In October 2013, E. K. gave birth in the Clinical Hospital Centre Zemun and had to pay for the costs of childbirth in the amount of 14,909.10 RSD, because she did not have her health booklet verified at that moment. Moreover, no one informed her that she had the right to the reimbursement of costs of childbirth.

Praxis’ lawyer provided legal assistance to E. K. in obtaining ID card and verifying her health booklet, as well as in submitting the request for reimbursement of childbirth and childbirth-related costs. The request for reimbursement of costs was sent to the Novi Beograd Branch of the National Health Insurance Fund, in accordance with the Article 70 of the Rulebook of the Method and Procedure of Exercise of Rights from the Mandatory Health Insurance, which ensures the right to reimbursement of costs to the insured persons – pregnant women, as well as in the accordance with the Article 162 of the Law on Health Protection and the Instruction of the National Fund 02/5 No. 54-684/10-1 as of 16 March 2010 which prescribe that the compensation for the provided medical assistance shall be covered from the budget of the Republic of Serbia, autonomous province, municipality/city, as well as that each childbirth shall be considered as an emergency case.

In addition, Article 68, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia prescribes that children, pregnant women, mothers during maternity leave, single parents with children under seven years of age and elderly persons shall exercise health protection from public revenues, unless it is provided in some other manner, in accordance with the law. According to the Article 22 of the Law on Health Insurance (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 107/2005, 109/2005 - correction, 57/2011, 110/2012 – decision of the Constitutional Court and 119/2012), special category of insurers are women with respect to family planning, as well as during pregnancy, childbirth and maternity up to 12 months after childbirth. The Article 11 of the Law on Health Protection also provides for the special protection of this category of insurers.

Considering the request of E. K. for reimbursement of costs of delivery, the National Health Insurance Fund approved the request and referred E. K. to the Clinical Hospital Centre Zemun for the reimbursement of costs.

E. K. is surely not a sole case of an uneducated party, and thus the question is whether new mothers, who are in a similar situation, have information about the possibility to reimburse the costs of childbirth from the health institution and the ability to represent their own interests in the procedure before the competent body, or they do not ever exercise such right.

In addition, it should also be taken into consideration that the Law on the Exercise of the Right to Health Care by Children, Pregnant Women and New Mothers, which came into effect on 27 November 2013, prescribes that children, pregnant women and new mothers shall have to right to health protection, regardless of whether their document on health insurance (health booklet, certificate on use of health care services or health insurance card) is verified or not. With regard to that, the National Health Insurance Fund forwarded instructions to its branch offices about the implementation of the Law, stating that the children up to 18 years of age, pregnant women and new mothers in the period of 12 months following childbirth shall have the right to complete healthcare protection, including the right to medications in accordance with the Law on Health Insurance and general acts of the Republic Fund for Health Insurance, as well as to the travel cost reimbursement related to use of healthcare services, regardless of the basis of health insurance and of whether their health insurance documents are verified, while the costs shall be borne by the Republic Fund.

In the upcoming period, the practice will show whether the afore-mentioned legal solution is consistently applied.

On 8 April 2014, on the occasion of marking the International Roma Day, Praxis was awarded with the “Golden Wheel” by the National Council of the Roma National Minority in Serbia, for the special contribution to Roma inclusion.

In the category of civil society organizations which made the greatest contribution to Roma inclusion, the awards were also granted to Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization, Civic Initiatives, Housing Center, Bibija, Osvit and Educational Center.

In the category of government institutions the award “Golden Wheel” was granted to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning, the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Policy and the Office for Human and Minority Rights.

The awardees in the category of embassies were Embassies of Sweden, Japan, Germany, Italy, and the US, while in the category of international organizations the awards were presented to the Office for Security and Cooperation of Europe (OEBS), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and UNICEF.

The awards were also presented to media houses, including Tanjug News Agency. The awardees in the category of local self-governments were the Municipalities of Pirot, Zrenjanin, Pancevo, Smederevo, and Arandjelovac.

The awards were also presented to individuals and the Roma who made the most significant contributions to Roma inclusion: the State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Bozovic, Vladimir Macura, Dragoljub Ackovic, and Bajram Haliti.

A special award was granted to the president of the National Roma Council Vitomir Mihajlovic, and the lifework award was presented to Rajko Djuric.

Laptop computers were presented to ten best Roma students at universities across Serbia for their academic accomplishments.

On the occasion of Praxis’ initiative for the review of legality of the Item 8, Paragraph 2.1. of the Regulation on the content, form and manner of submitting a unique application for mandatory social insurance, unique methodological principles and unique codex of codes for entry of data in the unique basis of the Central Register of mandatory social insurance (in force as of January 2013), the Constitutional Court reached the decision on suspension of the procedure.

