An interview with Romani Rose, the head of the German Central Council for Sinti and Roma. He has fought for official recognition of the Sinti and Roma suffering under the Nazi government; thirteen of his family members were murdered in death camps. He says not enough is being done to root out the causes of prejudice in Europe, and that many Sinti and Roma integrate by denying their ethnicity.

The Swedish government’s Delegation for Roma Issues is investigating reparations and even a possible Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to come to grips with five centuries of persecution against one of the most oppressed minorities in Europe. A radio report.

DecadeWatch is an assessment of government action on implementing the commitments expressed under the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005–2015. Since the Decade aims at giving Roma a voice in the process of inclusion, this assessment has been conducted by coalitions of Roma NGOs and activists from all countries participating in the Decade. It aims to be a constructive contribution by Roma activists towards making the Decade a success. The first issue of DecadeWatch, published in June 2007, reviewed the period from the launch of the Decade in early 2005 until the end of 2006. This update report covers the year 2007 and reports any changes and new initiatives that governments introduced in that year.

The Equality Authority has a mandate to promote equality of opportunity and to combat discrimination. This report, which overviews the cases filed on grounds of violating equality, asserts that during 2007 the Equality Authority responded to 10,993 queries under five different pieces of legislation. It is reported that the emergence of the age ground as the highest area of casefiles under the Employment Equality Acts underpined the urgency in tackling the ageism. Another area that evidently posed challanges was disabled people’s rights. These allegations predominantly relate to a failure by employers and service providers to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities. The report also emphasizes that ground breaking research quantified, for the first time in an Irish context, the positive relationship between equality and diversity strategies in companies and increased productivity, increased motivation and decreased employee turnovers.

A coalition of NGOs launched this report on the deterioration of the human rights situation of Roma and Sinti in Italy, on the occasion of the OSCE’s Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Sustainable Policies for Roma and Sinti Integration in Vienna. Coalition members include the European Roma Rights Centre, the Open Society Institute, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Romani Criss and the Roma Civic Alliance of Romania. The report includes a concise summary of a series of discriminatory legal and policy measures targeting Roma recently enacted by the right-wing Italian government, in place since the April 2008 elections. The report also contains the results of first-hand documentation conducted by the Coalition in Romani camps Italy at the end of May 2008, exploring the effects of these measures on members of Italy’s Roma and Sinti communities

This resolution urges the Italian authorities to refrain from collecting fingerprints from Roma including minors and from using fingerprints already collected. The European Parliament has approved the resolution, procedure launched on initiative by the members of the ALDE, Viktória Mohácsi, Cappato Marco, with the introduction of various interrogations. Interrogations have been introduced also by Jan Marinus Wiersma, Kristian Vigenin, Magda Kósáné Kovács, Claudio Fava, Gianni Pittella, Adrian Severin and Katalin Lévai, for the PSE group, by Sarah Ludford, Metin Kazak e Magor Imre Csibi, for the ALDE group, by Monica Frassoni, Elly de Groen-Kouwenhoven and Claude Turmes, for the Verts/ALE group, by Giusto Catania, Roberto Musacchio, Vittorio Agnoletto e Umberto Guidoni, for the GUE/NGLgroup.

On 10 July 2008 the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE (OSCE/ODIHR) gathered civil society representatives from across the OSCE region in Vienna to discuss sustainable policies for Roma and Sinti integration, with a special emphasis on the local level. Participants of the Roundtable examined the role and responsibilities of regional and local authorities to assist in integrating Roma and Sinti. Major challenges were discussed and good practices were explored with the aim of improving the situation of Roma and Sinti. In addition, participants highlighted the need to improve policies with regard to facilitating equal access Roma and Sinti to public services. This report presents the final recommendations of this Roundtable.

"Segregated schools produce unemployed Roma people," and this is one of the most important problems that the Roma living in Hungary has to face today. This is one of the main points Erzsébet Mohácsi, social pedagogue and director of the Chance for Children Foundation, highlights in this interview. Text and video.

In its Communication, the Commission renews its commitment to ensuring that everyone is given an equal chance to realize their potential. This Communication aims to present a comprehensive approach to step up action against discrimination and promote equal opportunities. In particular, this Communication is accompanied by a proposal for a new directive prohibiting discrimination on grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief outside the employment sphere. It also proposes actions to give new impetus to the dialogue on non-discrimination policy and to make more effective use of the instruments available, both in general and with particular emphasis on promoting the social inclusion of Roma.

This staff working document sets out to list and examine the existing policies and instruments as a response to the European Council request calling urgently for a comprehensive European framework strategy on Roma. The Commission Communication on nondiscrimination policy draws conclusions from the thorough analysis of ongoing activities, opportunities and gaps identified in this document and lays down the framework and for further steps towards Roma inclusion.