The Coalition against Discrimination, Coalition for Access to Justice and partner organizations are calling on deputies of the National Assembly to adopt the Law on Amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Proceedings during its current session.

On 30 January 2012, the Government of the Republic of Serbia sent the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Proceedings to the National Assembly for adoption. The aim was to enable persons, who due to objective reasons cannot fulfill conditions for birth registration in the administrative procedure under the Law on Registry Books, to regulate their status in non-contentious proceedings before the court, and thus cease being legally invisible persons.

Non-governmental organizations, European Union, Council of Europe, UNHCR, and other international organizations have been advocating for years for the systemic solution of the problem faced by legally invisible persons.

We are appealing to the ruling coalition in the National Assembly and all deputies to adopt the Draft Law because any further delay in solving this problem on the proposed basis would be completely unjustified and totally contrary to the interests of legally invisible persons.

The text of the Appeal and the list of organizations that supported it can be seen here.

The member organisations of the Coalition against Discrimination and partner organisations request from the authors of the website www.ostavkaciplic.com to immediately delete the undersigned organisations from the list of the organisations that demand the resignation of Minister Ciplic. The content of this website, which was activated last week, clearly suggests that the demand for the resignation of Minister Ciplic is the expression of support to Petar Antic, who until recently was the Assistant Minister. Our organisations were undersigned in this context and without any consultation with us.

We emphasise that our request for removing our signatures of support should not be interpreted as the support to Minister Ciplic, but as our commitment to cooperation and joint initiatives with other organisations based on the relations of trust, respect and consistency in action.

More specifically, in March 2010 our organisations sent a request for the resignation of Minister Ciplic because of "his unacceptable attitude towards civil society organisations, obstruction and ignorance of the law for whose application the Ministry he heads is responsible, lack of elementary knowledge and understanding of human rights, and failure to assume responsibility for disrespectful conduct and obstruction of the work of State Secretary Marko Karadzic". Unfortunately, Petar Antic, then the Assistant Minister, did not show his willingness to support this request, or even to give a public statement thereof, or to express collegial solidarity with Marko Karadzic, who pointed to shortcomings in the work of Minister Ciplic.

We feel that taking our signatures out of context and using them without prior consultation with us is an inappropriate and unusual practice of abuse and laying claim on other initiatives. Given the considerable distress and distrust that this act has caused among civil society organisations, we believe that the website author is obliged to notify all the organisations whose signatures have been taken about the online initiative to enable them to express their views about the issue. In addition, given all the efforts that we put together to build confidence among civil society organisations, the visitors of this website should have the opportunity to be informed about this "misunderstanding" and the reasons for requesting the removal of the signatures of our organisations from the published list of organisations.

The members of the Coalition against Discrimination are: Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, Labris - Lesbian Human Rights Organisation, Anti-Trafficking Centre, Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia (CHRIS Network), Association of Students with Disabilities, Gayten LGBT, Praxis and Regional Center for Minorities.

The Coalition against Discrimination demands that all state bodies and independent institutions take all legal measures against those who resort to violence and discriminate against citizens. At the same time, we believe that the state authorities, which put the citizens of Serbia at risk by their actions or failures to take necessary measures, must bear full responsibility for their actions. Culpability and accountability must become the rule rather than the exception in this country.

After the 5 October 2000 changes, the legislative framework has been improved and a number of international conventions on human rights have been ratified. A certain progress has been made regarding the observance of human rights. However, after the adoption of the Constitution of Serbia in 2006, and in particular in the last three years, this trend regarding the respect and protection of human rights has slowed down, as shown by the attempts to obstruct the adoption of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination in 2009 and to ban the Pride Parade the same year. The murder of Brice Taton was the culmination of violence committed by private persons, while the police and the judiciary did nothing in this case to prevent it. For that reason, citizens believe that various groups of thugs (hooligans at football matches, political extremists belonging to fascist, Nazi and similar groups) are stronger than the state. The Constitutional Court of Serbia even missed an opportunity to ban some of these groups.

The latest act of violence in which a citizen of Serbia was wounded with a knife followed after the explicit ban of 2011 Pride Parade, the most brutal act of oppression of human rights, which is justified with the risk of incidents according to the North-African scenario. However, the same incident avoiding criterion was not accepted by the Minister of Police a few days ago in the discussion about the obligation to have prevented the injury of minors in Jagodina when an antiterrorist police helicopter caused the collapsing of billboards. The day before the event, on Sunday 13th November, in the same town the rights of children and their parents were grossly violated when the highest representatives of the local community requested from them to attend the arrival of the Patriarch of Serbian Orthodox Church.

The Coalition against Discrimination believes that a number of incidents that have occurred in the past 3 years, the ignorant attitude of the authorities and a mild or no reaction of independent institutions to these incidents have proven that respect for basic human rights, especially the rights of minority groups, is at the significantly lower level than a few years ago. The Serbian authorities, whose duty is to ensure respect for and protection of human rights defined in the Constitution and numerous international documents,  bear full responsibility for this situation.

