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08.04.2014

Expert Meeting "Police and Roma and Sinti Current Challenges and Good Practices in Building Trust and Understanding”

Warsaw, Poland - A representative of DCAF Ljubljana attended the Expert Meeting "Police and Roma and Sinti Current Challenges and Good Practices in Building Trust and Understanding”, which took place in Warsaw on the 8 April 2014 and was convened by the OSCE ODIHR Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues, the Strategic Police Matters Unit and the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities.

The aim of the meeting was multifaceted; namely, to take stock of current human right challenges in the field of this sensitive multicultural policing area, to review the OSCE manual "Police and Roma and Sinti: Good Practices in Building Trust and Understanding”, and to discuss future OSCE work in this area. Twenty experts from law enforcement agencies and Roma civil society met to have a very focused discussion on existing challenges and sharing good experiences and lessons learned.

Among others, the conclusions reiterated the importance of the appropriate police training and community policing approaches when dealing with vulnerable minorities. Several proposals for future actions have also been identified that could be reflected in the future work of co-operation between police and Roma communities, both locally and regionally.