The main goals of the workshop are:

• to raise awareness about the limited electoral participation of Roma in the Western Balkans; and
• to be a forum for exchanging good practices in promoting the involvement of Roma in collaboration with responsible institutions in following-up on electoral recommendations put forward by election observation reports, as well as the recommendations of ODIHR’s “Third Status Report: Implementation of the Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area, For Roma, with Roma”.

To that end, the event will bring together some 35 participants from the Western Balkans, among them Roma politicians, members of parliaments and professionals in executive structures, members of citizen observer organizations, experts from international organizations, as well as activists and civil society representatives working to advance participation of Roma in public and political life.

ODIHR will share with key official electoral stakeholders the conclusions of the visit and highlight the additional steps that should be considered ahead of future elections. 

The event is organized by ODIHR through its Support to Elections in the Western Balkans project, funded by the European Union and the Austrian Development Agency.