Today the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) which represents over fifty civil society organisations from across Europe including Praxis will hand over a petition to members of the European Parliament calling on European leaders to protect stateless persons by ratifying the UN Statelessness Convention and committing to set up a system of safeguards and a regularisation procedure.
 
The petition coincides with the 60th anniversary of the 1954 UN Statelessness Convention, and is a part of a wider campaign bringing together a broad spectrum of actors mounting pressure on the European Union to fulfil its pledge made in 2012 that all EU Member States would accede to the 1954 Statelessness Convention. This campaign will see national level events in Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Slovakia among other countries.
 
As part of its campaign to protect stateless persons in Europe, ENS has prepared a report Still Stateless, Still Suffering – Why Europe must act now to protect stateless persons, which contain testimonies of stateless persons.
 
“For too long Europe has allowed stateless individuals to be exposed to human rights abuses and with no recourse to justice. Now is the time to resolve this issue once and for all”, said Chris Nash Director of the European Network on Statelessness. “Stateless individuals often face years of uncertainty, destitution and repeated, lengthy immigration detention. Yet the solution is a relatively simple one. Ratifying conventions is an essential first step, which most EU states have already taken, but must be followed by the introduction of identification and regularisation procedures which are critical to helping stateless persons re-build their lives.”
 

* The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) is a network of non-governmental organisations, academic initiatives, and individual experts committed to address statelessness in Europe. Based in London, ENS is a coordinating body and expert resource for organisations across Europe who work with or come into contact with stateless persons. It currently has 53 member organisations in over 30 European countries.

The meeting of the Group of National Partnership Networks, consisting of 18 representatives of national networks for Children and managed by a pan-European network organisation for children Eurochild, was held in Brussels from 24 to 25 September 2014. In addition to representatives of Eurochild and Group of National Partnership Networks, the meeting was attended, in the capacity of observer, by representatives of two national networks for children from Latvia and Lithuania, and the Ombudsperson for Children from Luxembourg. The meeting was also attended by Jasmina Miković, Praxis Deputy Executive Director, as a representative of the Network of Organisations for the Children of Serbia (MODS), which is a member of the Group of National Partnership Networks and advocates for the achievement of the joint goal for putting the rights and welfare of children at the centre of policy-making at the national and European level.

The meeting began with a discussion at the roundtable in the European Parliament on the topic of advocacy for the child’s rights in the EP. The roundtable was organised by CRAG (Child Rights Action Group) and provided a forum for members of the European Parliament and organisations dealing with the protection of children’s rights to discuss possible further steps towards the inclusion of child’s rights in all policies and activities in a situation where there was no mechanism or body directly responsible for children’s rights in the European Parliament. It was pointed out that currently none of 20 standing committees had explicit responsibility for children and no one monitored which part of the EU budget was spent on children. During the last European election campaign, about 100 candidates elected as members of the European Parliament signed the Child Rights Manifesto, thus demonstrating willingness to ensure that the rights of the child were clearly prioritised in the EU. The members of the European Parliament stressed that it was their responsibility to ensure a voice of the children to be heard and the best interests of the child to be taken into account in creating all policies and legislation of the European Union. Hence, they stated that it was very important to establish an Intergroup on Children’s Rights and Welfare, as well as an international group Champions in protecting the rights of the child, which would work together with civil society to ensure that the child’s rights should be a top priority. The conclusion of the roundtable was that a positive step forward was the open-door policy and the expressed willingness of the members of the European Parliament to put the child’s rights at the heart of the European Parliament.

After that, members of the Group of National Partnership Networks had the opportunity to discuss and adopt an activity programme for 2014-2015, and to agree on changes in the Group's name (formerly Steering Group for Policy). In addition, a document was adopted defining the duties/roles of the members of the Group of National Partnership Networks, whose main role was to enhance advocacy for the rights of the child by entering the EU dimension into national policies and ensuring that national policies with cross-border aspect influence the EU policies. At the same time, the Group of National Partnership Networks seeks to strengthen the capacity of national coalitions and networks for the protection of children's rights, in order to be able to advocate for children's rights and welfare of children in their countries.

The following day, the participants were informed about two key parallel processes that were coordinated within the framework of the European Semester: the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Pact for Stability and Growth. In addition, representatives of the national networks for children from Bulgaria, Croatia and Scotland presented the good advocacy practices concerning the protection of child’s rights in political debates, the use of EU Structural Funds and the Europe 2020 Strategy.

See the news: MODS at the Meeting of Eurochild National Partner Network Group

On 1 September 2014, European Network on Statelessness (ENS) incorporated with its own legal entity with the seat in London.

ENS was established in June 2012 as the joint initiative of Asylum Aid, Equal Rights Trust, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Open Society Justice Initiative, Praxis, and the Statelessness Programme at Tilburg University. ENS encourages regional and international institutions to address statelessness within their respective mandates. We also urge countries in the region to adopt policies to prevent and reduce statelessness, and to provide protection to stateless persons.