The Coalition against Discrimination includes: Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, Gayten LGBT, Labris - Lesbian Human Rights Organisation, Praxis, Regional Center for Minorities, Association of Students with Disabilities.

The students of the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade who attend the Refugee Legal Clinic participate in the visits of Praxis legal mobile teams to the collective centres for refugees from the former Yugoslavia and internally displaced persons from Kosovo and to the Roma settlements with both domicile and displaced Roma residents. The field visits have enabled the students to familiarise themselves with a numerous problems of refugees, internally displaced persons and Roma, difficult living conditions, often on the margins of society, legal issues and barriers faced in the exercise of basic human rights.

These are their impressions...

The room ... in which we were sitting was of medium size and tight, full of children, but warm and cosy... We went there to collect documentation required for obtaining personal documents. As far as I could see, they are not well informed about how to exercise their rights. And I have to say that I even got the impression that they were not motivated to exercise these rights, as if they were not aware of the importance of having personal documents... "When we wanted to register the last child, my husband got ill and for that reason we did not". Two years have passed since then. There was also a woman who gave birth in a German town and when she got out of the hospital she did not do the necessary paperwork, she did not go to the German Embassy in Belgrade for financial reasons, and did not even know that she could ask for help in the Embassy, even though there were several people from the same settlement who had collected necessary documentation in this way.

However, I spoke with a woman who had been properly registered, possessed personal documents and whose children went to school. She also faced other type of problems. Neither she nor her husband could find a suitable job, and since they were of working age, they did not receive any social assistance. Their children were discriminated against at school, not by other children, but by the teachers themselves. She turned to the school principal, who, as she claimed, asked her not to take any further actions. She said that she felt a certain fear in conversation with the teachers, the principal and people in other places where she had to go to request, ask or look for something...

Tijana Jelenkovic - Settlement “Sarplaninska” in Mladenovac visited on 30 November 2009

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As I could notice, mainly Roma people live in that street. The houses have minimum, only most essential living conditions (water and electricity).

As regards their problem with access to personal documents, I think this is a consequence of their lack of knowledge about the very procedure of issuing documents. For example, one woman, who is married and has six children, asked for help in making a request for the registration of one of her children into birth registry books... The youngest child has not been registered into birth registry books for two years already. The reason was the expired father’s ID card at the time of the child's birth. The child’s father was afraid that he would have to go to jail if it had been found out... (?!)...

They have health cards.... In general, they can exercise the right to social protection. In fact, four children (in the above-mentioned case) receive the child allowance. However, they do not receive any other form of social assistance – their request was rejected with the explanation that one of the parents was employed - the father, and received the salary in the amount of 15,000 dinars. It is debatable whether it is enough for a family of eight. The biggest problem faced by the Roma is unemployment. Although they have a work booklet, they usually do not have a satisfactory degree, and there is a certain amount of discrimination, which further complicates their work search. All the Roma children whose parents we interviewed were enrolled in school and attended classes regularly. One girl had a problem with other pupils - they laughed and teased her for being a Roma. However, her father informed the teacher and the principal, and the problem was solved. Generally, the children do not have any problems with the Serbian language; the school even has a Roma assistant and they have necessary school equipment.

In my opinion, the Roma should be informed about their rights as much as possible and they should be primarily instructed on how to exercise these rights, because there lies the essence of the problem...

Biljana Badza - Settlement “Sarplaninska” in Mladenovac visited on 30 November 2009

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First of all, I have to commend the Praxis team that does a very good job and performs this work with a lot of enthusiasm, although it is not an easy task. I like the way of involving students in field work, as well as communication with students and approach by their mentors. From this point of view, I can conclude that only in such an experiential way we can feel the weight of the problems faced by the members of Roma minority and identify the way of approaching these issues, both legal and social ones.

…Upon crossing the threshold of the house where we interviewed people, we noticed that the household members lived in poverty due to the inability to find a job in the area and the town of Pozarevac. They have neither identity cards nor work booklets, and most of them do not know the procedure for obtaining these documents...
Most members of the Roma minority in this region were displaced from Kosovo where, as they say, they had much better conditions for life and work before 1999 than now in Serbia. Since they are not able to find a job, they are forced to seek social benefits from the state. However, they have been deprived of such assistance under the pretext that they are able to work. Hence, they have no choice but to suffer hunger, cold and dirt. They heat their rooms with the branches collected in the nearby forest, which is a private property, but the owner has allowed them to do so. The Red Cross gives them a quarter of bread per child and they receive the child allowance.

They do not send their children to school because they do not have money for books and clothes, and they are especially embarrassed (according to the words of the children's mother when asked why her children did not go to school) for their children being barefoot and dirty because they have no resources for hygiene products. Their children would be different from other kids at school.

All those who are registered into birth registry books have health insurance and get medications when they get sick.

Finally, I see the solution to these people’s legal problems only in counselling them on how to get the documents they need, but unfortunately it does not solve the whole bundle of interconnected problems. They need socialisation, education, normal living conditions and awareness raising; it is a huge social problem that must be addressed – it seems that the state is rather inert when it comes to this issue. I would add that citizens should be more aware of the problems of Roma in order to eventually stop discriminating and marginalising them!

