On 16 April the Ministers’ Deputies will discuss living together in diversity, at an informal meeting that will seek to give a voice to three groups which are particularly vulnerable to discrimination: older people, people with disabilities and Roma and Travellers*.
The aim of the meeting is to highlight the inequality faced by these groups, so that they are not forgotten, isolated and stigmatised, and to reaffirm the political will of Council of Europe member states to implement concrete actions to promote the inclusion of all.
Promoting “living together”: a participatory response to discrimination
With the Council of Europe’s values under threat from the rise of populism, the growth of extremism based on intolerance and democratic backsliding, the protection of all citizens must form an integral part of what the Organisation does. In the absence of diversity and “living together”, the whole basis of our European values is called into question.
Promoting the concept of “living together” is a participatory, dynamic and ongoing process, one founded upon mutual respect, tolerance and solidarity.
For that reason the Luxembourg Presidency of the Committee of Ministers has chosen to promote “living together” as a priority, and to give a voice to those most exposed to discrimination in our societies.
Ambassador Patrick Engelberg, Chair of the Ministers’ Deputies, will open the meeting, before giving the floor to the various guest speakers.
* 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.