This Regulation envisaged that persons of Roma nationality should submit evidence of registration of permanent residence when applying for health insurance, which is contrary to the Article 22, Paragraph 1 of the Law on Health Insurance. Specifically, the stated Article of the Law on Health Insurance prescribes that in terms of and under the conditions prescribed by this Law, the insured are considered to be persons of Roma nationality who, due to their traditional way of life, do not have permanent or temporary residence registered in Serbia. During the procedure that was conducted before the Constitutional Court, the disputable Regulation was changed in a way that instead of registering the temporary residence an applicant shall register his/her permanent residence at the address of social welfare centre, based on the provisions of the applicable Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens, which again are the conditions contrary to the Law. However, the Constitutional Court suspended the procedure finding that the respective change made the Regulation complied with the Law on Health Insurance.

Unfortunately, by this Decision, the Constitutional Court fully neglected the essence of the problem, precisely the Article 22, Paragraph 1 of the Law on Health Insurance intended for the persons of Roma nationality who cannot register their permanent residence at all. By this decision, the stated persons are still prevented from exercising the right to health insurance, and the disputable Regulation is still contrary to the Law, as the provisions of the Law on Health Insurance do not anyhow condition the access to the right to health insurance for the concerned category of persons by the registration of permanent residence.

Even though the Law on Health Insurance identifies the members of Roma nationality as a special category of insurers and recognizes the specificity of their social, financial and health status, by offering the legal ground for the regulation of the access to health insurance in a simple and acceptable way, the latest decision of the Constitutional Court easily supported the decision envisaged by the Regulation, which, at least in the current conditions, will prevent a significant number of persons of Roma nationality from exercising one of the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

DOwnload: Initiative for the initiation of the procedure for review for legality
                Decision on suspension of the procedure for review of legality

Taken from Norway's official website in Serbia

30.04.2014 // With a three-year-long project aimed to improve the position of marginalised groups in Serbia, especially the Roma population, the NGO Praxis serves as an example of what the Embassy considers a successful project partner.

The Belgrade-based non-governmental and non-profit organization Praxis has finalised a three-year-long project entitled Contribution to Social Inclusion and Combat against Discrimination of Marginalized Population in Serbia in partnership with the Roma Educational Centre from Subotica and the Osvit organisation from Nis.

As part of the project, which was financially supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Praxis monitored implementation of relevant legislation and strategic documents aimed at improving the status of marginalized groups, analyzed the effects of their implementation, and recorded cases of discrimination and violation of rights.

The collected information and findings constituted the basis for the activities of advocacy for changing laws, policies and practices of relevant state authorities.

Simultaneously, the purpose of educational workshops for residents of informal settlements and roundtables for representatives of relevant authorities and service providers was to empower the members of marginalized groups to use the existing legal mechanisms to exercising and protect their rights, as well as to sensitize the representatives of authorities to the problems that these people face in accessing their guaranteed rights.

A final report was developed, based on a combination of legal framework analysis, case studies, surveys and focus groups with individuals of the Roma community, as well as interviews with representatives of relevant authorities and institutions.

The report presented the results achieved and progress made, in addition to remaining problems regarding the exercise of the right to be recognized as a person before the law, right to social welfare and health care, education, work and employment and adequate housing.

Praxis’ work dates back to 2004 when this non-governmental and non-profit organization was established following their project cooperation with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

NRC had a long-standing commitment to legal aid in the region, and eventually left it to their local offices to found their own organizations and continue with the work.

“This strategy obviously worked out, and we have not only remained a functional organization, but are regarded with respect,” says Ivanka Kostic, Praxis Executive Director.

During its ten years of existence, the organization provided free legal assistance for a total of 70,106 people; initiated and conducted a total of 14,123 administrative or judicial proceedings; organized over 900 site visits attended by over 18,000 people who got information and advice related to access to socioeconomic and status rights; and represented 170 female victims of domestic violence in a total of 305 court proceedings.

From NRC, Praxis also inherited the practice of working with migrant groups, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Given the fact that many IDPs were Roma, and that the local Roma population was facing a number of the abovementioned problems, Praxis’ work quickly became focused around the Roma population.

They spent much time in the field and in local communities, which helped them gather information and reaching out to people that normally had difficulties with accessing information and assistance services.

“The problems we were dealing with spread further onto socio-economic rights, health care, education, employment, social protection - and when we reached the issue of housing as one of the key problem areas, we found our niche,” says Kostic.

Engagement on the policy level

In order to bring forth the changes that only the state can make, they entered cooperation with state bodies and other relevant stakeholders.

“We relied on this cooperation even when we were being critical and were proposing certain unpopular changes, but the changes we have contributed to over the years have shown that this was successful after all,” Kostic says.

Regarding the issue of legally invisible persons, Praxis teamed up with the Center for Advanced Legal Studies, and their experts drafted a model law: the Law on Amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure – for establishing the time and place of birth, which can be reverted to if a person cannot be registered under the Law on General Administrative Procedure.

