The expertise and grassroots presence of Roma and Traveller* civil society organisations are the added value on which member States can rely in their efforts to effectively implement European Court of Human Rights related judgments.

On 14-15 November 2023, the Council of Europe held its 16th Dialogue Meeting with Roma and Traveller civil society, focusing on challenges in the process of execution of Roma and Traveller-related judgments, as well as on possible avenues of co-operation with civil society organisations that can support the execution of the judgments. The civil society representatives proposed possible actions that could be undertaken by the governments to respond to the issues pointed out by the Committee of Ministers in supervising the execution.

Before the 16th Dialogue Meeting, Roma and Traveller organisations were part of a mentoring process, led by the European Roma Rights Centre, which focused on the Council of Europe standards and mechanisms, in particular the supervision of execution of the European Court of Human Rights’ Roma and Traveller-related judgments.

The conclusions and recommendations emanating from this Dialogue meeting, currently being finalised by the General Rapporteur, will be published on this website in due course.

* The term “Roma and Travellers” is used at the Council of Europe to encompass the wide diversity of the groups covered by the work of the Council of Europe in this field: on the one hand a) Roma, Sinti/Manush, Calé, Kaale, Romanichals, Boyash/Rudari; b) Balkan Egyptians (Egyptians and Ashkali); c) Eastern groups (Dom, Lom and Abdal); and, on the other hand, groups such as Travellers, Yenish, and the populations designated under the administrative term “Gens du voyage”, as well as persons who identify themselves as Gypsies. The present is an explanatory footnote, not a definition of Roma and/or Travellers.