Working to secure the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples

Minority Rights Group International campaigns worldwide with around 130 partners in over 60 countries to ensure that disadvantaged minorities and indigenous peoples, often the poorest of the poor, can make their voices heard.

This information pack has been produced with the support of E4D.

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Life in a Roma settlement at the edge of the European Union

Ukraine, 2018 – A series of case studies profiling the country's excluded Roma population.

As part of MRG’s project ‘A Partnership for All: Developing Strategies for Socio-Economic Cooperation Between Roma Communities and Local Authorities in Ukraine’, funded by the European Union, our Senior Media Officer Emma Eastwood paid a visit to a Roma community to see for herself what living conditions were like for one of Europe’s most marginalized minorities.

Photo story: The settlement on the outskirts of Berehovo

Around 7,000 Roma have been living for some 60 years in a settlement on the outskirts of Berehovo, a town that lies in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, just a few kilometres from the edge lands of the EU, where the country abuts the borders of Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. As I entered the settlement accompanied by […]

Not just a health worker . . .

Olena works as a nurse employed by Berehovo municipality to attend to the basic health needs of Roma who live in a settlement on the edge of the city. She is also a Roma mediator, employed by MRG’s partner in Ukraine, Chirikli, and funded by our EU programme. It is an innovative set-up pioneered by […]

‘I just want to improve their lives.’

Valeria is the first young Roma woman to be elected to Berehovo City Council. At 28, she has held the position of councillor for her district for almost three years, along with the only other Roma council member in the city, who is a man. Unlike the majority of Roma women in Ukraine, and in […]

A very committed school

I’d been told about a school № 7 in Berehovo, where all of the students are Roma, the majority from the nearby settlement I had just visited, and so stopped by to see for myself. On entering the foyer I was given a warm welcome by the enthusiastic headmistress, Agnesa Kudron, dressed in a stylish green […]