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Coordination Council, a body comprising 29 members, including Roma
representatives, which is tasked with, inter alia, overseeing the implementation of
the framework agreement between the Government and the National Roma SelfGovernment. She also welcomes the adoption, in 2011, of a national social inclusion
strategy, which highlights among its objectives in the area of health care the
improvement of access to health care for Roma communities through triannual
action plans.
66. With regard to the situation of Roma women, the Special Rapporteur is
pleased to learn about the implementation, in 2016, of a project to support
cooperation for inclusion, which is intended to promote Roma women’s civil society
organizations, and hopes that similar projects are replicated in the future.
67. In the field of education, Hungary provided information about several
legislative and other measures implemented to combat discrimination of Roma
children at school. Hungary noted a bill submitted in October 2016 to amend the Act
on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of Equal Opportunities and the Act on
National Public Education, in order to put in place stronger guarantees to prevent
the segregation of children in education, including based on ethnicity or nationality.
It also provided detailed information on the measures adopted to change the practice
of labelling young Roma children as mentally disabled without justification based
on the child’s intellectual capabilities and referred, among other measures, to the
safeguards in place in this regard, including pedagogical assistance services.
68. In the framework of the national social inclusion strategy, developments in the
areas of employment, housing and health care were presented. The project entitled
“Active for work 2007-2013” aims to enhance the employability of persons in
disadvantaged situations in the labour market; some 47 per cent of participants are
members of the Roma community. In addition to the existing settlement
programmes, it was noted that in 2015 the Government adopted a policy strategy to
manage segregated housing, covering the period 2014 -2020, to improve housing
conditions in settlements. Several programmes were highlighted as examples of
measures aimed at improving the access of Roma people to health -care services,
including a Roma mother-child health programme and a programme on training
Roma health guardians.
H.
Rwanda
69. The Special Rapporteur took note that, contrary to her predecessor’s
recommendation that the Government should acknowledge the Batwa to be a
distinct population group and that targeted programmes should be designed and
implemented to improve their conditions, the Government does not consider any
group as a distinct indigenous people. Nevertheless, Rwanda highlighted policies
and programmes intended to address the socioeconomic situation of historically
vulnerable groups, including the Batwa and others. The Special Rapporteur
encourages Rwanda to ensure that Batwa communities benefit fully from
government initiatives.
70. In relation to the recommendation of the former mandate holder that the
Government should review the programme to demolish all nyakatsi houses to ensure
that it did not have a negative impact on vulnerable individuals, families or
communities, Rwanda stated that there had been what it termed a “bye-bye
nyakatsi” campaign and that vulnerable families had been given new houses.
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