Do state policies give results for Roma in Serbia?
State policies shape the destiny of all citizens of Serbia, as well as the entire Roma community. They cover all aspects of functional life in the country: legal regulations, economy, health, public policy, etc. If we look at the overall position of the Roma community and the degree of vulnerability and marginalization, we can ask ourselves whether state policies give results for the Roma community? The first article of the RS Constitution determines the existence of the rule of law and social justice for all residents of Serbia and numerous laws (Labor Law, RS Planning System Law, etc.) define various mechanisms and institutions that are obliged to ensure that their implementation reaches all citizens alike. Although this should be the case, it is often said that our laws are good and that it is always a matter of practice, but the question is when we will be good enough in practicing the laws we have because usually the most vulnerable feel the consequences of dysfunctional institutions and mechanisms of state intervention.
This claim is confirmed by the research of the Opre Roma movement in Serbia, the Roma community was asked whether state policies give results for Roma and what is the area in which the state should contribute more to make the Roma community feel better. Out of 1000 Roma who answered this question, 66.9% believe that state policy does not give results for Roma and the area in which more needs to be included in the area of employment, which is confirmed by 48.7% of Roma.
The Roma community in Serbia has confirmed that state policies do not bring substantial changes for Roma and that is a historical consequence of the lack of interest of political parties in Roma. In the socialist period, the very change of the system and the focus was the sustainability of one class, workers, and socialist ideology, in general, led to ignoring the problems of the Roma that arose as a result of the Second World War. It is known that the Roma community lost the entire middle class of Roma intellectuals in the Second World War. However, the reconstruction of the state from ideological to material has led to the neglect of us. After the final fall of socialism in 1990, while other nations are fighting for their national identities, we Roma continue to fight for existence, without basic human rights. In the period from 1990 to 2000, the Roma issue was taken over by the non-governmental sector without an adequate and systemic solution, while the countries switched from socialism to liberalism. Until the 2000s, the Roma community was not even recognized as a national minority in Serbia, only in 2002 did we receive the status of a national minority and some of the instruments of the systemic struggle for their rights. Decades of non-recognition of the situation of the Roma community and ignorance that was transferred from one government to another only deepened the problems of our community.
Today, in our country, there is an official legal document that refers exclusively to the Roma community, and that is the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma Men and Women, which was adopted for the period 2022-2030. Given that the highest priority from our research for the Roma community is employment, we will consider what measures the state has taken in this document to improve the level of employment among Roma. There are two employment goals in the Strategy: proportional employment of Roma men and women in public administration and increasing the employment of Roma men and women to at least 22%. How this will be achieved and which institutions will be responsible for it, the strategy does not say but talks about training and training programs.
In addition to confusing or no solutions, the state through some mechanisms and measures it brings tries to respond to the needs of the Roma community often using the research of non-Roma NGOs with poor indicators and without a substantial understanding of the roots of our problems. In addition to the poor indicators used in research, there is a general confusion about the application of certain laws and a lack of understanding of complex bureaucracy. And when there is an understanding of which institution has which jurisdiction, employees who are supposed to implement laws and state policy discriminate against Roma and block the results for the Roma community with their racist behavior.
In its work and in creating state policies, the state must take into account:
- Involvement of the Roma community in the processes before the creation of state policy measures
- Taking into account the economic situation of the Roma community caused by external factors (crises, wars)
- Defining adequate indicators of the priorities of the Roma community that reflect our position
- Precisely defines the goals and steps leading to the implementation of adopted legal acts
- Defined competent institutions that will lead to some change for the Roma community
- Provide a part of the budget of local self-government that will be used for the priorities of the Roma community
- Existence of an agreement on cooperation between local municipalities and factories on the employment of a certain percentage of Roma
State policies are an essential response to the position of the Roma community. Only an economically empowered and politically active Roma community can be an actor of change and contribute to the state.