The RCC Roma Integration Action Team, lead by Mr Orhan Usein, Head of Office and Ms Shejla Fidani, Policy expert, and the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia organised a discussion on mapping of existing legal and policy frameworks towards ending the statelessness of Roma.

The objective of the meetings was to discuss the implementation of a comprehensive, economy-specific Roadmap for ending statelessness among Roma. The document provides guidelines to possible models for overcoming existing obstacles to universal access to civil documentation and registration, and recognition or facilitated acquisition of nationality.

Participants of the meeting were the representatives of relevant state bodies: Ministry of Interior, Department for birth certificates, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ombudsman, the National Roma Contact Point and the advisor to the Prime Minister, relevant members of the Parliament, international organizations such as UNHCR, OSCE, MYLA and the Civil Society representatives.

The participants of the meeting brought several conclusions, which are:

• to lead the stakeholders to strategize legal, policy and practice modalities for improvement;
• to find administrative solutions and facilitate access to civil registration documents and recognition or facilitated the acquisition of nationality;
• to examine economy-specific frameworks that are applicable for a regional approach and categorise the type of legal, policy or practice problem.

The event was held in the premises of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia.

In 2019, the Western Balkans six economies, including the Republic of North Macedonia, adopted the Declaration of Western Balkans Partners on Roma Integration within the EU Enlargement Process, also known as the Poznan Declaration, where they committed to fulfilling the goals set in the Declaration before their economies access the European Union. In it, one of the objectives is to ensure that all Roma are registered in the civil registries.