Friends Families and Travellers intern attends Council of Europe youth conference in Budapest

The Council of Europe recently held a Roma Youth Conference in Budapest in Hungary, which attracted 80 Gypsy, Traveller and Roma participants from all over Europe, to create an action plan which will benefit all the different Roma communities.

The action plan sets out to create an environment in Europe where Gypsy, Travellers & Roma youth can grow up free from discrimination; and to defend rights of the community's by empowering youth through human rights act. The plan will help to promote equal opportunities in all aspects of life and to encourage the respect and development of the community's identity, culture and language.

Samson Rattigan from Friends Families and Travellers attended the conference and said "the workshops were really fun, and I met some amazing people from all over Europe with different backgrounds and cultures. I even attempted traditional Roma dance at the leaving disco."

The expected results of the action plan is to improve the participation of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma youth in European and Roma policies, and to create pilot programs and initiatives to combat discrimination against young Gypsy, Traveller and Roma, and to have them involved in making policies.

The action plan will hopefully be ready in April 2016. Samson Rattigan adds " the days were long and a lot of information was consumed and expressed, and hopefully the new action plan will benefit Gypsies, Travellers and Roma all around Europe."

Samson Rattigan is an Intern for ‘Young Gypsies & Travellers Speak Up’ at
Friends, Families and Travellers and is a regular contributor for the Travellers Times, having recently completed the news writing workshop for our Your Voice project.