The European Network on Statelessness now has 50 member organisations in over 30 countries in Europe. With an aim to build capacities among creators of public policies and civil society organizations in Europe, ENS provides training and expertise and is also a forum for dedicated research, monitoring and exchange of information in the area of statelessness. According to ENS, every person has the right to nationality and stateless persons have the right to adequate support – including the right to regulate their status and enjoy basic civic, economic, social and cultural rights in accordance with the international human rights law.

Praxis has been the member of ENS since its establishment and it is also a member of Advisory Committee along with the following organizations and individuals:

• Asylum Aid,
• European Roma Rights Centre,
• Equal Rights Trust,
• Forum Refugies - Cosi,
• HIAS Ukraine,
• The Human Rights League,
• Hungarian Helsinki Committee,
• The Immigrant Council of Ireland,
• The Latvian Centre for Human Rights,
• Statelessness Programme,
• Adrian Berry), Barrister at Garden Court Chambers in London, and
• Katja Swider, PhD researcher at the University of Amsterdam

Download the special issue of ENS newsletter containing the latest information on its work here.

MODS announcement
  

Network of Organizations for Children of Serbia - MODS expresses deep concern and regret for two accidents that have occurred over the past month when students were injured in the playgrounds of schoolyards in Belgrade and Knjazevac.

The last accident happened in the schoolyard in Knjazevac and had a tragic outcome. Schools and schoolyards should unconditionally be safe places for children and it is inadmissible for our society and community that children are injured while playing. Unfortunately, it seems that that we are always late and that we react only in case of an accident with a tragic outcome.

Therefore, we are calling on the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development to send request to school principals in Serbia to check safety of schoolyards and inform the Ministry in writing.

We remind that there are School Committees, Parents Boards and Students’ Safety and Protection from Violence Teams which reach decisions referring to safety of children in schools. These bodies need to work actively in accordance with the competences stipulated by the law and seriously to deal with the issues related to life of children in school.

The safety of children is not only in the jurisdiction of schools and local self-governments which need to take responsibility for the regularity of equipment, devices and props in schoolyards, regardless of whether certain incidents occur during or after the school working time. The responsibility of local communities cannot be annulled and they need to take all suitable preventive safety measures.

Network of Organizations for Children of Serbia expect fast and urgent reaction meaning that they are not going to rely on volunteering of school principals to check or do something, and that the existing law and bylaws shall be consistently implemented and that the problem will be tackled systematically, responsibly and as a prevention – that no child will ever get injured in a schoolyard.

In the period 29-30 September 2014, the Train-the-Trainer Workshop – Working with Hate Crime was organised in Prague by the NGO Iustitia from the Czech Republic, as part of the project Hate Crime Prevention in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, supported by the International Visegrad Fund. Besides Praxis representatives, Ivana Stjelja and Kristina Vujic, the event was attended by representatives of other partner organisations from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

The aim of the workshop was to strengthen the partner organisations that will continue to organise local workshops on hate crime for civil society organisations. The workshop was conducted by Dorett Jones and Patricia Ng from the London-based organisation Imkaan. This organisation, in addition to dealing with hate crime against women and girls, is also a world-unique network that links the organisations headed by black women and women from other ethnic minorities and whose work is aimed at preventing violence against women and girls.

The workshop addressed the issues concerning the notion of hate crimes, especially the psychological aspect and work with victims, as well as training skills, all through a combination of presentations, workshops, exchange of experiences and tasks. The main topics were:

• Definition and scope of hate crimes in the participating countries; similarities and differences, causes;
• Identity, relationship of the privileges and responsibilities of the majority population that is usually unaware of its own benefits; facing with own identity; techniques that can be used for training on this topic;
• Challenging situations and dilemmas in training courses, in particular the ways of working with victims and intolerant participants;
• Planning activities related to training on hate crimes;
• Advantages and disadvantages of different ways of conducting training; logistics.

Let us be reminded that hate crime was introduced in the Serbian Criminal Code (Article 54a) in December 2013, as an aggravating circumstance in cases where a criminal offence is committed out of hatred because of race and religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity of another person. Regardless of the obvious increase in violence, it has not been applied in practice to date.

European Network on Statelessness, a network of 53 organisations, launched its report Still Stateless, Still Suffering – Why Europe Must Act Now to Protect Stateless Persons, which contains testimonies by stateless migrants living in 11 European countries. It unveils a shocking but previously hidden picture of individuals languishing in immigration detention for years, living destitute on the streets, stuck in endless limbo and desperately seeking to become a part of mainstream society.

The report asks why so little is being done to protect people in this situation, and makes recommendations for urgent reform by calling on states to implement adequate safeguards and regularisation procedures for stateless persons living among us today. The report contains 20 stories collected through individual interviews and clearly indicates the necessity why European governments must act now.

