Projects and reports

The BREATHE project investigates the type and frequency of bullying that Roma children face in schools across Europe. The outcomes of this research will include recommendations to educators and policy-makers so that Roma children’s right to access and participate in education is improved, early school leaving is reduced and more Roma children complete secondary-level schooling.

The European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network evaluated the functioning and implementation of the CLLD cycle (2014–2020). Data were collected in three key countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Romania) to assess the extent to which Roma inclusion was mainstreamed throughout the CLLD processes.

CHACHIPEN Project The project “CHACHIPEN – Paving the way for Truth and Reconciliation Process to address antigypsyism in Europe: Remembrance, Recognition, Justice and Trust-Building” aims to learn from experiences with truth and reconciliation processes (TRP) in Sweden and Germany and to use them to advance TRP in Romania and Spain.

This report provides an account of the situation of Bulgarian Roma children during early childhood, and establishes recommendations to make policies more effective and impactful for Roma children and their families.

The report evaluates the higher education participation of GRT communities and discusses how higher education is trying to address this issue.

The new initiative of the European Commission Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, "A union of equality: EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation", sets out a comprehensive three-pillar approach to allow all Roma to realize their full potential: equality with all other members of society; social and economic inclusion; and participation in political, social, economic, and cultural life.

The report concluded that the commitment of European and national decision-makers is required to adopt and implement holistic and integrated policy measures for combating inequalities, while engaging with Roma communities and civil society actors.

The guide, written by Advicenow with funding from the Tudor Trust, aims to improve access to justice for Roma parents going through child protection proceedings in England.

This report by Open Society Foundations, the Roma Education Fund and UNICEF provides to Bulgarian authorities and civil society a timely and informed account of the situation of Bulgarian Roma children during early childhood.

The winter 2020 edition of the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) Homeless in Europe magazine is dedicated to the Roma individuals and families who experience homelessness or are at risk of homelessness across the EU.

This study by Harvard University’s Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, and Voice of Roma, draws attention to the inequities faced by the Roma diaspora in the United States and includes insight from 363 questionnaires with Romani Americans, touching on socioeconomic conditions, stigma, discrimination, identity and culture.

This report by Spain’s Council for the Elimination of Racial or Ethnic Discrimination proposes a longitudinal analysis of the different discrimination and exclusion markers, especially in the areas of employment, training and housing.

The report, prepared by the National Roma Center, in partnership with UN Women and enabled with Swedish funding assesses the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the Roma population, from the perspective of gender (in)equality.

This working paper by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the six countries of the Western Balkans.

This report shares and highlights the key learning during the Parallel Lives Roma Project (October 2017 to June 2020) to raise awareness of Roma communities and their needs among frontline workers and their managers across the east of England.

These recommendations are the result of a project implemented in Slovakia and Romania, involving strategic stakeholders, including Roma communities and health mediators, advancing a comprehensive and holistic policy approach towards early childhood development.

Fundación Secretariado Gitano (Gypsy Foundation Secretariat) presents the results of a telephone survey to 11 000 Roma families, in order to better understand how the current socio-health crisis caused by COVID-19 is affecting Roma people. The Survey provides data about health, social needs, employment, education of minors, and perceptions of discrimination.

In the Third Monitoring Cycle (2019/2020) of the National Roma Integration Strategies, country reports focus on blind spots in Roma inclusion policies, encompassing issues that hinder Roma inclusion but have not been effectively considered or addressed by Member States. Countries with the largest, as well as significant, mid-size and smaller Roma communities are included.

In this document, EURoma calls for the maintenance of an EU policy initiative focusing specifically on Roma equality and inclusion and in particular for the continuation, with certain reforms, of the current EU Framework in the post-2020 period.

The Cause of Action reports by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) aim to present the outcomes of an initiative to address the reproductive rights of Roma women in Bulgaria

The Cause of Action reports by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) aim to present the outcomes of an initiative to address the reproductive rights of Roma women in Hungary

By analysing numerous cases studies in central and eastern Europe, this report (by the European Environmental Bureau and the ERGO Network) highlights a pattern of systematic discrimination against many Roma communities, which pushes them out into marginal and polluted lands and neighbourhoods, and deprives them of access to basic environmental services and public utilities.

