In December 2015, in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council, Praxis began implementing the Project “Emergency Protection, Shelter and Assistance for Refugees & Asylum Seekers in Serbia” funded by ECHO, as a response to the refugee crisis in Serbia. The project aims to provide emergency humanitarian aid and protection to vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers transiting through or seeking asylum in Serbia.

NRC and Praxis provide protection through provision of timely, accurate and reliable information to refugees and asylum seekers in Serbia relating to their legal status, registration procedure, the right to seek asylum, other rights and available services, as well as referrals to other organizations for targeted assistance. NRC and Praxis also provide protection through presence in order to better assist and respond to refugees’ needs and mitigate the risk of trafficking and smuggling. The activities within the Project also include the provision of emergency humanitarian aid through shelter assistance and distribution of food and non-food items (NFIs) to refugees transiting through, or seeking asylum in Serbia. The Project mainly focuses on the field locations along the Eastern border, primarily Dimitrovgrad, but with a possibility to include other locations depending on the needs and situation in the field.

Within the Project, NRC and Praxis also cooperate closely with all the actors in the field, including Serbian authorities and local and international organizations for the purpose of better coordination of activities and improvement of protection of refugees and asylum seekers in Serbia.

Civil Rights Defenders has recently once again opened the doors to Defenders’ Days and welcomed us along with more than 150 human rights defenders from all over the world. The programme took place in Stockholm, from 4th till 7th of April, and included various presentations, panel discussions as well as a number of trainings and workshops, all focusing on human rights. It was the venue to network, attend the wide variety of events, deepen perspectives on the human rights related questions and share valuable experiences. Several of the world’s foremost human rights experts attend Defenders’ Days in order to host trainings and share their knowledge.

At the last day of the conference, Civil Rights Defenders announced the winner of the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award, recognition intended for the exceptional human rights defenders who strive to ensure respect for people’s civil and political rights. This year’s Award went to human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, who has, over the two decades, defended numerous individuals and organizations in Azerbaijan. 

Initigam Aliyev has been an inspiration to a generation of young Azerbaijanis, both as a teacher and as a devoted human rights lawyer. In 2014, he was imprisoned together with other human rights activist in a nationwide crackdown on independent voices in Azerbaijan. His recent release from prison symbolizes a glimmer of hope for an improved human rights situation in Azerbaijan. However, despite the recent release of Intigam Aliyev and other human rights defenders, several prisoners of conscience still remain in prison in Azerbaijan. Learn more about Aliyev, Defenders’ Days programme and many other impressive human rights defenders and their initiatives at Civil Rights Defenders.

International Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31, is the day when we celebrate transgender, courage and persistence of individuals in the determination to live their lives outside gender norms and be who they are, despite all the difficulties they face after speaking out and affirming their own gender identity. 

Although there are anti-discrimination legislation in Serbia, which prohibits discrimination and guarantees equality of all citizens, transgender people are, more likely than others, exposed to discrimination and violation of basic human rights such as the right to human dignity, bodily integrity, life without violence, the right to medical care, the right to marriage and many others.

The greatest legal impediments to protection and full equality of transgender people include the lack of legislation that would protect the rights of transgender people in Serbia and regulate important issues from different areas of life, such as the ability to change mark of sex/gender, name and personal identification number in all personal documents.

Why the visibility of transgender persons is important

The high level of violence, stigmatization, inability to change documents, unemployment, lack of financial resources for sex reassignment (for those who want it), lack of safety in public spaces and non-prosecution of hate crimes towards transgender people are just some of the difficulties that they face in everyday life. Nevertheless, transgender people and the problems they face remain largely invisible. Even if when they are mentioned, transgender people in the media are often presented in a negative context and in the spirit of sensationalism.

To support transgender people and encourage ethical and professional reporting which recognizes and respects the personal integrity and dignity of transgender people, we have analyzed the reporting of print and online media about transgender people in Serbia and made recommendations for reporting. In addition to the analysis of the value context related to transgender people and the presence of sensationalism in the texts, the essential category of analysis was the knowledge whether a transgender person, mentioned in the text, is referred to in accordance with his/her gender identity.

The Analysis of reporting of print and online media about transgender people in Serbia can be downloaded here, and Recommendations for media reporting on transgender people can be downloaded here. Both publications were created as part of cooperation with Gayten-LGBT and media archive EBART.

We hope that in this way we will contribute to a clearer definition of professional and ethical standards in reporting on the topic, but also to better visibility and knowledge of transgender identities and specificity of the context of existence of transgender people.

On the occasion of the upcoming review of the Second and Third Periodic Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child of the Republic of Serbia, Praxis, in cooperation with the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and European Network on Statelessness, delivered Submission of Civil Society Organizations on the Implementation of the Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Even though Praxis had an opportunity to participate in the process of preparation of the state report, some of crucial comments and notes were not included in the report. Therefore, in addition to recognizing all the efforts in exercise of the right to citizenship, the submission of CSOs focuses also on the analysis of remaining problems important for complete understanding of the situation of child’s rights. An additional reason for submitting a special report was the importance of exercising the right to citizenship and impact which the exercise of this right has on the set of other status and socioeconomic rights, especially having in mind the permeating principles of the prohibition of discrimination and the best interest of the child.

