[women-rights] UN Womens Rights Committee Highlights Romani Womens Issues in Romania

Romanian Government Urged to Eliminate Multiple Discrimination

15 June 2006, Budapest, Bucharest. The Open Society Institute Roma (OSI),
Romani CRISS and the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) welcome the
Concluding Comments of the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination against Women on Romania’s compliance with the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), released this week. The Committee convened in June
to review Romania’s sixth periodic report on measures to implement the
Convention.

The Committee expressed specific concern about the situation of Romani
women and girls who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination
based on sex, ethnic or cultural background, and/or socio-economic status
stating that “Roma women and girls remain in a vulnerable and marginalized
situation, in particular with regard to access to education, health,
housing, employment, official identity documents and participation in
political and public life.” After welcoming efforts by the government to
improve the educational level of Romani women, the Committee also
expressed particular concern over “the gaps in Roma women’s formal
education, their high rates of illiteracy, and the high rate of school
dropouts among Roma girls.”

In its Concluding Comments, the Committee urged the Romanian government 
to:
* “take a holistic approach to eliminating the multiple and
intersecting forms of discrimination that Roma women face and to
accelerate achievement of their de facto equality through the
coordination of all agencies working on Roma, non-discrimination and
gender equality issues”
* “implement targeted measures, within specific timetables, in all
areas, and to monitor their implementation”
* “take concrete measures to overcome stereotypical attitudes towards
Roma people, and in particular Roma women and girls”
* “issue without delay identity documents to Roma people, including
Roma women, who lack such documents, and to monitor progress in the
completion of this effort” and
* “address the high rate of unemployment among Roma women, and to
adopt measures to enhance their participation in public life at all
levels”.

Furthermore, the Committee encouraged the Government “to approve without
delay the budget for the implementation of the Action Plan for the Decade
of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015… [and]… the National Agency for Roma to
organize training programmes for the police on Roma culture.” The
Committee also recommended that Romanian authorities “collect and make
available statistical information pertaining to education, health,
employment and the social, economic and political status of Roma women and
girls”.

In the run-up to the review, OSI RPP, the ERRC and Romani CRISS submitted
material to the Committee highlighting key areas of concern for Romani
women in Romania, including discrimination in access to education,
employment, health and reproductive rights, housing and issues related to
violence against Romani women. OSI RPP, the ERRC and Romani CRISS now urge
the Romanian authorities to implement the Committee’s recommendations in
full.

The full text of the CEDAW Committee’s conclusions and recommendations is
available here:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw35/cc/Romania_rev.pdf

For further information, please contact:
Isabela Mihalache (0SI) (361) 3273855 Magdalena Matache (Romani CRISS) +4 
074 0 92 11 34 Ostalinda Maya (ERRC), (36 1) 41 32 200