Skopje, 6 April 2023 (MIA) - The Roma community, both in historical and current perspectives, is an inseparable part of our multicultural mosaic. Unfortunately, when we talk about the Roma over the past three decades, we discuss the basic problems of the people, the problem of access to water, electricity, adequate infrastructure, quality education and health services, high unemployment and limited access to justice, President Stevo Pendarovski told Thursday's conference "Roma Strategy, Present and Future Steps", held under his auspices.

The alarming situation in which the majority of the Roma community has been for decades, Pendarovski said, has pointed to the need to adopt and implement targeted policies in order to overcome such a status.

"Faced with all these issues, as a state we established mechanisms including defined goals to promote the position of the Roma community. We have adopted two strategies for the inclusion of Roma, in 2005 and in 2016, we have adopted national action plans, and last year a new strategy for Roma inclusion 2022-2030 was also adopted. In reality, these mechanisms have produced humble results, as there are many structural deficiencies that affect the daily cultural and social life of the Roma community," Pendarovski stressed. 

The European Commission reports, he added, regularly note that the national action plans are not fully implemented, which is why only limited progress has been observed. In addition, the latest U.S. State Department report on human rights practices notes that the basic human rights of Roma whose birth is not registered cannot be realized.

Pendarovski pointed out that there are a number of flaws due to the exclusion of Roma settlements from the general and detailed urban plans of the municipalities. Challenges also include the transition from primary to secondary education, short life expectancy of Roma, infant mortality rate and limited access to social and health services.

"Unfortunately, there is still intolerance towards those different than the majority in the educational system, and there are examples of segregation in schools. The Roma still don't have an institution to promote and nurture their rich Roma culture. Roma women suffer multiple discrimination and face gender barriers. The lack of textbooks for the optional subject of Romani language and culture objectively limits the right of Roma students to study this subject," said Pendarovski. 

The President pointed out that antigypsyism, as a result of a complex historical process of violence, stigma, hate speech and discrimination, leads to the exclusion of the Roma ethnic community from the development trends of society. These structural flaws, he added, set back generations in a domino effect, which impacts the overall prosperity of the community, as well as the prosperity of the entire country.

"Although in our region North Macedonia is considered to be a country that makes the greatest efforts to improve the situation of the Roma, the little progress in certain priority areas, including education, should not keep us in the comfort zone because the same problems have been going on for years. It is necessary to face the facts and re-examine the previous practices that have shown humble results in improving the situation of the Roma community," Pendarovski said. 

According to him, it is most important to allocate budget for Roma policies and to have a real, not declarative, political will in order to achieve progress in promoting the rights of the Roma community and their quality of life, and thus the overall prosperity of the Republic of North Macedonia.

"Following civilizational values, as politicians we have an obligation to create an equal chance for prosperity for all citizens. We still have a lot of work to do in this area and therefore my support for improving the situation of the Roma community remains," said the President.