Jelena Kalicanin - Roma settlement in Stari Kostolac visited on 11 February 2010
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What we have seen during the visit is a small part of the problem that has to be tackled by our society and institutions, and it is the inability of a certain social group which is, to put it mildly, on the margins of our society, to exercise its basic human rights.

The situation that we saw is far below the lower limit of subsistence minimum.   

The household we visited counts twenty-one members who live in only three rooms. Destitution, scarcity of resources and income determine, to a great extent, the quality of their lives. The members of this household are mainly recognised as persons before the law; they are registered into birth registry books, have registered permanent or temporary residence, possess identity cards, personal citizen’s unique identification number, which they achieved with a great help of the Praxis team. However, there are still those in this settlement who absolutely need this kind of assistance...

The internally displaced persons have IDP cards. Many of them have left behind them, in Kosovo, their property and a better life. They do not even think of returning there.

They exercise the right to health care, which means that they have health cards and they are entitled to some free medications, which is very important because of their difficult living conditions.

Only few people in this Roma settlement have attended school. The school-aged children do not attend primary school for various reasons, mostly financial, health, but discrimination is also one of the problems in certain cases.

Only those who fulfil necessary requirements, and they are in minority, receive social assistance and child allowance. They do not know anything about the right to social housing. The Red Cross donates a quarter of bread per child...

They said that they had never been directly discriminated against, but it is difficult to prove in individual cases. However, the position of Roma in our society is the best evidence that discrimination exists to a certain extent.

By joining the Praxis mobile team in their field work, I got the opportunity to meet life, issues and people who are on the margins of our society, and I am convinced that this and similar programmes will help our society to make significant steps towards the successful resolution of this issue.

Maja Grbic - Roma settlement in Stari Kostolac visited on 11 February 2010

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When we arrived, at least a dozen of Roma were at the entrance... I thought they gathered there because Praxis was coming. However, through the interview that I conducted with an older Roma woman, I learned that about twenty people lived in that house, which is not larger than 60 square meters. At first glance, the living conditions are not so bad ... After only half an hour I was absolutely freezing in the house where the family members were almost barefoot.

From the legal point of view, I have met the "legally invisible" persons, who have been living for the past 10 years as internally displaced without any personal documents and without a solution on the horizon. Without personal documents, they do not exercise their basic human rights - to get employed, to visit a medical doctor or to conclude marriage.

Since a large number of children are not registered into birth registry books, a vicious circle is created. Unawareness leads to even bigger problems... when I asked that older Roma woman about her personal documents, she said she had them all, but in fact, she did not even have an ID care. Consequently, she was not able to access basic rights.

Dunja Vajman - Roma settlement in Stari Kostolac visited on 11 February 2010

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When I was informed that we were going to a collective centre for refugees, I thought there were mostly displaced persons from Kosovo. Today, nobody talks any more about the refugees from the former Yugoslavia. This topic is mentioned only on the Refugee Day, but the general public is quite unaware about the number of these people and their living conditions. Myself included. Somehow, my personal and other people’s experiences show that refugees have been resourceful and managed to get accommodation and provide for themselves.
 
When we got there, we went into the kitchen where meals are distributed (a minimum provided by the state, as I found out later)... a cold and empty kitchen. We find out that, in fact, no one even knows we are there ... although there are posters announcing our arrival. Upon arrival, we met the manager who just waved at us and left. And it has left the impression that the leading people of these institutions are slowly giving up, that they are fed up.

After half an hour, people started appearing, not because of us but to take their meals, poured to them from the buckets, and they were asking us who we were by the way. When we mentioned legal aid, they began to sit down and ask questions...related to the years of service for retirement... property in Croatia, citizenship...

I have learned that the refugee status provides only the right to health care, accommodation in collective centres and one meal a day... No social protection, no allowances, not even for the families with many children or elderly people who cannot find a job and thus earn a living. If they apply for citizenship, they lose the refugee status. On one hand, by applying for citizenship they would be equal to other citizens of Serbia, while on the other hand they would lose this modest accommodation and food, left to the mercy of the streets... The solution? They stay where they are and survive as they can.

...From the perspective of the future lawyer, ...I understand that legal solutions are rigid and out-dated...

Dunja Vajman - Collective Centre “PIM Standard” in Krnjaca, Palilula visited on 16 February 2010

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... I would like to stress the reaction of the residents of the collective centre. In fact, at first they obviously distrusted us probably thinking: "They are all the same." However, as soon as one person got the courage to approach us and say his problem, after which an adequate and feasible legal advice followed, almost every present person approached and asked for advice. I'm glad because we showed that someone was really there for them, even if in this way. I have also realised that they do not ask for much more, just someone to listen to them and help if possible.

As a student of the Refugee Legal Clinic, I have got better insight into the problems faced by refugees and internally displaced persons and their living conditions...