The publication of the report coincides with the 60th anniversary of the 1954 UN Statelessness Convention, and is a part of a wider campaign bringing together a broad spectrum of actors. The campaign will culminate in a concerted day of action against statelessness across Europe on 14 October 2014.

 “Stateless people do not choose to live without a nationality and they urgently need our help if they are to be rescued from spending years of their lives stuck in limbo - facing detention, destitution and with no way out. Yet the solution is simple and many more states need to follow the recent example set by the UK in establishing a dedicated mechanism to identify and regularise stateless persons. This not only allows states to respect their international obligations but also provides a policy solution for individuals who lack a nationality so anyway have no other place to go. Otherwise stateless persons will continue to suffer in the abject conditions highlighted in our report.” (Chris Nash, Director of the European Network on Statelessness)

Download the report: Still Stateless, Still Suffering – Why Europe Must Act Now to Protect Stateless Persons

* The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) is a network of non-governmental organisations, academic initiatives, and individual experts committed to address statelessness in Europe. Based in London, ENS is a coordinating body and expert resource for organisations across Europe who work with or come into contact with stateless persons. It currently has 53 member organisations in over 30 European countries.

The graffiti It’s no use of having a mass when you are Gypsy race was written on the wall of the post office in Nis-based settlement “9 May”. The employees of the post office did not know how long the graffiti had been there. Because of the graffiti, in July 2013 Praxis filed a petition to the Department for Public Utility Services, Energy and Traffic of the City of Nis against an unknown person for writing the graffiti which insults and discriminates against the members of Roma ethnic minority.

The petition was immediately forwarded to Public Enterprise Directorate for the Construction of the City of Nis, which removed the anti-Roma graffiti in April 2014, after Praxis reaction. Since the post office is located in the centre of the settlement, nearby the bus station, green market and a school, the graffiti was noticeable on the wall looking at the street before it was removed.

The lack of immediate reaction of the competent authority implies that the hatred message had not been taken seriously by the competent authorities, but that they permitted that members of Roma ethnic minority be exposed to discrimination and hate speech throughout a long period of time.

The level of tolerance in society is still low, which is additionally supported by slow reactions of competent authorities and the fact that perpetrators remain unknown and unpunished. 

The graffiti It’s no use of having a mass when you are Gypsy race was written on the wall of the post office in Nis-based settlement “9 May”. The employees of the post office did not know how long the graffiti had been there. Because of the graffiti, in July 2013 Praxis filed a petition to the Department for Public Utility Services, Energy and Traffic of the City of Nis against an unknown person for writing the graffiti which insults and discriminates against the members of Roma ethnic minority.

The petition was immediately forwarded to Public Enterprise Directorate for the Construction of the City of Nis, which removed the anti-Roma graffiti in April 2014, after Praxis reaction. Since the post office is located in the centre of the settlement, nearby the bus station, green market and a school, the graffiti was noticeable on the wall looking at the street before it was removed.

The lack of immediate reaction of the competent authority implies that the hatred message had not been taken seriously by the competent authorities, but that they permitted that members of Roma ethnic minority be exposed to discrimination and hate speech throughout a long period of time.

The level of tolerance in society is still low, which is additionally supported by slow reactions of competent authorities and the fact that perpetrators remain unknown and unpunished.

In order to include the civil society in the process of accession negotiations with the European Union, the National Convention on the European Union (NCEU) was established as a platform that should facilitate dialogue between the civil society and representatives of the National Assembly, the Government and the Negotiating Team, and ensure the monitoring of compliance with the conditions for membership and provision of quality information to the public.

NCEU, in addition to the Presidency and the Programme Council, consists of the working groups formed for different negotiation chapters. Praxis, in accordance with its mandate, has joined the working groups that monitor the compliance with benchmark requirements for Chapter 19 - Social Policy and Employment, Chapter 23 - Judiciary and Fundamental Rights and Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security.

The working group that monitors Chapter 19 - Social Policy and Employment monitors also Chapter 2 – Freedom of Movement for Workers. Within chapter 19, the Working Group will, inter alia, consider the obligations in the field of social inclusion and poverty reduction. The Working Group Coordinator is the Centre for Democracy Foundation.

Within the monitoring of Chapter 23, the Working Group will contribute to ensuring respect for human rights and human dignity, freedom, democracy, the principles of equality, and to achieving the rule of law. The Working Group Coordinator is the Human Rights House.

The goal of the Working Group on Chapter 24 is to monitor the process of Serbia’s negotiations with the EU and contribute to the formulation of proposals for the improvement of policies in the area of justice, freedom and security. The Working Group Coordinator is the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy.

The accession negotiation with the European Union is a long-lasting process, which means that the impact of civil society on the state’s negotiating position can be measured only at the end. Until then, we believe that it is very important that the formation of NCEU working groups has opened up the possibility for the civil society to participate actively in this process.

Danilo Curcic, Praxis legal analyst, talked about internally displaced persons for Vreme Weekly.

Downlaod: Integration or Return