Honorouble Deputy Prime Minister Ms. Redzepi,

Distinguished Mr Hajredini,

Dear implementing partners,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Distrust towards Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian citizens remains, sadly, one of the main causes of discrimination in Kosovo. This phenomenon, often referred to as “antigypsism”, translates still too often into segregation, hate speech, bullying and even hate crime.

Distrust towards Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian citizens remains, sadly, one of the main causes of discrimination in Kosovo. This phenomenon, often referred to as “antigypsism”, translates still too often into segregation, hate speech, bullying and even hate crime.

On the other side, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian citizens tend not to report instances of discrimination to relevant authorities because they have low trust in the public institutions;

Whilst aware of these challenges, allow me to congratulate the Office of the Prime Minister for its commitment and actions. In this respect:

Switzerland welcomes the creation of an online platform, a tool which we hope will help individuals from these communities report cases of discrimination to the competent institutions.

If used effectively, we trust that such tool will contribute to breaking the vicious cycle of distrust which prevails, reduce discriminations and, ultimately, improve both the inclusiveness and cohesiveness of the Kosovar society.

Likewise, Switzerland welcomes the establishment by the Government of a “Technical Group for the Protection against Discrimination of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities”.

We appreciate the Government’s readiness and intention to effectively address complaints of discrimination and provide legal support to alleged victims.

The road towards full inclusion of the RAE communities remain however long.

Whilst the RAE communities and the Kosovo Government can count on Switzerland’s and our partners’ continuous support , we look forward to the Kosovo Government taking additional steps, including :

A better implementation of the legal framework, including that related to anti-discrimination;

A swift approval of the new draft Strategy for Inclusion of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian

And of course the adoption in this respect of an appropriate budget.

Thank you for your attention.