The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted, on Wednesday 22 January, a Strategic Action Plan on Roma and Traveller integration to combat discrimination and anti-Gypsy prejudice by promoting equality.
This new action plan, which will cover the period 2020-2025, succeeds a previous plan deployed between 2016 and 2019. It sets itself the objective of continuing the progress already made and of tackling even more resolutely the anti-Gypsy prejudice whose persistence is attested by several judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and by the conclusions of Council of Europe monitoring bodies (e.g. the ECRI Commission).
While the 2016-2019 Plan focused on identifying innovative models of local solutions and integration policies, the 2020-2025 Plan, focusing on the principle of non-discrimination and gender equality, will be governed by the following principles: respect for the rule of law, difference and diversity, participation of Roma and Travellers as full members of society, which means their involvement, individually or collectively, in all collective decisions affecting them at local, regional and European level.
Local authorities will be supported to benefit from national and international (including EU) funding that promotes Roma inclusion policies.
The following are also provided for: - the development of a legal instrument to combat hate speech; - actions to raise awareness of the situation of these minorities among the general public; - measures to promote their children's access to quality education, in particular by strengthening the capacity of teachers to apply inclusive pedagogy; - promoting the teaching of Roma and Travellers history.
The Action Plan will be officially launched at the first meeting of the Steering Committee on Anti-Discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion (CDADI) on 6-8 April. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)