Praxis submitted the Initiative to the Constitutional Court of Serbia for assessment of the provisions of two by-laws that prevent registration of children in the birth registry immediately after birth in case when children’s parents do not possess personal documents.

These by-laws are the Rulebook on the procedure for the issuance of birth notification and form of the issuance of birth notification in a health care institution and the Instruction on administering registry books and forms of registry books, which provide for birth registration only of the new-born children whose mothers possess personal documents. For this reason, children whose mothers do not possess ID cards will not be able to obtain a birth certificate immediately after birth. Thus, they will be deprived of health care and social welfare services in the most vulnerable period of life, as well as of access to all rights the exercise of which is conditioned by the possession of personal documents. What is even more worrying is the fact that the problem of lack of documentation in Serbia almost exclusively affects members of the Roma ethnic minority, who are the most discriminated against and most marginalized population in Serbia.

In the stated Initiative, Praxis argues that the provisions of the by-laws are not in accordance with the provisions of the Serbian Constitution, the Family Law and ratified international conventions which guarantee the right to birth registration and personal name to every child, immediately after birth. Therefore, Praxis expects the Constitutional Court to initiate proceeding for constitutional review and to abolish the stated provisions of the by-laws. In this way, not only would the by-laws be harmonized with legal norms of greater legal force, but the impermissible practice that results in the violation of the basic human rights of the most vulnerable population in Serbia would be put to an end and new cases of legally invisible persons would be prevented.