To improve the Traveller Education in Ireland, Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre (‘Pavee Point’) recommends long-term sustainable initiatives and the development of a new Traveller and Roma Education Strategy.

Elaborated by the Departament of Education and Skills of Government of Ireland, this action plan is focused on Travellers’ barriers to access to higher education.

This alternative report by Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre provides a response to Ireland’s consolidated Combined Fifth to Ninth Periodic Reports to the CERD Committee. It is informed by issues identified by Travellers and Roma through consultations and key pieces of research.

This report by the non-profit-making organization Friends Families and Travellers ascertains the extent to which service users from Gypsy and Traveller communities were refused registration at a doctor’s surgery in England in December 2018 and January 2019.

This 3-year research project (2019–2021) explores the cultural contribution to Europe’s public space(s) of Romani minorities since the 19th century. Funded by the network Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA), it is a joint project of the universities of Seville (Spain), Kraków (Poland), Liverpool (United Kingdom) and Helsinki (Finland).

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) commissioned this research to look at how local planning authorities are responding to the revised definition of Gypsies and Travellers, as specified in the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Planning Policy for Traveller Sites 2015.

This report aims to inform World Bank staff and a broader set of stakeholders in Romania about the status quo and relevance of the Roma agenda in Romania.

The main objective of this report is to better understand the scope and causes of the existing problem of a lack of civil registration and identification documents among the Roma population in Ukraine, along with the problems experienced by them (including Roma displaced from eastern Ukraine and Crimea) in the Transcarpathia, Odessa and Kharkiv regions in Ukraine.

This report by Lucia Bosáková and WHO Regional Office for Europe reviews a bottom-up approach that involves following four steps to employing Roma – a large, hard-to-employ group of people, in Slovakia.

This project of the Pompeu Fabra University (Spain), co-funded by the EU funding grants programme entitled “Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC)”, addresses the problematic school situation of Roma children and youth in four neighbourhoods in the Barcelona area.

This online tool helps voluntary organizations to engage with “Inclusion Health groups”, such as Gypsies and Travellers, who experience poor health outcomes across a range of indicators, including self-reported health, life expectancy and morbidity.

This report focuses on the segregation of the Roma and Sinti communities in Italy; in particular, in the city of Rome in “Roma camps”.

This International Labour Organization study assesses the situation faced by Roma women in the Republic of Moldova, with a particular focus on the world of work. * For the purposes of this publication, all references, including in the bibliography, to “Kosovo” should be understood/read as “Kosovo (in accordance with Security Council resolution 1244 (1999))”.

This report, undertaken by Pavee Point in partnership with the Department of Justice and Equality of Ireland, provides a better understanding of the experiences of the Roma community in accessing public services in Ireland.

This House of Commons Library briefing paper provides an overview of the key policies relating to Gypsy and Traveller communities in England, including in relation to: inequalities, racial discrimination, accommodation needs, illegal encampments, health and education outcomes, employment rates, welfare reform, and evidence of over-representation in the criminal justice system.

This research report outlines the identified key challenges and difficulties that Roma returnees face when reintegrating into their native communities, in the attempt to secure a decent life for themselves and their families in The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Authored by Andrey Ivanov and Justin Kagin, this is the latest analytical paper from UNDP’s Roma Inclusion Working Papers series. It builds on the collective work of many researchers, policy-makers and activists involved in UNDP Regional Centre interventions, promoting an integrated approach to the realization of the human development potential of Roma. This paper departs from the standard approach to poverty, focusing solely on poverty rates, and proposes a multidimensional poverty index as a measure that better reflects the challenges Roma are facing.

This publication (in Croatian) by UNDP, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Children’s Fund analyses the socioeconomic situation of Roma, and was created based on research conducted by a UNDP regional centre in 12 countries of southeast Europe, including Croatia.

