She has now become a woman, someone’s slave. She will have to become a mother. She will have to be obedient to her husband and she will be busy with housework. She got a husband she has never even taught about. She got a new, different life she has never dreamed about. 

In May 2018, Praxis held four workshops with more than eighty girls attending 7th and 8th grades in Primary School “Jovan Cvijić“ in Kostolac, Primary School “Bosko Palkovljevic Pinki“, Primary School “Sutjeska“ in Belgrade and Primary School “Aleksandar Stojanovic – Leso“ in Novi Pazar on the prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages and early drop-out of Roma girls from school. The workshops were held as part of the activities performed within the project “Legal Assistance to Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia”, funded by UNHCR.

The workshops are the continuation of the activities performed last year when we jointly confirmed the presence of child, early and forced marriages through the discussion about their causes and consequences, as well as about the reasons why children leave school and about marital roles of men and women. In addition to these workshops, this year Praxis will hold eight more with children attending 5th and 6th grade under the slogan We Asked Children: “Why Do Some Children Leave School, What Are Marital Obligations and Why Shall We Say “STOP to Child Marriages.”

What Do We Gain or Lose by Entering into a Child Marriage is the question we dealt with at the workshops held this year. At the very beginning, the girls watched the UNICEF film "A storybook wedding – except for one thing” about the wedding of a 14-year old girl and a 35-year old man. During the film, the girls reacted with sighs, exclamations of shock and surprises. "She is still a child, maybe her parents forced her to do it for money, how sad she is, she still wants to be a child - she is playing with a teddy bear, how scared she is, he is big and she is small". During the discussion that followed, the girls tried to imagine what the girl's day after the wedding looked like. "She will wake up, he will take coffee for his husband; he will prepare his breakfast; she must now work at home to listen to her husband; he is greater than he can, and he can be beaten; no one is happy here, everyone is sad, everyone cries; maybe they had to get married ... ". In the second part of the workshop, the girls noted down what is gained and what is lost in a child’s marriage. According to the girls, a child marriage brings obligations, housework, mother-in-law, stress, a new family, limitation of movement, discomfort, denied voting rights, the obligation to give birth to children, a feeling of belonging to someone. On the other hand, girls say that a child deprives them of childhood, freedom, the right to education, innocence, education, time for themselves, time for playing and socializing with friends, but also of their own “me”, dreams, dreams, imagination and carelessness.

At the end of the workshop, the girls watched the film “I’m a Roma Woman”, which presents testimonies of Roma women who finished schools and achieved their life goals. The film inspired them positively and empowered them once again to continue their schooling.

The workshops significantly contributed to empowerment of girls to continue their schooling and resist child marriages.

In the past period, the Kraljevo City Assembly adopted several decisions whose implementation should improve the situation of vulnerable social groups or individuals, but by imposing the condition of permanent residence for exercising the rights established by the said decisions, it excluded the possibility for the internally displaced persons residing in the territory of the City of Kraljevo since 1999 to exercise the rights under the same conditions as their fellow citizens.

Thus, the Decision on Free Bus Transportation in the City of Kraljevo was adopted to ensure access to public services (free bus transportation) to persons who, due to their health or social status, encountered obstacles or were denied such access. On the other hand, the Decision on the Right to One-off Financial Assistance for the First-born Child and the Decision on Financial Assistance to Unemployed New Mothers aim to encourage procreation and increase birth rate, as well as to provide support to women who decide to have children despite being unemployed.

Despite the apparent intention of the decision-makers to allocate budget funds for improving the situation of the most vulnerable citizens, but also for improving the city’s demographic structure, by setting the permanent residence requirement, they unjustifiably denied the right to all the refugees and internally displaced persons residing in the City of Kraljevo. Undoubtedly, there is no reasonable and objective justification for such a different treatment.

In order to point out that the disputed decisions violate the principle of equal rights and obligations, thus contravening non-discrimination regulations, Praxis lodged complaints with the Commissioner for Protection of Equality. Consequently, responding to the allegations of the complaints, the President of the Kraljevo City Assembly accepted the objections and expressed the readiness to alter the disputed decisions aligning them with anti-discriminatory regulations, which was also the reason why Praxis gave up the further complaints procedure.

Since the disputed decisions have not been altered and discriminatory requirements have not been changed yet as to allow all citizens to exercise the right under the same conditions, and given that the withdrawal of the complaints is based on the expressed intention of the representatives of the City of Kraljevo to implement the procedures for changing the decisions, Praxis will continue to monitor the actions of the City of Kraljevo in the coming period regarding the alignment of the disputed decisions with anti-discrimination regulations. 

Despite the expressed willingness by the City of Kraljevo, Praxis expresses its concern over the statement made by the President of the Kraljevo City Assembly that it would not be possible to change the Decision on the Right to One-off Financial Assistance for the First-born Child and the Decision on Financial Assistance to Unemployed New Mothers until the local budget for the year 2019 was adopted. We remind that in this way the unequal treatment of individuals or groups on the grounds of their personal characteristics is tolerated, while the equal exercise of rights is postponed and conditioned by the planning of budgetary funds.

On the other hand, the adoption of general acts that violate the right to equality of citizens is not a rare phenomenon, and one of the main causes for such a situation, in addition to the non-transparent decision and policy making process, is certainly an insufficient knowledge of non-discrimination regulations, as well as a lack of sensitivity among decision-makers at the local level in cases where the basic values, such as the right to equity and equality, should be respected.

On 22 May 2018, in the Media Center in Belgrade, the report entitled The Hoop of Anti-Gypsyism: Roma in Serbia, prepared by the Civil Rights Defenders, was presented. The report contains the information about the situation of Roma in Serbia in various areas of life, including employment, education, housing, access to justice, personal documents, health care, security and the prohibition of torture, asylum seeking and forced return.

On that occasion, Marija Dražović, Praxis Antidiscrimination and Gender Equality Programme Coordinator, stressed that, despite some progress, Roma continued to face problems in exercising their basic rights.

„In most cases, they need free legal aid, but the problem lies in the fact that the Law on Free Legal Aid has not been adopted and Roma have to address the civil sector”, said Ms Dražović. Emphasising the need to include Roma in decision-making processes related to the improvement of their situation, Marija highlighted the high importance of improving the existing laws and provisions concerning the exercise of the rights to citizenship, possession of personal documents, receiving child allowance.

„Due to the lack of financial resources, Roma mothers are not able to pay a fee for the issuance of ID card. Consequently, they are prevented from exercising the right to child allowance because they do not possess a valid personal document. Having in mind their social position, this is a serious problem for them; therefore, our recommendation is to find a solution as soon as possible in order to overcome such situations”, Ms Dražović concluded.
See the statement of Media Center here.
See the statement of EurActiv.rs here.
See the statement of Danas here.