{"id":46352,"date":"2026-04-07T13:33:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/?p=46352"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:33:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:33:37","slug":"roma-continue-to-live-on-the-margins-of-society-without-effective-access-to-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/roma-continue-to-live-on-the-margins-of-society-without-effective-access-to-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Roma Continue to Live on the Margins of Society Without Effective Access to Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Despite numerous strategies and declarative commitments to inclusion, Roma in Montenegro continue to live on the margins of society, without effective access to the rights formally guaranteed to them.<\/p>\n

On the eve of International Roma Day, it must be emphasized that the Roma community in Montenegro still lives in a gap between formally guaranteed rights and their actual implementation.<\/p>\n

Political representation of Roma remains a persistent and long-standing issue, despite years of recommendations and a clearly recognized need to amend the electoral threshold. Throughout 2025 and early 2026, no concrete steps were taken to reform electoral legislation that would enable their participation in decision-making processes. As a result, the Roma community still has no representatives in the Parliament of Montenegro, and their political participation is largely limited to the local level, with no significant influence on public policymaking.<\/p>\n

One of the most visible indicators of long-term marginalization is the issue of housing. Although this problem has been recognized for years, sustainable solutions remain absent. At the beginning of 2026, several Roma families in the Konik settlement in Podgorica faced eviction orders without being provided with permanent and adequate housing, further deepening their social insecurity and highlighting the absence of a long-term housing policy for this community.<\/p>\n

The position of Roma women presents an additional challenge, as they face multiple forms of discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status. According to findings by the Council of Europe (ECRI), women from these communities are among the most vulnerable groups, with extremely limited access to education, employment, and basic services. These conditions further reinforce cycles of poverty and social exclusion that are transmitted across generations.<\/p>\n

A significant number of girls from the Roma community do not complete primary education, while their participation in secondary and higher education remains very low. The key causes include poverty, early and arranged marriages, and the lack of systemic support, including transportation, scholarships, and educational assistants.<\/p>\n

At the same time, according to the European Commission\u2019s 2025 report on Montenegro, Roma, especially women, face extremely low employment rates and high levels of economic inactivity, with many engaged in the informal economy, without social or legal protection.<\/p>\n

Limited access to healthcare is also a serious concern, particularly in the area of reproductive health, along with low reporting of gender-based violence, which is linked to a lack of trust in institutions and persistent social barriers.<\/p>\n

One of the key issues affecting Roma originating from Kosovo relates to legal status and personal documentation. A significant number of individuals from this community arrived in Montenegro during and after the conflicts of the late 1990s, often without personal documents. The lack of documentation, particularly birth certificates, hinders access to citizenship, employment, social rights, and education, while administrative procedures are often lengthy, complex, and financially burdensome for already vulnerable families.<\/p>\n

In the area of healthcare, problems frequently affect even those with regulated residence in Montenegro. Due to the inability to deregister from the health insurance system in Kosovo, members of this community are unable to access health insurance in Montenegro, leaving them outside the system and forcing them to cover treatment costs themselves or seek healthcare services abroad.<\/p>\n

Although certain forms of support are provided in practice by health mediators, and healthcare workers often demonstrate sensitivity toward the most vulnerable, such solutions are not systemic and cannot compensate for the lack of an institutional response. Similar challenges exist in other areas, such as education, employment, and housing, where the combination of administrative barriers, poverty, and discrimination further limits opportunities for full social integration.<\/p>\n

All of the above indicate that, due to the absence of systemic and coordinated measures, the position of the Roma community in Montenegro has not been substantially improved. Without clear political accountability and consistent implementation of existing policies, formally guaranteed rights will continue to lack real effect in practice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite numerous strategies and declarative commitments to inclusion, Roma in Montenegro continue to live on the margins of society, without effective access to the rights formally guaranteed to them. On the eve of International Roma Day, it must be emphasized that the Roma community in Montenegro still lives in a gap between formally guaranteed rights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":747,"featured_media":41365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711],"tags":[],"tip":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46353,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46352\/revisions\/46353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46352"},{"taxonomy":"tip","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tip?post=46352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}