Nevena Markovic - Collective Centre “Varna” in Sabac visited on 23 March 2010

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The collective centre is located in a somewhat unusual building that from the certain distance resembles a medieval fortress. Unfortunately, it looks like one only from afar. Once a magnificent building that belonged to the Karadjordjevic family before the nationalisation today can “boast” with the broken windows and crumbling facades, and the fact that it is a home to the displaced persons from Kosovo. The first thing that came to my mind when we found ourselves in front of the collective centre was: do these people have no right to a more dignified facade? More beautiful environment would not solve their problems, but it would certainly help them bear up in the situations that are often hopeless.

Most of the people that the Praxis lawyers met were already familiar cases. They welcomed us ready with the copies of necessary documents - mainly for the purpose of obtaining new identity cards or documents to enrol their children in school. While the lawyers were collecting documents and talking with clients, my three colleagues and I interviewed people who were waiting with the documents or simply watching curiously.

Those were mostly persons who came to Belgrade fleeing from Djakovica, Kosovo. It means that they have lived in the collective centre for 11 years. In contrast to the collective centre in Krnjaca which I visited in February and where there are mainly old and sick people, and the refugees who do not renounce their Croatian citizenship because they would be left on the street without the collective centre, in Raca there were families and young people who were well informed about the documents they needed. Almost all of them have ID cards, their temporary residence was registered at the address of the collective centre, they have health cards and some of them want to obtain a new passport to visit the children abroad. But the biggest problem and most difficult to solve is the one related to the property of displaced persons from Kosovo.

What left the strongest impression on me was the conversation with a man who fled from Kosovo in 1999. He has lived in the collective centre for 11 years with his wife and as many as four children. He used to be employed in Djakovica and he receives temporary compensation on that basis. In Kosovo, he left the house of 280 square meters, which is not destroyed but occupied. The Kosovo Property Agency has been dealing with his request inefficiently, and the Albanian tenants have not been paying rent for over a year. When I asked him a question about possible housing programmes that he could apply for, he told me rather bitterly that "he does not believe in it any more." In fact, the humanitarian programme that consists of allocating rural estates and construction material is intended only for those IDPs whose property was destroyed, not occupied. I guess the assumption is that a person whose property is "only" occupied still possesses it. Unfortunately, it is far from the truth in reality. It is true that the interviewed man with four children (all of them attending school regularly) admitted that he would gladly agree to have his house in Kosovo burned to be able to get accommodation for his family.

The housing programme that disappointed the interviewed man indicates that the resources are always and inevitably limited. However, it might be useful to ask ourselves the following questions: where should we draw a line? Who should be denied the right to help, who in reality remains below that line? In this case, these are the people who still have property in Kosovo. Although they do not have any benefit from that property, what we do have is a good excuse not to help them.
Finally, the visit to the Collective Centre in Raca was not only instructive in terms of the legal problems of internally displaced persons, but also a bright and cheerful experience with people who, in spite of their adverse living conditions, have the strength to laugh with us.

Sonja Gitaric - Collective Centre “Karadjordjev dom” in Raca visited on 15 April 2010

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We had a lot of work in the Collective Centre “ORA Sartid”, which is the point of this practice, and it was really interesting. We started with interviews by using a set of prepared questions. The situation regarding access rights is somewhat better. Most often they have an ID card issued in Kosovo with the address of permanent residence in Kosovo. All of them also have so the so-called green card which is the proof of registered temporary residence in Serbia. As regards health care, no one uses any more health care certificates and now they all have health cards.

A birth certificate was the most requested document. Some of them had it, but the majority of certificates lacked a citizen’s unique identification number.
Second, when we arrived, many people gathered around us and the Praxis lawyers were overloaded, so that the four of us students were happy to "jump in" and help with filling in the requests, which was our great pleasure and great experience.

During the interviews and filling in the requests, we were able to advise people about the rights they could exercise, especially in the field of social welfare and education, but the people showed little interest in most forms of assistance. This also refers to the integration programme: they expressed their frustration about the conditions and mostly about the amount of around 7000 euros, which was offered to them to buy a house. They claim that they cannot find anything acceptable for that money, although there are those who are already in the project, which means that although they are in the collective centre, their financial status differs a lot, but they are reluctant to talk about it. We understood that situation on the basis of their response to the question "Do you own a real estate in Kosovo and do you plan to sell it?" They usually just waved the hand until we insisted a bit and learned that their brother or father had a house down there but ... they did not.

Most of the advice that we, the students, gave to the IDPs were based on the information provided to us by the Praxis lawyers.

Igor Dencic - Collective Centre “ORA Sartid” in Smederevo visited on 22 April 2010

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The Collective Centre “ORA Sartid” accommodates over 400 persons, internally displaced persons (who are majority) and refugees. During the visit, we had the opportunity to see the problems they face...

One of the basic problems is related to documentation, which is the basis for the exercise of human and civil rights. The largest number of people requested help for the obtaining of most important documents, such as birth and citizenship certificates, in order to be able to exercise certain social rights, including the right to child allowance. What is most important is that almost all of these persons have registered permanent or temporary residence, and they possess identity cards and citizen’s unique personal number. However, they faced problems with subsequent registration.

