© Council of Europe

We are happy to announce an OPEN CALL for participation to the 5th Council of Europe Dialogue with Roma and Traveller civil society that will take place on 20-21 June 2018 in Strasbourg, France.

The 5th Dialogue meeting will concentrate on the issue of Roma and Traveller political participation with the aims of

a) prioritising and giving visibility to the rights of Roma and Travellers to active political and public participation,

b) highlighting the issue of political participation as a key parameter in the effort of tackling Roma and Traveller marginalisation, isolation and discrimination and

c) increasing the capacity of Roma and Traveller NGOs to identify strategies and good practices that strengthen participation in the political and public sphere. The Concept note of the 5^th Dialogue meeting is available here.

The working languages of the Dialogue meeting will be English, French and Romani.

Expected Dialogue outcomes

• Better promotion of adequate and meaningful participation of Roma and Traveller women and youth in political or public life in any decision-making bodies;
• Higher visibility of good practices across member States;
• Mapping of priority areas, key targets and effective strategies in enhancing and sustaining Roma and Traveller political participation which will be incorporated in the Council of Europe post-2019 agenda.

Who can participate

Roma and Traveller experts from local civil society organisations and representatives of Roma and Traveller and women’s organisations with expertise in the area of political participation are encouraged to participate.

Call for participation

Interested candidates must complete an online Application Form by Sunday, 27 May 2018, at 18:00 Central European Time.

Profile of the applicants

Roma and non-Roma participants should be experts in one of the following areas:

• Roma youth;
• Roma women;
• Promoting political participation and representation;
• Improving the quality of decision-making processes at local and national;
• Establishing links between Roma and Traveller communities and state institutions/political paties;
• Promoting effective policies in political and public life participation;
• Voters education.

Candidates should equally

• in a position to use the outcomes of the meeting in their work;
• resident in one of the Council of Europe member States ;
• actively involved in Roma or Traveller political participation issues, particularly in the area of youth and/or women;
• available to attend the meeting for its full duration;
• able to express themselves fluently in at least one of the working languages of the Dialogue meeting (English, French, Romani).
• a maximum of 20 representatives of Roma and Traveller civil society will be selected by the Council of Europe Secretariat to participate in the Dialogue on the basis of their applications while securing a geographical and gender balance, as well as a balance between Roma and Traveller Civil Society representatives and other key stakeholders with expertise on the topic areas.

Participants will be selected on the basis of their merits while securing a balance between Roma and Traveller civil society organisations, both national and international, and other key stakeholders with expertise on the topic, gender and age as well as geographical representation.

Applicants should clearly state in their motivation letter their area of competence and expertise in the field and indicate in which way their expertise would contribute to reaching pertinent conclusions on the identified topic for the Dialogue meeting.

Selected participants will be informed by Friday 1 June 2018.

More information available at www.coe.int/roma-dialogue