[women-rights] CEDAW Committee calls on Serbia to address discrimination against Romani women

13 June 2007, Budapest, Belgrade: The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC),
in partnership with the Serbian non-governmental organisations Bibija,
Eureka, and Women's Space, today welcomed the concluding comments of the
UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in
their review of Serbia's compliance with the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. CEDAW's
comments address Serbia's initial report on its progress in eliminating
sex and gender discrimination since becoming party to the Convention. The
ERRC, Bibija, Eureka and Women's Space had previously submitted a report
to the Committee bringing attention to the critical situation for Romani
women in Serbia.

CEDAW's comments highlighted the particularly vulnerable position of
Romani women in Serbian society, who face multifarious barriers to
education, political representation, and legal justice due to the
combination of sexual and racial discrimination. The Committee requested
that Serbia take immediate action in a number of areas:

* Domestic violence 

The Committee cautioned that admission criteria for safe houses may
represent "de facto discrimination against Roma women threatened by
domestic violence." It urged Serbia to "review and monitor the application
of admission criteria used by safe houses for victims of domestic violence
in order to ensure that these do not exclude Roma women."

* Education 

Questioning the "lack of current sex-disaggregated data and information in
regard to education," the Committee showed particular concern in regards
to "Roma women and girls and other marginalized groups," amongst whom
rates of literacy and education are alarmingly high. It recommended that
"special attention be paid to achieving equal access for marginalized
groups of women and girl, in particular of the Roma minority...the
Committee also recommends that literacy and vocation programmes be
provided to Roma women, in particular those who are elderly and
illiterate."

* Health care 

The Committee noted concern about "the limited access to adequate
health-care services for women, especially for women in rural areas and
Roma women," and called on Serbia to "increase its efforts to improve the
availability of sexual and reproductive health services, including family
planning." It extended this concern to the area of early marriage,
"particularly within the Roma population," due to the "negative effects of
early marriage on women's enjoyment of their human rights, especially
their rights to health and education," and as such urged Serbia "to
enforce the legal minimum age of marriage, which is set at 18."

The ERRC, Bibija, Eureka, and Women's Space are pleased that the Committee
included such detailed recommendations to the Serbian government to
improve the dire situation of Romani women, and they urge Serbia to take
immediate, strong action to implement the Committee's recommendations.

The full text of the CEDAW Committee’s concluding comments on Serbia
are available at:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw38/cc/Serbia.pdf

The ERRC/Bibija/Eureka/Women's Space parallel report on the situation of
Romani women in Serbia is available in English and Serbian at:
http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2136

Press release ERRC