World Social Summit (WSS), Doha 2025

World Social Summit (WSS), Doha 2025

The Second World Summit for Social Development provides a crucial platform for advancing the recognition and inclusion of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD), who continue to face systemic exclusion and marginalization. For CDWD, the Summit represents an opportunity to bring global attention to the structural discrimination inherited through birth, occupation, and community, and…

Bulgaria Faces Scrutiny Over Persistent Roma Rights Gaps Ahead of UPR Pre-Session

Bulgaria Faces Scrutiny Over Persistent Roma Rights Gaps Ahead of UPR Pre-Session

On Friday, August 26th, 2025, Bulgaria had its Universal Periodic Review Pre-session. A Pre-session is a meeting on the human rights situation in a specific UN Member State. Pre-sessions provide national human rights institutions (NHRIs) and civil society organisations (CSOs) with an international platform through which they can inform the representatives of the recommending States about…

Unequal Progress: Roma Inclusion in 2025 SDG Reviews Remains Incomplete Across Europe

Unequal Progress: Roma Inclusion in 2025 SDG Reviews Remains Incomplete Across Europe

Authored by Magdalena Sarandeva (Bulgaria), GFoD Intern; and Simona Torotcoi (Romania), GFoD Regional Coordinator for Europe. The principle of “Leaving No One Behind” is central to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet, for Europe’s Roma communities—among the largest and most marginalized ethnic groups on the continent—this commitment is still far from being realized. The…

GFoD submits input for EU Anti-Racism strategy, makes key recommendations

GFoD submits input for EU Anti-Racism strategy, makes key recommendations

The Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD) and European Roma Grassroots Organisation (ERGO) urged the European Union to confront a form of racism that, though centuries old, remains largely unacknowledged in modern policy: discrimination based on work and descent. In its submission to the EU’s ongoing consultation on the Anti‑Racism Strategy,…

Double Discrimination: The Systemic Exclusion of Roma Women in Hungary

Double Discrimination: The Systemic Exclusion of Roma Women in Hungary

The Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent has released a comprehensive study titled The Case of Roma Women in Hungary. The report documents how ethnicity and gender intersect to create multiple layers of exclusion. It reviews laws, state policies, and lived experiences, while also highlighting acts of resistance. The report is aimed at…