The right of political participation and influence for romas in Sweden : a discourse oriented policy analyses of article 15 in the Framework Convention

The aim of this essay is to study the decision making process and implementation of the principle of political participation and influence for Roma minority in Sweden. The results regarding the decision making process is structured through a discourse influenced policy analyses. Problem picture and recommended measures in the political documents representing the decision making process are analysed through theories of minority rights and equality. The implementation is seen through, by the author given minority discourse and the work in the roma council and analysed by the same theories already mentioned. The results show that regarding the decision process the aim of art.15 in the framework convention is based on the idea of equality while the Swedish documents relates more to an idea of the right to speak for the group. Regarding recommended measures, the framework convention gives several recommendations on specific measures for political participation while the Swedish documents focuses on the general politics of the state. The results of the analyses of the implementation shows that those actors in the discourse, comparing the political participation for romas before and after the implementation of the minority policy creates a positive view of the principle, while those relating the principle to real influence in the political decision gives a more negative view of the implementation. The work in the Roma council shows that the majority of the issues are in information and discussion form and mostly information given by government staff. There has been critical voices from Roma representatives, while an another think time will give more space for Romas to have more influence. The Roma representatives still have a position outside the positions of real power influence in the consultative body