A/HRC/4/19/Add.3 page 19 Russian sufficiently well enough to interact socially with ethnic Russians. Contrary to the current prevailing perception on the nomadic nature of the Roma community, forced settlement was imposed by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1956.18 53. The NGO community referred to the situation of extreme vulnerability and discrimination faced by the Roma community in Russia, especially affecting women and children, and particularly visible in the housing, education, health and employment sectors - often linked to the difficulties in obtaining Russian citizenship and residence registration. In addition, Roma are increasingly suffering from racist violence, mostly by ultranationalist groups, from violence and abuse from law enforcement officials, and from persistent negative stereotypes associating them with criminality and drug dealing, often for electoral reasons. 54. NGOs working with Roma expressed concern at the lack of a comprehensive law, policy or institution addressing the specific issues and concerns of the Roma community in the Russian Federation. They unanimously referred to the need to create a federal plan for the Roma community and the establishment of a federal institution in charge of Roma issues, in particular, the issue of land, the promotion of education for the Roma community, and the sensitization of the Russian society about Roma history, culture and traditions in order to eliminate the negative stereotypes they are recurrently associated with. 55. During the mission, the Special Rapporteur visited the Kelderary Roma community in the village of Peri, located in the district of Vsevolozshsky (Leningrad oblast), inhabited by approximately 1,320 persons, including 500 to 600 children. Representatives of the community expressed frustration and discontent at their poor living conditions, the degree of violence affecting the community and the lack of assistance provided by the authorities. The Special Rapporteur noted the precarity of the majority of the 130 houses in the settlement, exposing the community to particularly severe living conditions in the winter; the lack of access to drinking water; and the high rate of infectious diseases, particularly among children, due to lack of appropriate sanitary conditions. Furthermore, the community denounced the discriminatory treatment faced in their access to health services, including medical emergency treatment. Concern was also expressed at the poor school attendance rate among children, as the cost of transportation to the closest school was unaffordable to the majority of families, greatly affected by unemployment. In addition, under the pretext of difficulties with the Russian language, it was reported that Roma children attending school were placed in a separate school building, in a worse condition than the regular building for Russian children, thus hampering their integration with other non-Roma children. The Special Rapporteur also collected testimonies of several victims of violence, including those of an elderly woman and a girl who had been beaten by 18 Decree 450 “On involving vagrant Roma in labour activities” instructed the Councils of Ministers of the Soviet Republics to take measures “for settling the vagrant Gypsies in permanent domicile” and established “those who would evade socially useful labour and live a vagrant lifestyle should be punished under a sentence passed by a People’s Court to exile in conjunction with corrective labour for a period of time not exceeding five years”.