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Emancipation of Roma women - in the mainstream society and within Roma community - is the most important prerequisite for overcoming the patriarchal practices such as early and forced marriages. This process must be supported by strengthening the social work at grass-root level in the Roma community, the application of innovative approaches to mobilize and involve local Roma communities (including support for the educated and successful Roma and their commitment to community problems) and establishing cooperation between institutions working in the Roma community and Roma formal and informal leaders. Pilot activities in these directions have been tested within the project "Prevention of early / forced marriages, the results are encouraging and the efforts should continue.

These were some of the key findings discussed during the international conference "Policies for the empowerment of Roma women in the context of European policies for Social Inclusion, held on November 29th in Sofia. It was organized by Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance Amalipe as a final forum on the project "Prevention of early / forced marriages, supported by the European Commission. Over 80 participants took part in the conference. They all represented key institutions dealing with women and the Roma in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, as well as Roma NGOs and Roma activists involved in the project.

Participants were welcomed by Livia Járóka, MEP of Roma origin through a special video address. She stated that it is important to speak openly about abuse of human rights of Roma, occurring not only "outside" but also "inside" the community. Providing better education and employment opportunities are key factors which will raise the age for marriage and will solve the problem of early marriages. A change in the values in the Roma community on this issue is needed and especially important here is the commitment of educated young Roma leaders, said Ms Járóka. You can see the speech here.

During the first session the partners from League Pro Europe (Romania), the ARSIS (Greece) and Center Amalipe (Bulgaria) presented the main activities undertaken within the project. The main finding in all three countries was that the current practice of early marriage is common only among conservative groups and stratums in the Roma community. For example, in Romania early marriages are practiced by about 5% of the Roma and some Hungarians and Romanians in rural areas. Deyan Kolev presented results from a nationally representative survey of family attitudes in Roma communities held in Bulgaria, indicating that the average age of first marriage in the Roma neighborhoods is 18 years and 4 months: data that dispels many myths about the Roma marriages of 13-14 years of age. The study clearly shows that the Roma community is going through its process of modernization: the nuclear (not extended) family is now a major form of family in the Roma community; age for marriage is raised and the main reason for that is the increase of the level of education, the existing practice of parents to “arrange” the families of their children is now unacceptable to the majority of Roma.

Key players in the second session were Roma youngsters who organized local campaigns for the prevention of early marriages. Maria Ivanova summarized the main activities and stressed that the model of successful engagement of educated Roma in prevention activities and supporting their local communities has proved reliable tool for the local campaigns. "We expected that we will face distrust by older people, but that did not happen or where it did we changed it quickly! With surprise and joy we found that gradually we became role models for other young people in our communities: it has enabled us to successfully organize campaigns, said Maria.

Students from medical colleges and universities presented Roma Medical Students Program. Some of them were dressed in attractive traditional Roma clothing, emphasizing that the educated Roma should not cut their ties with the community, but must change it. They emphasized the opportunities that a good education opens to the Roma girls and appealed for the institutionalization of programs that support higher education for students from Roma and other vulnerable groups.

During the third session current issues of national and European Roma policy and its attitude towards the emancipation of Roma women were discussed. Teodora Krumova (coordinator of the Bulgarian Women's Lobby) and Crina Morteanu (Romani Chris) presented challenges for European policy on equality of women and the process of drawing up a European Roma Strategy. They emphasized the need to take into account the specific problems of Roma women, often facing multiple discrimination practices. Mariea Ionescu (National Agency for Roma - Romania), Prof. Gheorghe Sarau (Ministry of Education - Romania), Peter Atanasov (Head of Integration of Ethnic Minorities Department in MLSP) presented policies for Roma integration in Bulgaria and Romania. Mariea Ionescu said that the National Agency for Roma implements six strategic projects funded by the Operational Program "Human Resources Development", each of them has a specific component aimed at improving education and training of Roma women. Petar Atanasov emphasized the need for Roma feminist movement: it will boost the overall process of Roma integration. Framework Program for Roma Integration approved in 2010 has no specific chapter on the emancipation of Roma women and this is a mistake to be corrected. Project "Prevention of forced marriages" formed a good policy that should be taken as a tool by the Bulgarian government, said Petar Atanasov.

Conference participants endorsed the Declaration "Towards comprehensive policy for social inclusion of Roma women. In the declaration they call for comprehensive policies for Roma integration at national and European level that include the challenges Roma women emancipation meets. They called also for wider implementation of innovative approaches to support the modernization of the Roma community and overcome patriarchal practices hampering the social inclusion of the Roma women. "This approach should be based on activation of local Roma communities (including by supporting the efforts of successful Roma and their engagement with the modernization of Roma community), promotion of social work in Roma communities (including through the development of innovative community-based services) and cooperative action among the institutions working with Roma communities, NGOs and Roma authorities.”, the Declaration states.