Roma face problems with access to documents in many parts of the OSCE region. OSCE commitments regarding Roma and Sinti reiterate the importance of access to personal documents for tackling Roma and Sinti social exclusion and deep-rooted discrimination. The 2003 Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area (hereinafter: OSCE Action Plan) prescribes that the participating States “must be proactive in ensuring that Roma and Sinti people, like any other inhabitants, have all necessary documents, including birth certificates.”10 Furthermore, this document recommends the participating States “[e]nsure that Roma and Sinti populations in a forced displacement situation (refugees and internally displaced persons – IDPs) are duly registered and provided with the relevant documents.”11 Access to documents for Roma has been one of the focus areas of the engagement of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (hereinafter: ODIHR) in Ukraine. In 2014 ODIHR published its “Situation Assessment Report on Roma in Ukraine and the Impact of the Current Crisis” (hereinafter: the Assessment Report). The Assessment Report confirmed that Roma continue to face discrimination in all spheres of life in Ukraine and underlined the multiple forms of discrimination faced by Roma women. A lack of personal documents (the lack of either internal passports and/or birth certificates) was identified as one of the most pressing challenges Roma face in accessing their human rights.12 The lack of personal documents prevents Roma from accessing basic services – e.g. in the areas of housing, health care, employment, education and humanitarian assistance – and from fully exercising a range of their human rights. While the Strategy for the Protection and Integration of the Roma National Minority into Ukrainian Society by 2020 (hereinafter: the Strategy) and the National Action Plan for its implementation (NAP)13 both recognize that a significant number of Roma have no identification documents and the need to address this situation, it appears that there has been only little progress in this area since then.14 In 2015, with the aim of better comprehending the obstacles Roma face in obtaining personal documents, ODIHR jointly hosted an expert seminar on access to identification and civil registration documents by Roma in Ukraine with the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in close co-operation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) and Roma civil society, bringing together representatives of the relevant Ukrainian authorities, including the State Migration Service (SMS) and the Department of State Registration from the central and regional administrations, Roma civil society, and a number of international experts from Serbia and Montenegro who shared their experiences and good 10 OSCE Ministerial Council, Decision No. 3/03, “Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area”, Maastricht, 1–2 December 2003, para. 87, <http://osce.org/odihr/17554>. 11 Ibid., para. 108. 12 Assessment Report, op. cit., note 3, in particular pp. 19–21 and 35. 13 “Strategy for the Protection and Integration of the Roma National Minority into Ukrainian Society by 2020” (the Strategy), approved by Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 201, 8 April 2013, <http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/201/2013>, and “National Action Plan for the Implementation of the Strategy for the Protection and Integration of the Roma National Minority by 2020” (NAP), adopted by the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 701-r, 11 September 2013, <http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/701-2013%D1%80>. The text of the NAP available in English at: <http://mincult.kmu.gov.ua/control/publish/article?art_id=245257577>. 14 “Concluding observations on the twenty-second and twenty-third periodic reports of Ukraine”, UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, October 2016, paras. 19-23, UN Doc. No. CERD/C/UKR/CO/22-23. 16