At the end of August we were visited by the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Canada in Slovakia, Mateo Barney. We spoke with him about the persistent violations of the rights of Roma and Romani women in our society, which we have been monitoring for a long time. We informed him about our strategic legal work in this area as well as our close cooperation with many Roma activists. In a joint interview we pointed out, among other things:

The persistent poverty and overall social exclusion of Roma women and Roma living in marginalised environments

The fact that to date our government has failed to provide forcibly sterilized Roma women with effective access to justice, including compensation,

The deep systemic discrimination against Roma children in education, including their segregation, and the lack of government efforts to come up with effective measures,

The growing problem of discrimination in access to digital technologies, which affects not only disadvantaged Roma women and Roma, but also some other groups in our society

In the interview, we paid special attention to the situation of Roma women and the multiple discrimination they face, especially in health care and not only in health care.

We would like to thank the Embassy of Canada for their interest in the situation of Roma and Romani women in Slovakia and their support for our work to protect their human rights.