Romani women activists have started to redefine diverse and changing needs of Romani women in terms of universal rights, thus mainstreaming Romani women s concerns. Both approaches develop an agenda for improving the human rights status of Romani women. Human rights are universal, but human rights violations are particular. This is why human rights advocates all over the world find themselves preoccupied with the problems of specific weak, or vulnerable groups. Generally, the weak groups are those who are to a larger degree the object of decision making.
Children are typically a weak group.
The weakest groups in a society would be those which are most affected by policies in the making of which they have not participated. I am very much inclined to say yes . But with Romani women, one stumbles on cases when what an outsider would perceive as humiliating and degrading treatment, may actually be desired by the women themselves. Several scholars, including Carol Silverman whose paper on Muslim Balkan Romani women is published in this issue, have warned that we have to tread carefully when approaching the issue of whether women are more oppressed and more abused than men in Romani communities. Analysing gender roles in everyday life, she demonstrates that women in some traditional communities have power over men in a number of important ways, including economic decision making.