Praxis published the report Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalised Population in Serbia within the project Praxis implemented in partnership with the organisations Roma Educational Centre from Subotica and Osvit from Nis in the period December 2010 - November 2013 and with financial support by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The report presents the results achieved and progress made, but also the remaining problems regarding the exercise of the right to be recognised as a person before the law, right to social welfare and health care, education, work and employment and adequate housing. The data used in this report derive from Praxis research based on the combined methodology that included the legal framework analysis, case studies, survey and focus groups with individuals of Roma ethnicity, as well as interviews with representatives of relevant authorities and institutions. Research results do not tend to accurately represent the population, but rather to illustrate the extent of the problems faced by Roma on a daily basis.

Download the report: Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalised Population in Serbia

On 6 December 2013 in Belgrade, Praxis, in cooperation with non-governmental organization Poradna pro občanství/Občanská a lidská práva from the Czech Republic, organized a press-conference and a roundtable “How to conduct situational testing” on the occasion of the end of the project of the same name, funded by the Transition Promotion Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

At the press conference and the roundtable, Praxis presented its experience with situational testing. During the project period, Praxis conducted 5 cases of situational testing in three of which it collected evidence on discrimination against the Roma. The results of testing indicate that the Roma have been discriminated when trying to rent an apartment, get employed or open a bank account, which illustrates the extent of discrimination against the Roma in our society. For the cases in which evidence was collected, Praxis has initiated the appropriate procedures for protection against discrimination as discrimination against the Roma would not be left without legal consequences.

The representatives of the partner organization and the Ombudsman of the Czech Republic talked about their experience with special reference to time limits of situational testing of discrimination, psychological aspect of the testing and financing of accompanying strategic litigation. In addition, the representative of the Commissioner for Protection of Equality gave the overview of cases from the practice of this body in which situational testing was used to prove discrimination in Serbia.

Despite differences in the situational testing system reflecting in the obligation of reporting the situational testing and prohibition of audio and video recording in Serbia and the lack of obligation of reporting the testing Republic and freedom of audio and video recording in the Czech, the participants of the roundtable agreed that situational testing is the extremely useful evidence which needs to be applied more frequently in cases of discrimination. In addition, the participants discussed the specificity of conducting of situational testing, monitoring of recommendations of independent bodies competent for the implementation of anti-discrimination regulations and establishment of court practice in Serbia in the field of discrimination and cases of situational testing used as evidence.

Also, the manual “Strategic Litigation in Service of Human Rights” prepared by Poradna pro občanství/Občanská a lidská práva was presented at the roundtable.

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Manual "Strategic Litigation in Service of Human Rights"

On the occasion of the completion of the three-year project “Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalized Population in Serbia”, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Praxis held a press conference “Social inclusion – progress and challenges” in Media Centre. The report on the progress made in exercise of status and socioeconomic rights was also presented at the press conference. 

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On the occasion of the completion of the three-year project “Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalized Population in Serbia”, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Praxis held a press conference “Social inclusion – progress and challenges” in Media Centre. The report on the progress made in exercise of status and socioeconomic rights was also presented at the press conference. 

"There are positive changes in legal solutions, but there are still many challenges ahead of us in order to improve the life of legally invisible persons in Serbia”, Ivanka Kostic, Praxis Deputy Director, said at the press conference.

Talking about the position of Roma, Jasmina Mikovic, Praxis Deputy Director, warned that they are exposed to attacks and open hate speech, stating that the survey conducted within this project, which included 1,527 persons, showed that social workers are also prone to discirmiantory behaviour.

See the news: Roma - Legally Invisible Persons in Birth Registry Books until 2015

Non-governmental organization Praxis held a press conference and presented the report on the progress made in exercise of status and socioeconomic rights, as well as in the field of protection from discrimination, on the occasion of the completion of the project “Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalized Population in Serbia”.

Praxis implemented the three-year project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with the Educational Centre of Roma from Subotica and Association of Roma Women “Osvit” from Nis. The goal of the project was suppression of discrimination and elimination of systemic obstacles in the access to status and socioeconomic rights for the marginalized population in Serbia.

Download: Social inclusion - progress and challenges

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On the occasion of the completion of the three-year project “Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalized Population in Serbia”, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Praxis organized a press conference “Social inclusion – progress and challenges” in Media Centre. The report on the progress made in exercise of status and socioeconomic rights was also presented at the press conference. 

Download: Press conference "Social inclusion - progress and challenges"

On the occasion of the completion of three-year project “Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalised Population in Serbia”, funded by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Praxis held a press conference “Social Inclusion: Progress and Challenges” in the Media Centre in Belgrade. The report on improvements in the field of exercise of status and socio-economic rights was presented at the conference.

Praxis implemented the project in partnership with the Roma Educational Centre from Subotica and Roma Women’s Association Osvit from Nis. The undertaken activities were aimed at improving the position of and reducing discrimination against marginalised population groups in Serbia through providing equal access to rights and through advocacy directed towards overcoming systemic obstacles to accessing the right to be recognised as a person before the law and socio-economic rights.

It was assessed that by adopting laws or amending the existing ones, by developing a strategic framework for improving the position and fighting against discrimination of marginalised groups, and by undertaking various actions and activities, an important step has been taken towards improving their status and raising awareness of the unacceptability of further marginalisation. Nevertheless, the adopted legal provisions are often not implemented or they are implemented in an uneven manner, while many of the undertaken measures can be described as short-term and ill-adapted to specific needs of vulnerable groups.

Finally, it was concluded that there was still a need to advocate for overcoming the systemic obstacles in exercise of rights, and to pay attention to raising awareness of the public about the problems of vulnerable groups, but also to work on empowerment and education of marginalized groups and sensitization of state officials in public administration with an aim of better understanding and prevention of discrimination.

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Report "Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalised Population in Serbia"
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Video at Radio Beograd I
News at Royal Norwegian Embassy

Download the report:Special Report on Discrimination against Children, Commisioner for Protection of Equality

On the occasion of the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women, Praxis expresses satisfaction because the Republic of Serbia has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

CE Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence is the most comprehensive international treaty in this field. It calls on states to work on prevention and combat violence against women. This means that states are obliged to organize their response to all forms of violence covered by the Convention, so that the authorities may conscientiously prevent, investigate and punish the committed acts of violence. If they fail, the states are responsible for acts of violence.

According to the data of the network Women against Violence, from the beginning of the year until 21 November 2013, a total of 41 women were killed. All killed women knew the perpetrators, and in some cases violence was reported even before a woman was killed.

The Convention recognizes and pays special attention to multiply discriminated groups of women, such as migrants, refugees, Roma and others, starting from the fact that often, because of their residence status, they may be excluded from the support services. The specificity of such population groups is the fact that such persons have already experienced forced living of their homes or they are facing the extremely difficult social exclusion and marginalization. Some of them live in collective centres where living conditions are extremely difficult, some in unrecognized collective centres, and most of displaced members of Roma live in informal settlements. They are in a difficult economic and social situation, and their economic vulnerability sometimes affects their decision to leave their husbands more reluctantly. Their vulnerability is also reflected in the fact that they come from post-conflict areas, because an abuser’s threat causes a much greater trauma if he possesses a weapon.

Within the adoption of the Convention, the activities aimed at protection of women from violence are not completed. On the contrary, they have just started. The process of harmonization of domestic legislation with the Convention is ahead of us, in order to build a more efficient system of protection of victims and prosecution of perpetrators.

In this regard, we are calling upon the state to urgently initiate the harmonization of domestic legislation with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.