On the occasion of the 94th session of the  Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Praxis, in cooperation with the organisations SKRUG, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, European Network on Statelessness and European Roma Rights , submitted a written contribution including the information on the outstanding problems concerning the prevention of racial discrimination in Serbia, with a focus on hate crimes and discrimination against members of the Roma national minority and stateless persons as a particularly vulnerable group of foreigners.

The written contribution first pointed to the fact that Article 54a of the Criminal Code, which had introduced hate crime in the national legislation nearly five years before, was still not implemented in practice. It also stressed the problem of segregation and difficulties faced by Roma children in education, their over-representation in the fostering system and the absence of adequate response to the problem of early, child and forced marriages, which affected particularly Roma girls.

Commenting on the legislation and practices that affected particularly the Roma minority, the submitters of the written contribution warned of various obstacles that prevented timely birth registration for Roma children and of the remaining shortcomings in the procedures of permanent residence registration, which particularly affected Roma without the legal basis of housing.

Since Serbia could soon get a new Law on Foreigners, the contribution also pointed to the current version of the Draft Law on Foreigners whose provisions on the determination and prolongation of immigration detention discriminated against stateless persons, as a particularly vulnerable group of foreigners, and made them subject to arbitrary detention. The written contribution also mentioned the difficulties that may arise because of the lack of procedures for determining the status of a stateless person.

Finally, the contribution included some clear recommendations for allowing Roma and persons at risk of stateless to access their rights and for contributing to more consistent compliance with the obligations undertaken by Serbia under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.   

Download the written contribution here.

The report of the organisations European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), Institute for Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) and the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) warns that the lack of documents has extremely negative consequences for the lives of thousands of Roma living in the Western Balkans and Ukraine.

These organisations urge the countries in the region to focus on stateless Roma and to facilitate the birth registration procedure, which poses obstacles to Roma in accessing documents without which they cannot prove their identity and citizenship. It is emphasized that leaving Roma children without birth certificates leads to their growing up and living as stateless persons. As a result, thousands of Roma face difficulties in accessing core services and rights, such as the right to education, health care and housing.

One of the interviewed Roma women from Serbia says: "I did not give up, but I do not see that something will happen and change my situation for the better. I'm sorry because I know that many things would be better if I only had citizenship and documents.”

The report reveals the serious consequences that Roma suffer as a result of wars and dissolution of the former SFRY, along with systemic discrimination and social exclusion. It is particularly difficult for those who could not prove citizenship. The Roma who were forced to leave their homes during the war, often without any documents, upon return faced with complicated procedures and numerous difficulties in attempting to obtain documents. In addition, institutional discrimination and racism, recorded in some of the countries covered by the research, have created obstacles that prevent Roma from accessing the basic rights that other citizens enjoy.

The research also shows some positive and successful examples of civil society cooperation with the state aimed at facilitating the procedures for registering into birth registry books, eliminating legislative shortcomings and raising awareness about the importance of solving this problem. These efforts show that the problem of statelessness can be solved with a proactive approach and in line with the recommendations given in this report, which can serve as an example of good practice for other countries in the region.

At the same time, the report calls on the European Commission to recognise the problem of statelessness and discrimination against Roma as a matter of priority in the process of negotiations for EU membership. 

Download the report on this link.

Within the project funded by Save the Children aimed at providing protection monitoring and assistance to refugees and migrants in Belgrade, Praxis has released a new publication - Practical Protection Monitoring Guide. 

This document is a guide to how we set up and developed our protection monitoring activities, established our system of collecting, verifying and analysing information in order to identify human rights violations and protection risks encountered by refugees/migrants, and how we combined these activities with complementary activities such as - provision of information, referrals, protection by presence and advocacy activities. 

Download the Practical Protection Monitoring Guide here.

In the suburban settlement “Beranovac” near Kraljevo, the families are being evicted from the social housing apartments, which were built in order to find a durable and sustainable housing solution for the internally displaced persons from Kosovo.

It should be noted that after the expiry of the three-year period during which the internally displaced persons, former residents of collective centres, had lived in the social housing apartments in Kraljevo for free, paying only the costs of electricity and utility services, the Municipal Housing Agency in Kraljevo prescribed new conditions, unacceptable for the majority of the families. One of the requirements for concluding a new contract on apartment use was that the tenants of these apartments had to provide a minimum of 75 euros (in RSD equivalent) per household member. The offered contracts envisaged a monthly rental in the amount of 1.20 euros per square metre, which was unattainable for retired persons, beneficiaries of social allowance or temporary allowance for unemployed persons from Kosovo, and for the tenants without any income. For refusing to accept the unfavourable contractual conditions, in 2013 the Municipal Housing Agency sued 33 families requesting their eviction. The recent court decision was unfavourable for these families and their eviction from the social housing apartments is ongoing. The tenants, including children, the elderly and sick, have not been provided with alternative solution and are at risk of becoming homeless. 

Determination of new, unfavourable conditions for the use of social housing apartments was not done with prior consultations with tenants in order to find a solution that would respect their needs and prevent the conduct of lengthy court proceedings.

Finally, we draw attention to the fact that consultations with citizens is a requirement in the process of public administration reform and a key element of good governance, and good governance is a prerequisite for respecting human rights.

See the footages:

RTV KV – Thirty three internally displaced persons remain without a roof over their heads.

Roma World – Thirty three internally displaced persons remain without a roof over their heads.

Večernje novosti online - Thirty three families in the street - the displaced are homeless again?

Info KV Press - Without a rent - eviction 

Radio Slobodna Evropa - In the street because of the unpaid rent 

See the previous announcements:

Without a solution for internally displaced persons in social housing apartments in Kraljevo

Municipal Housing Agency in Kraljevo sued internally displaced persons for eviction

In mid-September, Mr. Volker Beck, a member of the German Bundestag from the Green Party, visited Serbia. He held meetings with representatives of civil society organisations to discuss the situation of human rights in Serbia and the challenges they faced in the efforts for their realisation.

Mr. Beck was particularly interested in the topics related to asylum and migration, as well as those related to the Roma community and other ethnic minorities. The meetings were attended by Ivanka Kostić – Praxis Executive Director, Vuk Raičević - Antidiscrimination and Gender Equality Programme Coordinator and Boris Sijerković - Migration Protection Officer, who presented the major problems faced by refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and the Roma community, as well as the current activities of our organisation, including our comprehensive results achieved in the fight for human rights in Serbia.