ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE OCCASION OF APRIL 8 - INTERNATIONAL ROMA DAY

08.04.2025, SKOPJE

On the occasion of April 8, International Roma Day, I, as the Ombudsman, extend my congratulations to the citizens and members of the Roma community living in the Republic of North Macedonia. I hope that their integration into society will continue at a faster pace in the coming period.

That is why I call on all players in society to make maximum efforts to ensure that members of this community, as one of the most marginalized, exercise all their rights guaranteed by the Constitution and law promptly, without any restrictions.

Namely, the Ombudsman, as the only institution that takes care of the protection of the constitutional principle of non-discrimination and appropriate and fair representation, concludes that in the last three years, there has been a process of stagnation in the integration of this community into institutions (their employment rate has been almost identical for the past three years), this number does not correspond to their actual number in the country, so in the coming period it must start to increase.

The state has made efforts in the past period for the integration of the Roma, by marking the Roma Decade in the period 2005-2015, continuing with new activities in several sensitive areas - education, housing, and employment, but still the representation of this community in all spheres is not at a satisfactory level. Members of this community are still the most sizable number of people who have problems with registration in the civil registry, which, in turn, leads to the inability to exercise all other rights - access to health care, education, etc.

The problem of segregation of Roma students in several cities in the country has not been overcome, despite the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights and the strong efforts of the Ombudsman to stop this most brutal form of discrimination. Street children continue to be the most numerous in the Roma community, and improvised homes seem to have become their reality. Today, I use this moment as an opportunity to once again emphasize that as a state we must be prepared to overcome all these inconsistencies in the system and to work daily to improve the position of this community in society. With the hope that next year on this day we will have a completely different picture of their integration, I once again extend my congratulations to all members of the Roma community.