They have access to the right to free health care; they have health cards for which they had to have registered residence (green card) and citizen’s unique personal number.

The families who meet the requirements are entitled to child allowance. As regards education, all children attend school but the assistance in obtaining books and school supplies is either partial or does not exist, the latter being more often the case. A small number of children have the right to student scholarships and loans (depending on achieved grades).

A large number of people are unemployed or work on the black market. Specifically, I have talked to the lady whose husband works in construction, but he has not been registered and does not have a work booklet. Those who have a work booklet are registered with the National Employment Service as unemployed. They are entitled to temporary social assistance.

They possess IDP cards and ID cards. They are not interested in returning. Those who owned real estate property sold it, but there are still a number of those who have not.

They are acquainted with the social housing programmes, particularly with the competition for rural estates; many of them applied and many of them believe that the assistance for the purchase of rural households is insufficient.

Maja Grbic - Collective Centre “ORA Sartid” in Smederevo visited on 22 April 2010

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The task of the students was to interview refugees and displaced persons, but there was a lot of work and we helped by filling in the requests for obtaining documents. While people were waiting in line, I had a brief conversation with two older women. It was really sad to see that a small number of these people knew what rights they had and even if they were aware of their rights, they did not known how to realise them. Many of them did not make requests for social assistance or child allowance although they really needed any help they could get. I have also found out that the assistance for buying a house is too small; it is usually the amount of around 7000 euros for purchasing rural households, and the condition is that the building is habitable, which is very hard to find. One of the requirements is also that people are not employed because otherwise they are not considered vulnerable despite living in collective centres, which in my opinion is horrible and everyone should be allowed to obtain such assistance if they find a house at that price… I was surprised by the number of people who were waiting for assistance; I did not know that there were so many people in the collective centre.

Maja Strbac - Collective Centre “ORA Sartid” in Smederevo visited on 22 April 2010

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Some 130 families live in the Roma settlement Mali Leskovac. Each family has at least seven and often more than ten members. More than half of them are displaced from Kosovo, mainly from Klina and Djakovica. The Roma settlement consists of the houses scattered on the hill of Mirjevo: those at the foot are of acceptable quality, with nice and clean yards, while those located high on the slope are made almost of cardboard. Even the vulnerable social groups like the Roma are subject to inevitable disparities; obviously, no social group is homogeneous and each case should be considered in a given context. We have seen that vulnerability can manifest in many different ways - it was enough to climb a few meters up the hill of Mirjevo.

The persons who waited for us with their requests for registration into registry books and other similar problems were already the clients of Praxis and the lawyers were familiar with their cases. A particularly difficult case was that of a young man who had no documents, had no IDP card and who needed an ID card because he had just come of age. As he admitted to us, he was afraid that the police would ask him to present the documents he did not have. In his case, it is necessary to conduct a complicated procedure of re-registration into registry books dislocated from Kosovo to Kraljevo.

While the lawyers were dealing with clients, I used the opportunity to talk to a woman who had already completed her conversation with the lawyers. She addressed Praxis in her husband’s name. He needed a new ID card, but could not be present because he had to work. She has four children, a 4-year old girl, other two school-age children (for whom she receives social assistance), and the oldest son, who is 15. Two children attend primary school Filip Visnjic and the oldest son goes to night school, which is organised in the premises of the primary school. In fact, since he did not attend primary school, her son spends an hour a day at night school - along with the adult Roma who also compensate for what they have missed a long time ago. I wanted to know if that type of education was "effective" and whether she believed that her son would enrol secondary school one day. She just shook her head faint-heartedly and said: "No use when he doesn’t want to learn!" In addition, she claims that there is no discrimination against her children in primary school. In the classroom there is only one more Roma child and she says they never experienced inconveniences for being Roma. I suppose she meant the outburst of violence and gross insults, but perhaps more subtle and less obvious forms of discrimination do exist. This woman was born in Smederevo, but her husband was born in Klina and came from Kosovo just before the riots in 1999. The house that her husband's brother and her husband left behind is still in Kosovo, but they show no interest in that property. Her husband is permanently employed with the City Waste Disposal, while she has neither been employed nor has she contacted the National Employment Service since the birth of her youngest child. We advised her to address the National Employment Service because they might find her a job, but she was determined to stay home with her children.

Unlike the collective centres that can (reasonably) be gloomy and depressed, the Roma have specific optimism even though they face the same problems. Although optimism is healthy and admirable, I think that in combination with cheerful and careless nature of Roma people it sometimes prevents them from making an effort to improve their living environment and their lives. In this sense, I believe that it is especially important to educate young Roma and raise awareness about the importance of education - only then they will not end up in night school, like the son of the women I spoke to, because of unfinished primary school.

Sonja Gitaric - Roma settlement “Mali Leskovac” in the Municipality of Palilula visited on 10 May 2010

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The settlement itself seems to be divided into two parts. The meeting was scheduled in the part of the settlement where the living conditions were satisfactory. The houses were spacious, made of solid material and nice yards. The hosts welcomed us warmly and our clients did not have major legal problems. The vast majority possessed personal documents and their children were mainly registered at birth. They go to school and have no problems with other students or teachers. They follow the lessons in the Serbian language without difficulties. However, the clients complained about the impoliteness of the employees in the Municipality of Palilula and the Social Welfare Centre. They did not understand which documents were required or how to obtain them. Many of them knew about the Praxis office, either they had visited it earlier or heard about it...

The other part of the settlement left a much bigger impression on me. Living conditions and hygiene are very low; the "houses" are made of sheet metal, plastic and cardboard, scattered around without any order. There were children of about the same age everywhere around...dirty and dressed in old torn clothes. Almost all women were pregnant! There was a fire in almost every courtyard where they were preparing food since that part of the settlement had no electricity. They do not use dustbins and there was a lot of garbage on the heap in every courtyard. There were also wash-basins with dirty water and clothes in it. An older woman was selling candies on a cardboard in the street. We could not get through the whole street in the car because in the end, right next to some houses, there was a landfill spreading as far as the eyes can see! The kids were playing barefoot there without being criticised by anyone.

As regards the legal aspect, almost all settlement residents had personal documents and the children were usually registered at birth. Those who did not possess documents were in the process of collecting necessary documentation.

Tijana Jelenkovic - Roma settlement “Mali Leskovac” in the Municipality of Palilula visited on 10 May 2010
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We all tend to blame them and, believing to be "experts", we condemn their way of life in advance, but until we feel, at least for a moment, the atmosphere of their life, we cannot be aware what these living conditions really are. All of us had passed right next to their settlements a countless number of times, but entering them is something completely different.

The term unsanitary is an understatement for the conditions in which they live... even though I tried to smile at the sight of most amazing objects made of metal and wood in these households, it is impossible to remain indifferent without wondering what the solution might be. However, the efforts of Praxis to help them with personal documents is only one of the very good ways to assist them in integrating and achieving the status equal to other citizens of Serbia. A great number of them were, at least at first glance, interested in receiving assistance, but when we approached them we could notice their inevitable “attributes” - dishonesty and desire to hide at least something, not knowing that the whole effort was just for their own good.

Most of those who approached us and explained their problem were instructed to come to the Praxis office with necessary documents if they had them and I sincerely hope that they will do it.

Nevena Markovic - Roma settlement “Belvil” in New Belgrade visited on 27 May 2010

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The visit that left the strongest impression. The first impression is certainly a contradiction - Belvil (the new elite residential quarter), a recently built hotel and the adjacent Roma settlements.

There are more settlements and the first one that we visited is different because it has electricity (I do not know for sure how they are connected). It is located beneath the overpass and it is anything but a settlement ... I would say it is a big landfill... In my opinion, such conditions constitute the violation of fundamental human rights. In addition to taking electricity (as they manage on an individual basis), they do not have water but have to walk to the local tap water, while the sewage is non-existent.

I was surprised by the fact that the group interviewed by the mobile team knew a lot about their lack of documentation and it seemed to me that most of them expressed their wish to become socially visible for the state as soon as possible. They are mostly displaced persons from Kosovo, but there are also the families that used to live under the Gazela bridge.

After this visit, I became more aware of this problem, because earlier I used to see this scene only by watching a few-minute footage on the news. I have seen in the field how huge that problem is and realised that the state must commit to solving it! It must not ignore it or take radical measures to gain the sympathies of the people, such as sudden dislocation of such persons without enabling them to exercise their basic right to become citizens of this country.

Dunja Vajman - Roma settlement “Belvil” in New Belgrade visited on 27 May 2010

The Basic Court in Novi Sad has established that the City of Novi Sad had treated in a discriminatory manner the persons of Roma ethnicity in the cases of subsequent registration in birth registry books.

The Basic Court in Novi Sad has established that the City of Novi Sad – the City Administration for General Affairs (hereinafter referred to as defendant) treated in a discriminatory manner the persons of Roma ethnicity in the procedures of subsequent registration in birth registry books pending before that authority and ordered the defendant to publish the integral version of court decision in the daily newspaper Politika.

In October 2010, Praxis filed a lawsuit against the City of Novi Sad, requesting from the court to establish the defendant’s discriminatory treatment of three "legally invisible" Roma. In the procedures of subsequent registration, the defendant openly expressed discriminatory views about the individuals belonging to the Roma national minority. The defendant rejected the requests for subsequent registration with reference to the "current situation in Novi Sad, with a growing influx of Roma people claiming that they and their children were born in Novi Sad", and also expressing the fear that the "hasty, reckless and incautious” processing of their requests may generate a "huge number of similar requests from the people of Roma ethnicity."

On 12 September 2011, the Basic Court in Novi Sad delivered a decision by which it established that "the defendant was governed by personal characteristics of the submitters of request and unjustifiably discriminated against these persons on the basis of their ethnicity, thus violating the provisions of Articles 4, 15 and 24 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination and putting them in a less favourable position compared to other non-Roma submitters of request, which is an act of direct discrimination."



 

On this day, sixty-three years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted and proclaimed that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights".  In Serbia, on the International Human Rights Day, this fundamental value of human civilization is still unattainable or almost unattainable for some members of our society.

The Roma community in Serbia is one of the most vulnerable groups that on a daily basis encounter obstacles in accessing the rights that other citizens of Serbia enjoy automatically - they do not have the same opportunities in exercising the rights to citizenship and personal documents, health care and social protection, adequate housing, education or employment.  In addition, the Roma are almost daily exposed to various forms of discrimination, stereotypes and prejudices. There has been a certain progress in terms of overcoming certain obstacles, but the state should fulfil its obligations more decisively and more willingly, and immediately take necessary steps in order to achieve full equality of Roma with other citizens of Serbia.

On this day, in addition to stressing the problem related to the implementation of regulations and urging the state authorities to invest more efforts into improving the situation of the human rights of Roma, we would particularly like to point to the still unresolved problem of "legally invisible" persons - those who are not registered into birth registry books.

Since the right to be recognised as a person before the law is the basic human right that conditions the exercise of all other rights, we would like, on this day, to urge once again the competent state authorities to promptly adopt the regulations that will allow "legally invisible" persons to be registered into birth registry books and enable them to achieve other guaranteed rights, thus giving them the opportunity to live dignified lives.

The human rights organisations, which have today prevented the execution of the decision on forced eviction of five Roma families from Skadarska Street No. 55, condemn the city authorities’ failure to respond to an appeal for finding adequate alternative accommodation for these families.

We emphasise that immediately after learning that the decision on eviction would be forcibly executed, on 20 July 2011, the residents of Skadarska Street submitted to the City Secretariat for Social Welfare a request for urgent provision of adequate accommodation. To date there has been no response from the City Secretariat for Social Welfare, despite the fact that twenty persons live at the aforementioned location, ten of whom are children.

Since the city authorities have failed to act despite of being informed that the forced eviction is scheduled for today, the only solution for the residents of Skadarska Street No. 55 was to try to physically prevent the eviction with the support of human rights organisations.

With the help of the police officers from the Police Station Stari Grad, an agreement was reached with the proxy of the abandoned building owner to postpone the execution of eviction for 15 days, so that in the meantime, the accommodation could be found for these families.

The international human rights instruments, primarily the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which is binding on the Republic of Serbia, guarantee the right to housing and the provision of alternative accommodation in cases of eviction. The result of evictions should not be homeless people who are subjected to further violations of other human rights. The state authorities must take all appropriate measures to ensure the availability of adequate alternative accommodation for the victims of forced evictions.

We demand that the City of Belgrade and the competent state authorities urgently provide adequate alternative accommodation for the families residing in Skadarska Street No. 55, fully in line with the international standards related to the right to housing.

The signing organisations:

1.    Praxis
2.    Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM
3.    Regional Centre for Minorities
4.    Women in Black
5.    Centre for Advanced Legal Studies
6.    Youth Initiative for Human Rights
7.    Humanitarian Law Centre

Non-governmental organization Praxis believes that today’s forced eviction of 23 Roma families from the abandoned Factory Borac in Novi Beograd, conducted without providing the alternative accommodation, without the prior notice on the date of eviction and with no adequate support of social services, is yet another in the series of the most severe violations of human rights, which occur during the forced evictions of informal Roma settlements. The families evicted today are left in the street, while the evictions itself was conducted despite extremely bad weather conditions.

To remind, many of 23 families evicted today had been previously evicted from the informal settlement Belvil, when they had been provided with a one-way ticket to the place in Serbia where they had their permanent residence registered, and immediate cash assistance in the amount of a few dozens of thousands of dinars. Most of remaining families had been previously evicted from the informal Roma settlement in Block 72 and other locations. The eviction initially scheduled for Monday, 17 September 2012, was postponed until early this morning when the court bailiffs, accompanied by social workers and about thirty members of the Ministry of Interior in anti-riot equipment, stormed in the abandoned factory without a prior notice and began the eviction. The members of the Ministry of Interior did not allow the representatives of non-governmental organizations and United Nations to approach the place of eviction, despite the fact that according to the international human rights standards, the state is obliged to allow the monitoring of the eviction process. In addition, the access was also forbidden to journalists who were forced to interview the residents over the fence of the Factory.

Despite the fact that the eviction of illegal occupants of the private company’s premises is justified, it is still worrying that competent state bodies do not consider the fact that conducting forced evictions of informal Roma settlements and work on integration of the residents of respective settlements are much more complex than pure immediate cash assistance provided to persons evicted from Belvil to cities and municipalities in the south of Serbia. In addition, those who were not provided with the alternative accommodation will be again relocated to other informal settlements where they will face yet another forced eviction.

The question is us how many more forced evictions and violations of human rights of the Roma are needed to occur for the Republic of Serbia and the City of Belgrade to finally realize that the solution of the Roma housing problem cannot be found in forced evictions, which have been conducted contrary to human rights standards.

Non-governmental organization Praxis calls on the competent authorities to urgently suspend all forced evictions, to review the existing illegal and unsustainable eviction model, and to start elaborating the legal framework which would regulate the acting of the administration body in cases of forced evictions, with full respect of human rights.

