Access to justice for Roma community constitutes an important priority in the efforts to guarantee respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Committee of Ministers has provided an important recommendation (CM/Rec(2017)10) to member States, so they take all the steps necessary to facilitate equal access to justice for Roma and Travellers, and more in particular to the situation of women and girls, young people, people with disabilities, and vulnerable groups.

To assist this process, on 17 May 2022 the Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje under the European Union / Council of Europe joint programmes: "Good governance and empowerment of Roma at local level " - ROMACTED (phase 2), the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey” and its action on "Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia” and ROMACTED Support Organization ROMALITICO organised an Information Session on Free Legal Aid. The session covered important aspects to help Roma people in solving their statutory issues, like: housing, social protection rights, employment issues, family issues, gender-based violence, legalization, education etc.

The target group of this training session were the Local Community Action Groups, the facilitators as part of the ROMACTED structure as well as the legal monitors and business advisors that are part of the USAID Roma Inclusion Project and Together for a Prosperous Community implemented by Institute for Policy Research and Analysis - Romalitico.

The purpose of this joint activity is to strengthen the capacity of the local structures in the process of informing and providing free legal aid for the needs of the Roma community as well as providing direct information to the Roma community at local level, how they can use their right to free legal aid.

This activity will be followed with additional training session for the Municipal Administration, how the Municipality can serve as hub of information for free legal aid.