Fourth Session of the Forum on Minority Issues „Guaranteeing the rights of minority women" - Effective participation in economic, social and cultural life At the outset I would like to express my satisfaction for being able to address this annual session where we will have an opportunity, to benefit from experiences of various countries in improving the effective participation of women in economic, social and cultural life. Allow me to present you some Croatian experience in this area. In relevant Croatian strategic documents both, participation of minorities in the labour market and its gender aspect have received special attention from the beginning. The Constitutional Act on Rights of National Minorities, and the corresponding action plan for its implementation, contains clear measures for improving the participation of women. Thus, for example, the Constitutional Act ensures the participation of national minorities in the public life and decision-making at the local level through elected councils and representatives of national minorities. At the election for councils and representatives of national minorities held in July 2011, out of a total of 3.189 elected council members and representatives of national minorities, around 113 of them were women. Allow me to begin by focusing specifically on the issues related to the participation of Roma women. The Office for National Minorities co-funded a research project conducted by the Roma women Association "Better future" in cooperation with the leading Croatian institute for social research. The results of the research have shown that some key challenges still remain in this area. Roma women who live in mostly traditional communities under difficult living conditions constitute the most vulnerable part of the Roma population. Even though huge advances were made in the area of education, the research shows that Roma girls still leave school earlier than Roma boys. It is particularly important to note the conclusion that lower educational achievements are not related to the discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, but to discrimination based on gender. That can be partly attributed to traditional understanding of gender roles within Roma communities, which include early marriage and childbirth. Roma girls lack the support of their communities in continuing education, for their role is understood as mainly family oriented. Obviously, a more proactive approach is needed to remedy this. It is regrettable that civil society in Roma communities is still relatively weak. We are trying to address this problem through additional efforts in capacity building. In some cases more coordination and engagement with local authorities has helped in implementing measures intended to benefit minorities, but further efforts are still needed. The research also highlighted the importance of education in relation to employment opportunities, as Roma women with a high school degree find appropriate full time jobs easier than those with only primary level education or those with no education at all. Even though a certain trend of empowerment of Roma women can be detected, their employment is still low when compared to Roma men, and especially in comparison with the employment rate of the general population.