With the three Dosta! Congress Prize winners’ Şişli, Volos and Gliwice the Declaration of mayors and elected local and regional representatives of Council of Europe member States against anti-Gypsyism was signed by 81 elected representatives in 32 member states (15 of them are part of the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion in Europe). At present, apart from the two official languages (English and French), the Declaration against anti-Gypsyism is available in 21 non-official languages:  Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Finnish, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.

The European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Inclusion of Roma and Travellers encourages other municipalities and regions in Council of Europe member states to sign the Declaration and dissementiate its message. This is a possibility to demonstrate the decisive role local and regional authorities play in the implementation of human rights in general and especially in regards to Roma and Travellers.

The Declaration was put forward in collaboration between John Warmisham, Spokesperson for Roma and Traveller Issues of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, and Valeriu Nicolae, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Roma Issues, in March 2017. The Declaration helps local and regional authorities to position themselves explicitly against anti-Gypsyism and to deepen their efforts concerning Roma Inclusion. An appeal of CAHROM members towards the local and regional levels to sign the Declaration will underline the envisaged synthesis between national and local and regional levels of the Council of Europe. The Declaration can be signed online via the link below, if a translation is required[1], please do not hesitate to contact the Alliance Secretariat ([email protected]).