The Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe held a joint session with the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance in Paris. An exchange of views was held on the topic of the rights of minority women and girls.
In the context of the adoption by the Committee of Ministers of Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)1 to member States on equality of Roma and Traveller women and girls, it was shared that the necessity of this standard became explicit, since it is not only antigypsyism that Roma and Traveller women face, but the combination of this phenomenon and sexism is what makes their situation even more challenging.
Law and policy makers were called upon to find inspiration in this guiding instrument so that policies targeting Roma and Travellers in general are no longer gender blind, and policies targeting women in general are no longer overlooking the marginalisation and antigypsyism that Roma and Traveller women face because of their ethnicity or lifestyle.
Alba Hernandez Sanchez (co-founder of Feminist Collective of Romani Gender Experts) shared three examples to argue that institutional failure, when combined with gender-based violence, impacts the lives of Roma women and girls. She spoke about Spanish courts having excused or minimized the sexual abuse of Roma girls by invoking so-called “Roma cultural norms”. She further raised the need for functional and effective compensation mechanisms for forced sterilisation of Roma women in Czechia and the Slovak Republic. She finally spoke of Ramajana Asan, a 36-year-old Roma woman, killed by her partner on 3 May 2025 in Shuto Orizari (North Macedonia), in spite of her having repeatedly reporting domestic violence.
Member of the PACE Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination and of the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance found the topic relevant, engaging in a dialogue with the speakers that further contextualised the key issues. They exchanged views on issues relevant in the national contexts, concluding that empowerment of Roma and Traveller women and their civils society organisations should be fully supported by members states.
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