site under construction 

 

 

Policy Center

 Roma & Minorities

Our New Webpage will be launched in September 2010 -we apologise for the gaps in updating our website.

 

What is the Policy Center ?

 

 

The Policy Center for Roma and Minorities is a think-tank � foundation established in May 2008 in Romania, which acts towards solving the social inclusion related issues of minorities and Roma.

 

The Policy Center for Roma and Minorities was established as a follow-up of Roma Diplomacy, a programme that had as a main purpose the creation of a highly qualified, articulate group of European Roma with diplomatic skills (for more information please see www.diplomacy.edu/roma).

 

The establishment of the Policy Center for Roma and Minorities was motivated by a number of existing documents such as the recommendations of the Council of Europe for a Roma think-tank, a UN recommendation for Albania which also recommends such an initiative and the speech of the leader of the European Liberals and Democrats, Graham Watson during the Roma Diplomacy Conference in the European Parliament, who said that he hopes Roma Diplomacy will be at the base of such a think-tank. The key concepts that the Policy Center uses in its work are social inclusion and active citizenship.

 

Partners:

 

The Policy Center for Roma and Minorities is a member of ERGO( www.ergonetwork.org)  and ERPC � the European Roma Policy Coalition whose members are the Amnesty International, MRG, ENAR, ERRC, SPOLU, ERGO, ERIO, REF, Foundation Gitano .  

 

Activities:
 
The Policy Center is running a few very promising initiatives � a debate house in Bucharest in partnership with the Romanian Monitoring Agency, a yearly run against discrimination to be done around the date of 8th of April International Roma Day in partnership with the biggest sport focused union in Italy UISP, a campaign focused on changing public attitudes related to Roma through football together with the Romanian Football Federation and the Read With Me campaign in partnership with a number of stakeholders.

In August 2008, PCRM managed to obtain the support of the Romanian and Dutch ministries of foreign affairs to write a complementary paper on Roma for the Staff Working Paper released by the European Commission on 2nd of July. This paper will be used as a basis for the above mentioned governments positions related to Roma.

A number of important Roma experts ( such as ex-Secretary of State Maria Ionescu, ex- Senior Advisor on Roma and Sinti of OSCE Nicolae Gheorghe, ex- deputy director of the EC Delegation to Romania Simona Lupu , ex- deputy director of the ERRC Claude Cahn) and ex-Roma Diplomacy students ( such as Gabriela Hrabanova, Beata Olahova, Isabela Mihalache, Zejliko Ivanovici, Mark David, Florin Botonogu and Georgian Lunca) were and are involved in the writing of the paper.

A series of meetings between the think tank and high representatives of governments took place, including meetings with the President and Human Rights Ombudsperson of Finland, the Dutch Minister of European Affairs, numerous ambassadors to Bucharest, officials of the European Commission, ministers and secretaries of states participating in the Decade of Roma Inclusion ( www.romadecade.org ).

   

Issues ethnical minorities are facing:  

           

While NGOs and institutions continue the fight against xenophobia and discrimination, worries are increasing that the existing instruments have limited effectiveness, often becoming mere symbols of politically correct language. The sharp and unexpected economic decline in 2009 seems to have contributed also to an increase in inter-ethnic tensions and a raise in xenophobic and racist incidents.

 

Minorities issues can be analysed from many different perspectives and is important to understand that different courses of action need to be undertaken in order to deal with the problems of each minority.

 

The vision:

 

We believe in the right of every human being to acknowledge and reach his or her potential, regardless of the minority he or she might belong.

 

The Mission:

 

We act to empower Roma and minorities in order to become active citizens of their societies and stimulate the majorities to actively participate in the social inclusion process . We act towards strengthening the commitment and responsibility sharing of both, majority populations and minorities in building up open societies.

 

  Values reflected in our work:

 

�         Responsibility

�         Professionalism

�         Innovation

�         Transparency

�         Equity 

Primary Target Groups:

 

�         Local, National and International Public institutions

�         NGOs dealing with minorities and Roma issues

�         Communities of Roma and other ethnic minorities

�         Majority communities 

Objectives:

 

�         to analyze, develop and assist in the designing and implementation of policies related to ethnic minorities and Roma on regional, national and international level;

�         facilitate communication and cooperation among main stakeholders in minorities issues;

�         investing in building up and strengthening regional, national and international capacity of Human Resources from Roma communities and other minorities,

�         promote good practices in managing projects and organizations dealing with minorities;

�         encourage and steer public debate and social dialogue related to Roma and minorities;

�         ensure a high level of visibility to ethnic minorities and Roma initiatives.

Sponsors 

Roma Initiatives Office

Open Society Institute

IDEA

Ambasada Regatului Tarilor de Jos

UISP Italy