“This new law was needed because, as we have repeatedly been saying, a large number of people find themselves in a specific situation where they cannot register for citizenship,” Kostic says.

At first they encountered strong resistance from the then Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, Administration and Local Self-Government. Through an EU-supported project, however, they looked at experiences from Bulgaria and Romania as well as other EU-countries with a high flow of migrants, and organized the stakeholders.

“The ombudsman was on board with us and, finally, referred the draft law proposal to the parliament,” Kostic explained.

The Law was adopted with minor changes in 2012. But, it has yet to be fully implemented in practice.

“Following its implementation, analyzing its effects and advocating for practical solutions also require vast efforts,” Kostic added.

Pescanik's team recorded a Praxis' visit to the Roma settlement "Ledine" in Novi Beograd.

See the video clip here.

Ivanka Kostic, Praxis Executive Director, said for magazine Grazia that Praxis has managed so far to identify more than 2,000 persons in need for assistance in obtaining documents, but it is estimated that there are much more of them. She stated reasons for which persons are often without documents, such as cases when a mother, in the lack of her own, gives birth to a child with someone’s health booklets and then someone else is registered as a biological mother of her child, then persons whom their parents did not report to the registrar within the deadline, etc.

Read the whole text in the magazine Grazia.

Download the report: Report on the Implementation of the Strategy for Improvement of the Status of Roma in the Republic of Serbia with Recommendations

On 8th April, on the occasion of International Romani Day, Ombudsperson presented the conclusions from the “Report on Implementation of the Strategy for Improvement of the Status of Roma with Recommendations” at a media conference.

Ombudsperson Sasa Jankovic said that education and health protection were the greatest problems that Roma population faced. As he stated, since the adoption of the Strategy in 2009, no by-laws had been adopted in relation to education apart from the positive enrolment in primary and secondary schools, which again led to abuses. In relation to health protection, he stated changes were visible but insufficient.

Goran Basic, Deputy Ombudsperson in the period from 2008 to 2013, stated that no one was in charge of managing the Strategy, that there were no precise data in the system about education, health care, housing needs, which had been stated as priorities in the document.

Ivana Stankovic, Praxis Programme Coordinator, pointed to the problems in the exercise of status and socio-economic rights by the Roma. She spoke about complicated procedures for the exercise of the right to cash social assistance, particularly emphasizing the obligation to file a lawsuit against relatives for support. She also added that the practice showed that the service providers were often not sensitized, that no one could guarantee that the Roma would not be discriminated against in school or that they would not be discriminated against every time they tried to find employment.

“If you go and visit an informal settlement and try to assess what has been done from the aspect of everyday life of people in the settlements, you will see that we all have to work harder,” she concluded.

See the news at the website of Media Center
See the news at the website of the Ombudsperson
Download: Report on Implementation of the Strategy for Improvement of the Status of Roma with Recommendations (Serbian only)

On the occasion of marking the International Roma Day, at the press conference in Media Centre the conclusions of the “Report on Implementation of the Strategy for Improvement of Position of Roma with Recommendations” prepared by the Ombudsperson were presented.

On that occasion, Ivana Stankovic, Praxis Programme Coordinator, talked about the problems related to exercise of status and socioeconomic rights of Roma population. She also talked about complicated procedures for exercise of the right to cash social assistance with special reference to the obligation to file a lawsuit against relatives who are obliged to provide financial support. Ivana also added that practice showed that officials are often unsensitized and that no one can guarantee that Roma will not be discriminated in schools or that they will not be discriminated each time they try to find a job.

In the end, Ivana added: “If you go and visit an informal Roma settlement and try to assess what has been done from the aspect of a daily life of an individual, you will see that we all still have to work together a lot”.

Read the whole news here.
Download: Report on Implementation of the Strategy for Improvement of Position of Roma with Recommendations

On the occasion of International Roma Day, we would like to send our best wishes to all fellow Roma citizens.

At the same time, we would like to draw public attention to the fact that Roma population is still one of the most vulnerable and most marginalized population groups in Serbia. By adopting laws or amending the existing ones, by developing the strategic framework and by undertaking various affirmative actions and activities, an important step has been taken towards improving the status of the Roma. Nevertheless, the adopted legal provisions are often not implemented or they are implemented in an uneven manner, while many of the measures can be described as short-term and ill-adapted to specific needs of vulnerable groups.

The level of poverty of Roma population, living conditions, recorded problems with access to rights, especially the rights to birth registration and citizenship, health care, social protection, work and employment, education and adequate housing, as well as widespread discrimination, prejudices and negative stereotypes about this population group clearly indicate that the measures taken are insufficient and that it is still necessary to invest additional efforts and to overcome numerous obstacles on the way towards meaningful inclusion of Roma into society.