A meeting was held today at the NARS Speaker’s Cabinet with representatives of the Roma Women’s Centre Bibija, Slavica Vasic, President of the Centre and Azra Berisa, Centre member. The meeting was attended by Zorana Sijacki of the OSCE Mission which supports the organisation.

They presented the campaign titled “Roma women equally – in the Gender Equality Council”, launched by Bibija and Romano Alav organisation and aimed at including Roma women into the work of the National Gender Equality Council and local gender equality office. The campaign endeavors to increase the Roma women’s influence on decision making and create the appropriate conditions for their increased participation in human rights protection mechanisms in Serbia.

Since the campaign is directed towards institutions on the national and local level, they also considered the possibility of presenting the campaign at Assembly committee sittings, primarily before the Gender Equality Committee, Committee on Labour, Ex-Servicemen’s and Social Issues, Committee on Inter-Ethnic Relations and Poverty Reduction Committee.

Women’s association Bibija, founded in 1998, organises psycho-social workshops, legal counsel from Roma women and assists the creation of new non-governmental organisations dealing with women’s rights.