In April 2016, Praxis held two two-day workshops for Roma women and men in Leskovac and Kostolac, aimed at prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages. The workshops were organized as part of the activities on the project “Legal Assistance to Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia”, funded by UNHCR.

A total of 52 women and girls and 40 men and boys took part in the workshops. The goal of the workshops to open a discussion and jointly name the causes and consequences of this harmful traditional practice through a discussion, and to come up with proposal of mechanisms that would lead to prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages. We discussed about the importance of the healthy early child development, respect for children’s needs and wishes, necessity of regular health protection, with special reference to sexual and reproductive health, but also about the key importance of timely education. In this way, we incited the participants to further discuss about the role of a woman and a man in the Roma community, causes and consequences of child, early and forced marriages and how to prevent them. The participants identified poverty, low risk of education of families living in informal settlements, high unemployment rate among the Roma and patriarchal cultural tradition, as the main causes of child, early and forced marriages in the Roma community.

For more information, see: Praxis Held Workshops on Prevention and Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriages