awareness-raising and capacity-building campaigns on the importance of full and non-discriminatory participation of women in all aspects of public and political life. It is time for women to be better represented in politics and decision making. It is well-known that during crisis situations, women are those who have the hardest mission: to take the control over the problem and address it. Having an equal representation of all genders in decision making will contribute to find better and innovative solutions to stop the conflicts, reduce poverty and focus more on social fields. The Roma in Moldova are among those most vulnerable to discrimination or exclusion. We face a higher risk of marginalization inter alia as a result of our under-representation in decision-making, high levels of illiteracy and unemployment and the existence of social stigma and negative prejudices. A number of tens of rural Romani slums exist, many characterized by extremely substandard infrastructure development, as well as by isolation from the local authorities responsible for their governance. Me, as the representative of Moldovan civil society in general and Romani woman in particularly, 1) advocate for more women in politics and decision making (50/50), 2) lobby for ratification of Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, reducing discrimination towards women from vulnerable groups, and 3) mainstreaming gender equality within all projects implemented by CSOs (civil society organizations) and development partners. I urge all of you to collaborate for gender Quality, to have exchange of experience and of good practices, to share our knowledge and best results. In this sense, we will be able to spend more time for advocacy than for learning the lessons. Having a strong Civil Society in Moldova, we achieved to empower women, to promote gender equality and to have better representation of women in decision making than other ex-soviet counties. Taking into account all this factors, I kindly ask ALL relevant duty-bearers to support the boost of Roma women in politics and decision making. (In 2015 a step forward was made by electing two Roma women in local councils, but this is not enough for a country which has a Roma population of most that 100,000 people). I’m asking you to help ME in my advocacy to reach an equitable representation of Roma women in politics. We, as civil society, play a significant role in gender equality promotion, because we represent not only concrete groups of people, we voice the needs of grassroots and make them heard in front of relevant stakeholders. We have to consolidate our efforts and establish regional and international clusters of civil society representatives. Being unified, we would have more power to influence our Governments to adopt reforms and to convince our countrymen to accept changes. Let’s make together our societies a safe and equal place for all of us! Thank you.