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.

The failure to include the public in the decision-making process can result in the unlawfulness or unconstitutionality of adopted acts, which will always be the case if a public hearing has not been held despite the prescribed obligation to do so. Such a standpoint was taken by the Constitutional Court in deciding on the initiatives for assessing the constitutionality and legality of general acts. The Constitutional Court assessed that the disputed decisions of the administrative authorities in Ćuprija, Mionica and Kraljevo, which determined fees for environmental protection, were not in accordance with the Law on Local Self-Government Financing, since the administrative authorities had failed to hold a public hearing at the time of adopting the disputed decisions, which was prescribed as a mandatory phase in the procedure of adopting such type of acts.

It should be kept in mind that Article 51 of the Constitution prescribes that everyone has the right to be informed truthfully, fully and timely about issues of public importance and that the media have the obligation to respect this right and that everyone has the right to access information that is in the possession of state authorities. The non-transparent decision-making process and the failure to include citizens and civil society organisations may result in the unconstitutionality of adopted acts, which is confirmed by the practice of the Constitutional Court. With respect to the decisions of the administrative authorities in Ćuprija and Mionica, the Constitutional Court found that "failing to hold a public hearing in adopting (...) decisions violated the constitutional right to be informed under Article 51, paragraph 1 of the Constitution". 

In addition, it is important to point out also to the inappropriate decision of the Kraljevo City Assembly on compensating the costs of in vitro fertilisation, which excluded the right to compensation for marginalised groups. This decision unjustifiably excluded the internally displaced persons with the registered temporary residence in Kraljevo since 1999, since they were not able to fulfil the requirement regarding the registration of permanent residence. There were no consultations with CSOs or citizens before making this decision. After Praxis lodged a complaint with the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, the administrative authority changed the disputed decision, thus demonstrating the willingness to ensure the exercise of rights to all citizens under equal conditions. The civil society plays an important role in eliminating such deficiencies. However, there is no doubt that the actions of administrative authorities would be more efficient if CSOs and citizens were already involved in the process of drafting acts, in order to prevent the adoption of inappropriate or discriminatory decisions.

Public participation in policy making is one of the key elements of good governance, and good governance is a precondition for creating a framework for full respect for human rights. Transparency in the actions of administrative authorities and the participation of civil society organisations and citizens in the decision-making process is one of the focuses of the project Contributing to Public Administration Reform in Kraljevo implemented by Praxis.

Media coverage: RTV KV

In August, the largest number of refugees/migrants met and/or interviewed by Praxis’ mobile team during a day, was 290, including the newly arrived ones, the refugees/migrants accommodated in the Asylum Centre Krnjača and the Reception Centre Obrenovac and those who returned to Belgrade after unsuccessful attempts to cross the Croatian, Hungarian or Romanian border. 

Praxis continued its field work and provided a total of 500 newly arrived refugees and migrants (347 adults and 153 children, including 85 unaccompanied and separated children - UASC) in Belgrade with relevant information, which is significantly more than in the previous month when we provided 191 newly arrived refugees/migrants with relevant information. During this month, Praxis visited the town of Obrenovac several times thus expanding its activities, in order to provide as many refugees/migrants as possible with relevant and timely information. Out of the total of 500 newly arrived refugees/ migrants, one hundred and fifty (150) refugees/migrants (30.0%) came from Pakistan. One hundred and twenty-one (121) refugees/migrants came from Iraq (24.2%), which is a significantly higher percentage than in the previous period. 103 persons or 20.6% of them were from Afghanistan. Twenty-six (26) newly arrived refugees/migrants were from Syria, which accounts for 5.2% of the total number. 18 refugees/migrants (3.6%) came from Algeria, thirteen (13) refugees/migrants (2.6% of the total number) came from Iran. Nine (9) newly arrived refugees/migrants came from Morocco (1.8%), while a total of 60 (12.0%) refugees/migrants came from other countries: Bangladesh, India, Palestine, Tunisia, Eritrea, Libya, Egypt and Mauritania. 

In this reporting period, the families waiting for registration or transport to one of the asylum or reception centres they had been referred to still had the option of spending the night in Miksalište. The adult men stayed outdoors overnight, in the parks or at the railway station. There is still no organised transport to the reception and asylum centres, like in the previous reporting period. As regards food, clothing and medical assistance, the situation in the field remains unchanged: there is still no organised distribution of food and clothing outside of the Asylum Centre Krnjača and the Reception Centre Obrenovac. In the previous period, the lack of medical assistance in the field in the afternoon hours caused concerns. In August, MSF extended working hours, and in this reporting period, medical doctors were present in the field from 9 AM to 8 PM. 

Download the whole Protection Monitoring Report here.