This publication (in Croatian) by UNDP, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Children’s Fund analyses the socioeconomic situation of Roma, and was created based on research conducted by a UNDP regional centre in 12 countries of southeast Europe, including Croatia.

This paper, published by the Open Society Foundations, addresses the gender perspectives of health in terms of scope, type and quality of health services received by Roma men and women, with special focus on health services provided by registered general practitioners, emergency medical services, and out-patient and in-patient health care.

This report of the European Roma and Travellers Forum on evaluating gender in the National Roma Integration Strategies offers some methods for both the EU bodies and their Member States to more adequately mainstream gender, as well as youth, and strengthens their approaches to anti-discrimination measures.

The paper, published by the European Roma and Travellers Forum, aims to develop a framework for identifying structural, cultural, interactive and identity integration needs and policies in urban and migration contexts.

This paper explores how the successor states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have addressed their respective Romani populations, attending to constitutional recognition, antidiscrimination legislation, primary education, legislation on minorities, provisions for political representation, Romani-specific central-level strategies and action plans, arrangements for advice on and coordination of policy toward Roma, and targeted mechanisms for Roma at local level.

This book explores the key factors perpetuating Roma marginalization at the municipal and community levels in Hungary, Romania and Serbia. It analyzes the economic, political, demographic and social forces at local level, which shape practices and consequences of social exclusion and potential pathways to inclusion. It is published by the Center for Policy Studies and Central European University.

Traveller Education Service leads/head coordinators across Wales were invited to take part in this study from the Welsh Government Social Research aimed to identify what works in engaging Gypsy and Traveller families to attain more formal education and learning. The research offers a deeper insight into the complexities associated with engaging with families to inform other key service providers, practitioners and policy-makers.

This report from Anglia Ruskin University examines the experiences of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma people in five areas: discrimination, accommodation, education, health and employment.

This report is on a two-day workshop organized at the end of March 2014 in Flensburg, Germany by the European Centre for Minority Issues. Gathering policy researchers and practitioners, the event aimed at addressing the state of the art of policy-making for Roma in Europe and at providing an open platform for discussions about the ways forward. The workshop examined: the EU Roma inclusion project, Roma policies in a critical perspective and Institutional approaches to issues related to Roma.

With support from international and national experts and in close consultation with the Ministry of National Education of Romania and the World Bank, this study on the cost of non-investment in education is encouraging the Romanian investment in education from a financial and economic point of view. This study recommends to generate better, more timely and transparent data on the education budget, and to strengthen the evaluation of the Romanian programmes to increase school participation and the quality of education.

This policy brief by the WHO Regional Office for Europe aims to provide input into the role of the health sector in preventing and addressing intimate partner violence among migrant women and those of ethnic minorities. It describes the scope of the problem, presenting key evidence, and makes recommendations for health policy and health systems, health facilities and health service providers.

In October 2014, civil society monitoring reports on the implementation of National Roma Integration Strategies in eight countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, and the United Kingdom) were finalized by coalitions of NGOs coordinated by the Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat. A summary report prepared by the Open Society Foundations and the Decade Secretariat is available, containing the most important findings of the country reports. All the country reports are in in English and the national language of the respective country.

This report explores the way that Romani women from targeted localities from the Republic of Moldova were assisted in identifying, formulating, and prioritizing key issues pertaining to their rights and needs, both at national and local levels. This report identifies the concerns of Romani women directly to the political party leaders and the leaders of the state. One of the main conclusions of the report is that Romani women need more awareness raising about the role of local and national authorities.

This 2014 study was produced as a result of cooperation between the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNDP Moldova. The findings of this study illustrate that Romani women and girls in the Republic of Moldova are currently extremely disempowered through experiencing extreme poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and the continuing legacy of long-term gender inequality. Unchallenged racism significantly heightens the exclusion, which Romani women face as women, and render Romani women and girls among those people most severely threatened with social exclusion in the Republic of Moldova. The regular denial that discrimination exists constitutes a significant challenge to ending it.