The submission provides a general overview of the issues related to the problem of statelessness in Serbia, and in that respect also to the remaining challenges in the implementation of the Article 7 of the Convention which guarantees that every child will be registered immediately after birth and have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents. The problems in exercise of the rights are primarily related to impossibility of children to be registered immediately after birth, discrimination on that basis and the need for additional improvement of the legal framework and practice of competent bodies. The report is structured in a way to provide the delegation of the Republic of Serbia, which will present the report, with a proposed set of questions related to each problem. Finally, the report includes the recommendations as additional guidelines for the Committee on the direction and possibilities for improvement of the exercise of the rights from the Article 7 of the Convention.  

During the European Action Week against Racism, we presented a series of stories and information we encounter in everyday struggle for human rights respect. We are marking the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination by an interview with Natasa Tasic-Knezevic, the first Roma opera singer in Serbia and human rights defender ranked who OESCE among the most prominent Roma women in the world.

On racism, discrimination and importance of respecting each other’s differences 

- We should fight against discrimination and racism every day and every moment. The problem of discrimination lies in difference. Each nation and each nationality carry within themselves huge wealth and culture, and to accept difference it means to enrich oneself and one’s country in the best possible way. However, usually human vanity, greed and pride make someone feels more valuable than someone else. So it was through the centuries, and the largest escalation in the 20th century led to the First and Second World War and the great suffering of Jews, Roma and Serbs. Today's Europe, accustomed to the coziness in the last seventy years, is facing asylum seekers from the Middle East forced to leave their homes, and the fact that asylum seekers are coming from different cultural and religious areas creates great pressure and fear among the Europeans. As for the Roma, they have always been in Europe, but also on all continents. Depending on the country which they lived in, they merged with the population, took the faith, but retained its own identity. This led to the fact that today Roma live isolated in "neighborhoods", and that they are mostly unaccepted by the local population. Roma and their culture have left a big mark in the written word, painting and music. I can talk about the influence of Roma culture and art on classical music composers such as Brahms, Dvorak, Verdi, Lehar, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Kalman, Schubert, Schumann ... If not for the Roma, today we would not have "Carmen" or " Il Trovatore ". However, as long as they were an inspiration in the culture, they were killed and rejected by all.

On inhibition, life struggles, lectures and dreams

- Schooling wasn’t easy for me and my sisters. We really tried hard and were excellent students from the first grade until the postgraduate studies, and I would like to thank our mother who was a great support to us during our childhood and later. All three of us sang in the church choir, and I wanted to learn to sing in order to improve chanting the liturgy, because the priests always called me to be a soloist in the liturgy. Then I came across the first closed door, in relation to music education. At the entrance exam, I was advised to continue with the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, because I had no perspective. There were no Roma in the opera, which is here still considered “elite" art. However, the God's will was obviously different, and later, as a student of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, and thanks to Jovan Cirilov, I met the Princess Elizabeth Karadjordjevic, who helped me and financed my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of solo singing. Had it not been for her, I would have never enrolled in the Academy. I am thankful also to my husband who was a great support and a loyal companion in joint performances. I cannot say that I have not been touched by remarks regarding my nationality, but I have never hidden who and what I am. The word "gypsy" really hurts me, because I know what's behind it, and I know how people can be evil, we felt it very much, but you surround yourself with kindness and arm with goodness and prayer and go on.

On the status of women and gender equality

- The position of women in our society is disastrous. They are victims of continuous discrimination and domestic violence. It is even more difficult with Roma because of greater poverty. Spouses have to go very well in order for a family to be healthy. We have been taught from the early age that a male is the boss in the house. Since I have been going to the church all my life, the priest has always told us that a neck cannot stand without a head or the head without the neck. The same is in a marriage or a common-law marriage, which is getting more popular nowadays. If there were any dispute before the birth of children, they are just deepened and that is why more and more women and children suffer violence and are often killed. Police and social workers are now trying to do something, though is too little. The laws are voted on, but almost no one does respect, nor are guided by them. The moment the state is stronger than an individual in the implementation of the law, everything will change.

On consequences of child, early and forced marriages  

- Child marriages are violation of human rights, especially the rights of a girl to grow up and live normally. This usually happens because there is no choice or children are not given any option. 

If children go to school and at school they run into rejection or neglect, they have nowhere to go but to return to the established way of life - the life that everybody lived before them. If a child does not appear in school, it is a duty of a social worker, pedagogue and a teacher to check why the child hasn’t appeared in school and to put constant pressure on parents unless the child appears in school and attend classes regularly. There are cases when an early marriage is concluded because two young children fall in love and parents are ashamed to return their children home and then they give consent for marriage. But, there are also cases of forced marriages when girls often end up as victims of trafficking. Each state should regulate the law related to conclusion of marriages of minors and if the law in violated, all those leading up to that should be automatically punished. Early marriages are not a tradition, but a consequence of the lack of a better choice. If we were given the choice, everything would work out.