Intersect voices in Europe. Combating discrimination against Roma women

Intersect voices in Europe. Combating discrimination against Roma women is a project funded by the European Commission (REC-RDIS-DISC-AG-2019), whose project leader is the Helsinki Deaconess Institute’s support. from Finland, and partners are Centre for Nonprofit Legislation (România), Romni Onlus Association (Italy) and E-romnja association (Romania).

The project has a total budget of 308,700 euros, of which our budget is 48,475.28 euros for the period May 2020 - April 2022.

The project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the experiences of discrimination of Roma women in Romania, Finland, and Italy and the fight against intersectional discrimination by improving anti-discrimination legislation on multiple criteria, through advocacy actions at the European and national level, through training with relevant factors: lawyers, representatives of public institutions and NGOs and groups of Roma women. Part of the project's activities are:

→ making comparative arguments about legislation in Romania, Finland, and Italy and drawing up relevant public policy proposals;
→ development of qualitative research Romania, Finland, and Italy on the experiences of intersectional discrimination of Roma girls and women;
→ training with Roma activists, NGO staff, and lawyers to promote equality for victims of intersectional discrimination, as well as to promote cooperation between Roma and non-Roma lawyers and activists working in areas such as gender equality, LGBTQI rights, migrant rights;
→ building coalitions between Roma and non-Roma activists at the international and national level.

Training manual about intersectionality and multiple discrimination

Download the manual: Training Manual - Intersect Voices (.pdf file)

A practical toolkit for NGOs, activists and anyone interested in combating issues of multiple discrimination

Challenging intersectionality: Roma women’s voices and experiences - a study

Download the study: Research Intersect Voices (.pdf file)

This study was developed during the project Intersect voices in Europe. Combating discrimination against Roma women, financed by EU rights, equality and citizenship programme 2014-2020.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Online event "Challenges of intersectionality. The voices and experiences of Roman women"

7th April 2021

The discussion starts from the study "Challenging intersectionality: Rome women's voices and experiences" which aimed to highlight patterns of multiple discrimination against Roma women in three European countries: Finland, Italy and Romania. Using a qualitative approach, the 62 interviews with Roma women help us to understand and compare experiences in the fields of housing, education, health and employment in the labor market, taking into account both the diversity of Roma women and the contexts in which they live but also the historical collectives experiences they share.
The experiences that have been shared reveal the intersectionality between ethnicity, gender, social class, citizenship, sexual identity and color. The complexity of identity dominates all conversations, denoting tensions between essentialist views on Roma women's identities within the family, perception of identity and exclusion in interaction with the "gadje world", and one's own experience of identity as Roma women.
The life stories of Roma women reveal a series of discouraging experiences that Roma women live in all areas analyzed, the most relevant space in which Roma women find out for the first time that being Roma "is not good" being the school. From the very beginning, racism intersects with social class, citizenship and color influencing the life experiences of Roma girls and women. The different life paths must be understood in the specific context of Roma women in the family and in the community, all shaped by national specificity.

1. Natalia Duminică - is a Roma rights activist in the Republic of Moldova and since 2020, a member of the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Civil Society Advisory Group. She is currently studying Human Rights in International Law and Practice at York University (UK).
2. Antonella Lerca - is a transgender, Roma woman and human rights activist. In 2019 she ran in the local elections in Sector 2 Bucharest. She recently published the book ‘Sex work is work. A transgender story''
3. Ioana Florea is a member of the Housing Block, a national network of associations and action groups that fight for the empowerment and political organization of communities, for housing justice.
4. Oana Tabă - born into a Roma family, currently works as a project officer in the Rome and Travelers Team of the Council of Europe. She graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest. She worked for 9 years within the Roma organization Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies - Romani Criss and 4 years at the European Court of Human Rights.
5. Izabela Marin is a 18 years old queer and Roma person. She created the concept of Vegetable Pots because "I rarely find a space where my identity is not "decomposed" and selected" and that's why "I like to think that when a Roma person hears what I say and feels seen, at least for a split second.'' Collaborates with various informal groups of young women.

Watch the recording of the live session below:

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