UN REPORT HIGHLIGHTS MARGINALIZATION OF ROMA. A report issued on May 16 by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) found that Romany children in Southeastern Europe are substantially poorer, less healthy, and less educated than their non-Romany counterparts. "The environment of a [Romany] child is one of marginalization, poverty and exclusion," Svetlana Marojevic of UNICEF's Belgrade office said, according to the broadcaster B92. "They are in fact invisible, living on the margins of societies that do not care." The UNICEF report found that in five of the eight countries and regions surveyed, more than 40 percent of the Romany population live in poverty, with the lowest figure being in Bosnia-Herzegovina (27 percent) and the highest in Kosova (59 percent). Two-thirds of Romany households have too little to eat, which was reflected in the discovery that Romany children are six times more likely to be underweight and nearly three times as likely to be unhealthy (20 percent) as non-Romany children.
Literacy rates in the 15-24 age group range from 65 percent in Albania and Kosova to 90 percent in Serbia. Relatively high literacy rates do not necessarily indicate the level of education achieved: in Serbia only 13 percent of Romany children complete primary education, less than half the percentage in Macedonia. In February, UNICEF issued a report that found that 300,000 children in Serbia live near or close to the poverty line, with Romany children particularly vulnerable and excluded (see "RFE/RL Newsline," February 9, 2007). UNICEF puts the number of Roma in the eight regions surveyed -- Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia -- at 3.7 million, of whom 1.7 million are younger than 19. The ratio of children in Romany communities, 46 percent, compares with averages of 22-29 percent in the general population in the areas covered. AG Copyright (c) 2007 RFE/RL, Inc. ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
