A/HRC/40/30 education and employment.10 The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women addressed the question of access to justice by minority women, including access to free interpretation services.11 C. Human rights situation of Roma communities 22. OHCHR and human rights mechanisms have followed the situation of Roma communities around the world. This includes monitoring cases of concern through special procedure mechanisms, ensuring that sufficient attention is paid to Roma issues, conducting field missions to countries where Roma communities reside, and issuing press releases and statements where relevant on matters of concern involving Roma communities. 23. In March 2018, the OHCHR Regional Office for Europe conducted a mission to France, with the aim of ensuring that housing policies are designed and implemented in a manner that protects and promotes the human rights of Roma communities. During the mission, the team documented the specific challenges faced by Roma living in informal slums and squats, and the developments made and measures taken by the authorities in the areas of housing, education, employment and health. In June 2018, OHCHR published the report “No one left behind: mission report on the right to housing and related human rights of Roma in France”, which was produced with the assistance of the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights. The report concluded that the laws and policies related to housing and the human rights of Roma in France had not been implemented in a systematic manner across the French territory, and that greater efforts were needed to ensure that available resources reached those most in need. OHCHR called on France to design and implement its policies in a manner that protected and promoted the human rights of the most excluded, and to ensure that no one was left behind. 24. OHCHR is also supporting efforts to advance the development of truth and reconciliation processes at the national and European levels in order to acknowledge the persecution and exclusion of Roma communities, pursuant to the European Parliament resolution of 25 October 2017 on fundamental rights aspects in Roma integration in the European Union. The Office is collaborating with Soraya Post, a Member of the European Parliament, her office and other relevant stakeholders, to implement the resolution as an important tool in bridging the gap in trust between the Roma community and the majority groups in society. 25. In April 2018, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues issued a statement upon the conclusion of his official visit to Slovenia, highlighting that stronger steps were required to tackle discrimination, prejudice and social exclusion, and therefore the continuing issues affecting the Slovenian Roma community. He recommended that additional specific measures be taken, in consultation with civil society representatives, in the fields of education and social services, including temporary affirmative action programmes in employment.12 26. The Special Rapporteur on racism conducted an official visit to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in May 2018. She raised strong concerns over the invisibility of Roma, gypsy and traveller communities, which, despite formal recognition and intensive consultation, still did not benefit from an adequate level of national integration and suffered high levels of prejudice from the population at large. 13 27. Three special procedure mandate holders issued a statement in July 2018, urging Ukraine to take immediate action to stop what amounted to “systematic persecution” of members of the Roma minority, who had been targeted in a series of violent attacks. The mandate holders condemned the acts of intimidation and violence against members of the Roma minority in Ukraine and expressed serious concern at the growing level of hatred and 10 11 12 13 See, for example, CERD/C/SWE/CO/22-23, para. 22 and CERD/C/SAU/CO/4-9, para. 25. See, for example, CEDAW/C/SUR/CO/4-6, paras. 12–13. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22935&LangID=E. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23074&LangID=E. 7