Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues The OSCE Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti Within the OSCE Area, which forms the foundation of ODIHR’s activities on issues related to Roma and Sinti, has been reinforced in recent years, including by Ministerial Council Decision No. 8/09, adopted in Athens in December 2009. This decision, on “Enhancing OSCE Efforts to Ensure Roma and Sinti Sustainable Integration”, reinforced the need to bolster the Organization’s work in this area. The Ministerial Council has tasked ODIHR, in co-operation and co-ordination with the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and other relevant OSCE executive structures, to continue to assist participating States in combating acts of discrimination and violence against Roma and Sinti, and to counter negative stereotyping of Roma and Sinti in the media. The need for such assistance has grown over the past two years, due in part to the fallout from the global economic crisis. The negative impact on labour markets has led to the scapegoating of Roma and Sinti in a number of OSCE participating States, fuelling racism, intolerance and violence against these communities. This has been most severe in countries where little progress has been made in the integration of Roma and Sinti and has, in some cases, seen the disturbing rise of far-right political parties that have made anti-Roma rhetoric a central part of their platforms, further fanning hostility toward these groups 56 ODIHR Annual Report 2010 Activities Based on the Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti Within the OSCE Area, which was adopted in 2003, and Ministerial Council Decisions in subsequent years, ODIHR’s activities in this sphere in 2010 concentrated on: »» Combating racism and discrimination; »» Roma and Sinti migration; »» Roma and Sinti in crisis and post-crisis situations; »» Improving access to education; »» Police and Roma; »» Enhancing participation in public and political life; and »» Empowerment of Roma and Sinti representatives Combating Racism and Discrimination The publication in 2010 of a field assessment report, following a visit to Hungary in 2009 to investigate a string of fatal attacks against Roma and Sinti there in 2008 and 2009, led to a roundtable discussion on the report’s findings in Budapest on 23 November. The identification and proper investigation of and responses to such hate crimes by law-enforcement bodies were at the forefront of the discussions, organized jointly with the Hungarian government. Participants in the discussion acknowledged the need for further training of police and prosecutors to identify possible racial or ethnic bias in crimes targeting members of minority groups, including Roma and Sinti, and further followup work in co-operation with the Hungarian authorities is planned by ODIHR in 2011. An important part of addressing racism and discrimination is providing education on the tragic results of such attitudes in the past. ODIHR, together with the Council of Europe’s Education Division, continued an educational initiative launched in 2008 for the development of a website dedicated to information about the Roma genocide in World War II. New materials