Grateful to witness again European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights's Director Michael O'Flaherty, and OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)'s Director Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir commitment and resolve in supporting the plight of Roma people, expressed during the #RightsForum18. They consistently raise awareness about the dire situation of Roma in Europe and the pervasive racism and discrimination against them. At this Fundamental Rights Forum they urged and called upon states to respect and implement their international human rights commitments and those made repeatedly and in various frameworks in the past decade, internationally and nationally, with regard to Roma inclusion. Yet, Europe's reality for Roma is crude and inhumane. Many Roma continue to be pushed outside the civilized world, condemned to live an excluded life, on the fringes of society. Examples such as the one recorded in this video (in #Cluj-Napoca, Romania) are countless throughout Europe. People are forcibly evicted, without provision of alternative means, left under the open sky, often in the cold season. A great many commitments were made and strategies were elaborated and adopted in the past fifteen years in most of the countries that have Roma population, and yet, they fail to produce the needed and expected results. One may argue that inclusion seems to be an illusion, in a societal environment marred by racism and prejudice. On this background, the surge of populism and #exclusivenationalism, as correctly highlighted at the #RightsForum18 by Commissioner Jourová is not helping Roma inclusion efforts at all, quite the opposite actually. Despite all strategies, know-how, sound instruments and methods developed to equip the Roma inclusion efforts, Roma continue to be excluded from all walks of life. What is lacking, and should be central for any Roma-related intervention, is genuine resolve and political will from states to counter and eradicate the existing structural racism and discrimination (this is a paramount prerequisite), put a stop to the existing climate of impunity for hate-speech and hate-motivated crimes and violence against Roma, and genuinely provide Roma the chance to participate in all decisions and policies affecting them. I am confident that Europe's leadership will continue on this proper path of advocating for and supporting the rights of Roma, though I can only hope that this will be mirrored at the national levels, where the real change must happen... #RomaRights #HumanRights #RomaInclusion #stopforcedevictions #stopracism #nohatespeech #fundamentalrights