed to improve representation structures and and receive further training. consultation mechanisms, both at the national and international levels. 2. Roma under the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe In 1999, the Contact Point launched a multiyear programme for the advancement of the political rights of Roma. This programme is designed to increase the level of participation of Roma in elections at local and national lev- Roma communities throughout South-Eastern Europe were els - both as voters and candidates. A key objective of the particularly affected by the collapse of communism and tran- programme is to facilitate access by Roma to policy-making sition to a market economy and later by the armed conflicts on Roma issues. that marked the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia. Particularly during the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 63