We hereby express our concern over information that more than 100 families will be faced with homelessness due to construction works planned within the “Belgrade Waterfront” Project. Preparation of the terrain for the “Belgrade Waterfront” Project demands removal of all facilities from the site and relocation of more than 130 families. Praxis received very worrying information from the families living at this site, which suggest that no alternative accommodation has been planned for more than 100 families.

Belgrade Land Development Public Agency, as the competent body, has been interviewing dozens of families who have the legal basis of housing, mainly reflected in granted facilities of the public company “Serbian Railroads” for use as an emergency accommodation. These families are now being offered other housing facilities, but only for use for 5 years, thus, again, calling into question their security of tenure. More than 100 remaining families have received decisions ordering them to remove the facilities in which they have been living for years, at very short notice, and they have not been offered any alternative accommodation. The complaints against the decisions do not delay the execution of decisions.

Such acting of the competent bodies represents a severe violation of the right to respect for private and family life, right to adequate housing and the right to an effective legal remedy. What is particularly worrying is that such acting occurs despite constant recommendations of the international treaty bodies and independent experts to legally regulate the procedure of forced evictions and ensure the exercise of right to an effective legal remedy.

Particularly concerned about the incidents of forced evictions and related practice which is contrary to the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Serbia, adopted in May 2014, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights called on the Republic of Serbia to take urgent measures to, inter alia, ensure due process guarantees to those who are being evicted, taking into account the Committee’s general comments No. 4 and 7.

Following the visit to Serbia in May 2015, UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing emphasized in her preliminary overview the need for adoption of a national housing and homelessness law and an accompanying strategy that will define the right to adequate housing in accordance with the General comment No. 4 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and ensure that provisions regarding forced evictions are brought into line with the General comment No. 7 of the Committee. 

In its report after the visit to Serbia in March 2015, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe expressed his concern for continuing practice of forced evictions of Roma from informal settlements, which are carried out contrary to international standards, without prior consultations with the families concerned, often at very short notice, while adequate alternative accommodation was not always provided.  

Therefore, we call on the competent authorities to immediately stop the practice of forced evictions which result in homelessness and to implement recommendations of international bodies and regulate the procedure in cases of forced evictions.

Video clip taken after this statement: Families Afraid of Being Thrown out in the Street!