OSCE: Prague meeting of elected Roma officials

Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 16:50:54 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: OSCE: Prague meeting of elected Roma officials

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

OSCE: Prague meeting of elected Roma officials


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: Meta Anley <[email protected]>
Organization:  OSCE Secretariat

PRESS CONFERENCE:  FIRST EVER MEETING OF
EUROPEAN ROMA ELECTED OFFICIALS TO
CONVENE IN PRAGUE
 
The first ever meeting of Roma parliamentarians and elected officials
from all over Europe will take place in Prague on 30 November and 1
December 2000.
 
The meeting will develop strategies to increase the participation of
Roma communities in the political life of the countries they live in,
drawing in particular on the experience of Roma who have already been
elected to public office.
 
Some 100 Roma members of national parliaments or local assemblies,
mayors and NGO activists, as well as representatives from numerous
governments and election experts will participate in the meeting,
which is organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the main OSCE institution dealing with Roma
and Sinti issues and elections, in co-operation with the Czech
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
 
The meeting is a response to the worrying under-representation of Roma
in public office in the OSCE area, including in the countries of
Western Europe. While Roma populations constitute significant
minorities in many European countries, the number of Roma
representatives in national or local parliaments and other elected
officials does not come close to corresponding to their proportion of
the overall population.
 
For the first time in the history of many Roma communities in Central
and Eastern Europe, the political transitions in this region now offer
them an opportunity to participate actively in the political processes
of their co untries.

How the involvement of Roma in elections and other political processes
can be improved will be the main focus of the meeting, also drawing on
the experience made in the Czech Republic, the host country of the
meeting.
 
Media representatives are invited to attend a
 
PRESS CONFERENCE
 
which will take place on Thursday, 30 November 2000, at 11:00 in the
Palais Cernin, Loretanske namesti 5, Prague.
 
Mr. Martin Palous, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic,
Ambassador G=E9rard Stoudmann, Director of the OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Mr. Nicolae Gheorghe,
OSCE/ODIHR Adviser on Roma and Sinti Issues, Ms. Monika Horakova,
Member of the Czech Parliament, and Mr. Nedzet Mustafa, Mayor of Suto
Orizari, FYR of Macedonia, will be present at the press conference.

For further information contact Mr. Jens-Hagen Eschenb=E4cher,
OSCE/ODIHR Public Affairs Officer, at +48-22-5200600-4162 or
+48-603683122 (mobile).

-- 
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe

Submissions: [email protected]  
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected] 
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================