Czech Human Rights Commissioner at Decade Steering Committee

On 25 and 26 June Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková attended the 22nd International Steering Committee meeting of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 in the Macedonian capital of Skopje. The international initiative, established at the instigation of the American philanthropist George Soros and his Open Society Foundations (OSF), brings together 13 states and several important international organizations. OSF continues to be the main donor to the Decade, while the individual member states also contribute funding for the operation of the Decade Secretariat and various educational activities and projects.

The members of the Decade focus their activities in particular on the areas of education, employment, health and housing. The main aim of the Decade is to connect representatives of the public administration with those of the nonprofit sector and to communicate and transfer information and internationally successful procedures. The Decade is primarily a platform for dialogue. An additional benefit of the Decade is that EU candidate countries from the Western Balkans can meet with EU Member States to provide them with valuable experience and knowledge of EU policy on the issue of including socially excluded Romani people.

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The International Steering Committee, which just convened in Skopje, evaluates the ongoing operations of the Decade and sets the direction of its further overall development. The Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner represented the Czech Republic as National Coordinator for the Decade. She presented the Czech Progress Report for 2011, which focused on the most important positive changes in the inclusion of Romani people into Czech society during the previous year.

The presidency of the Decade was handed over to Croatia at the meeting, which took it over from Macedonia. Croatia presented the plans and priorities of its presidency, which will be topics typical for the situation of Romani people in the Balkans, such as the question of legalizing Romani settlements on illegally appropriated land or the improvement of the legal position of persons without personal identification for various reasons.

The Czech Republic chaired the Decade in 2010-2011.