OPEN CALL for 5th CoE Dialogue with Roma and Traveller Civil Society next month - DEADLINE 27 MAY to apply
The Roma and Travellers Team at the Council of Europe (CoE) has announced there is an open call for participation in the Council of Europe’s 5th Dialogue with civil society from Roma and Traveller communities around Europe, which will be held this year from 20-21 June in Strasbourg, France. This meeting will focus on the issue of political participation by Roma and Travellers.
The Dialogue aims to make visible the rights of Roma and Travellers to actively participate in politics, to highlight participation as crucial to tackling discrimination, and to increase the capacity of Roma and Traveller NGOs to identify good practices for strengthening Romani political participation. The Concept Note for the 5th Dialogue is available here.
The working languages of the Dialogue meeting will be English, French and Romanes. The Council of Europe expects to especially achieve better promotion of meaningful participation by Roma and Traveller women and youth in political life and in public decision-making bodies.
The Dialogue will make good practices from across the 47 CoE member States more visible and will map priorities for enhancing Roma and Traveller political participation that will then become part of the post-2019 agenda for the international human rights organization. Roma and Traveller experts from local civil society organizations and representatives of Roma and Traveller or women’s organizations with expertise in political participation are encouraged to attend.
Open call for participation
Interested candidates must complete an online Application Form by Sunday, 27 May 2018, at 18:00 Central European Time. Applicants should be experts in one of the following areas: Roma youth; Roma women; promoting political participation and representation; improving the quality of decision-making processes at local and national level; establishing links between Roma and Traveller communities and state institutions/political parties; promoting effective policies in political and public life participation; voter education.
Applicants should also be in a position to use the outcomes of the meeting in their work; be resident in one of the Council of Europe member States; be actively involved in Roma or Traveller political participation issues, particularly in the area of youth and/or women; attend the meeting for its full duration; and be able to express themselves fluently in at least one of the working languages of the Dialogue meeting (English, French, Romani). A maximum of 20 representatives of Roma and Traveller civil society will be selected by the Council of Europe Secretariat to participate in the Dialogue.
The selection process will secure age balance, gender balance, geographical balance, balance between Roma and Traveller Civil Society organizations both international and national, and the balanced representation of other key stakeholders with expertise on the topic areas. Applicants should clearly state in their motivation letter what their area of competence and expertise are in this field and indicate in which way their expertise could contribute to reaching pertinent conclusions with respect to the identified topic for the Dialogue meeting.
Those chosen to participate will be informed by Friday 1 June 2018. More information is available at www.coe.int/roma-dialogue
