Discrimination, social stereotypes and stigma are the most frequent reasons why marginalised groups, especially women, have difficulties in exercising their rights. Roma women from the municipality of Shuto Orizari encounter a large number of obstacles every day in exercising the right to health and social protection, care for their own reproductive health and access to services within health and social institutions.
This is confirmed by the eight case studies presented in the publication Systemic Challenges for Roma Women in Exercising their Health and Social Rights. It includes real-life experiences of Roma women who used the free and confidential services in our youth centre “I want to Know” in Shuto Orizari in the period January – July 2022. The case studies themselves, some of which, unfortunately, contain stories of lethal outcome for women, illustrate the most frequent violations of social and health rights that Roma women face every day.
We prepared this publication to get a better picture of the access, availability and functionality of the services that Roma women receive from the institutions, which result from the field work of the legal team. In addition to this, we hope that with the documented cases we will contribute to increasing the awareness of the state institutions about the needs of the Roma population, that is, to finding effective and lasting solutions in the realisation of their human rights.
The publication is available in Macedonian language here.