Download (Serbian only):Statement of the Ombudsperson on the Eviction of Roma

The eighth of April, the International Roma Day, is an opportunity to reiterate our concern about the extremely difficult situation in which the Roma find themselves in Serbia today. We would like to mark this date by reminding of the fact that the Roma men and women are often exposed to discrimination, human rights violations and ethnically motivated crimes because of their ethnicity. The state’s declarative commitment is not accompanied by a genuine political will and tangible measures that are necessary for changing this disconcerting situation.

Although they encounter unequal treatment, violence and exclusion in almost all areas of life, on this occasion we would particularly like to draw attention to three problems that threaten their lives, violate their dignity and prevent the integration of the entire Roma community.

Violence against Roma men and women
The widespread anti-Roma mood increasingly more often culminates in violence against Roma, while the practice of impunity encourages the perpetrators to commit the most serious crimes. It is particularly worrying that the perpetrator’s motive, which is hatred and intolerance against Roma, is rarely taken into account in qualifying these acts.

Roma men and women rarely choose to report these crimes due to discriminatory treatment and secondary victimisation encountered in institutions. The crimes include physical attacks on them and their homes, destruction of their property, writing of racist graffiti and messages, persecution and threats. We express particular concern with regard to the recent racist incidents and crimes against Roma men and women in Banatsko Karadjordjevo, Zrenjanin, Pozega, Cacak, Jabuka and Belgrade, and all other cases that have not been the subject of media attention. In order to stop violence, it is essential to punish the perpetrators of all crimes.

It is necessary to strictly punish hate speech against Roma in the media, which significantly contributes to the escalation of violence by generating and reinforcing negative prejudices. The eradication of stereotypes about Roma must be an expression of unambiguous determination of the entire society not to tolerate any manifestation of racism.
     
Housing and forced evictions
Extremely adverse living conditions in informal Roma settlements, forced evictions and segregation of settlements is the reality for Roma men and women who live in nearly 600 informal settlements in Serbia. Without the opportunity to exercise one of fundamental rights - the right to housing, which inter alia includes the legally guaranteed security of tenure, houses built of solid materials and supporting infrastructure, these people are deprived of their right to live with dignity and enjoy all other rights.

According to the conclusions of the Amnesty International report, the state permanently violates the right to housing of the Roma living in informal settlements, although the undertaken obligations under ratified international instruments are binding. The residents of the settlements threatened by forced evictions, especially in Belgrade, are in a particularly difficult position. These evictions are taking place against the will and without consultation with the settlement residents and they are accompanied with the destruction of their property, homelessness and placement of evicted people in inadequate housing facilities that are often geographically segregated.

We demand from the government to immediately stop forced evictions, guarantee the security of tenure, regulate evictions by law in order to achieve full compliance with international standards, and to show a serious intent to improve living conditions in informal Roma settlements.
   
Legally invisible persons
A large number of Roma in Serbia have not been registered into birth registry books, which makes them legally invisible. Due to the state’s refusal to recognise the seriousness of the problem and the absence of adequate legal framework, this number has been steadily increasing. The right to be recognised as a person before the law is one of the basic human rights guaranteed by the Constitution and numerous international instruments ratified by Serbia. It is a condition for the exercise of all other rights, such as the right to health care and social protection, employment, education, etc. In this way, legally invisible persons are deprived of the opportunity to be equal members of society and to enjoy their rights equally.

We demand from the government to urgently adopt the legislative provisions that will provide for a simple and efficient procedure that would finally allow legally invisible persons to be recognised as persons before the law.

The Coalition against Discrimination and its partner organisations fully support the conclusions and recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the  Human Rights Committee of the United Nations and the European Commission concerning the status and rights of Roma and call upon the government to act upon them without delay.

The Coalition against Discrimination includes: Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, Labris - Lesbian Human Rights Organisation, Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia (CHRIS Network), Association of Students with Disabilities, Gayten LGBT, Praxis and Regional Center for Minorities.

The statement is supported by:
Women in Black
Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights
Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Humanitarian Law Centre

The residents of the informal Roma settlement in Dr Ivana Ribara Street in Novi Beograd, where most of internally displaced persons from Kosovo live, received yesterday, on the International Day for Tolerance, the decision from Department for Inspection Affairs of the Administration of City of Novi Beograd ordering them to pull down the facilities they had been living in for years within a day. Despite the assurances received from the competent authorities that the whole eviction process would be conducted in compliance with international documents binding on the Republic of Serbia, the yesterday’s delivery of the decision shows the absolute inobservance of the international standards related to the right on housing and represents yet another pressure on the residents of this settlement.

Thirty-three families are living in the settlement in Dr Ivana Ribara Street and the access to fundamental human rights is not achievable for them. The Ombudsperson joined the resolution of the problems, which occurred on the occasion of the construction of business and residential facility built by the Building Directorate of Serbia, and initiated a meeting held on Thursday at which it was agreed to form a working group which would work on finding the solution for the residents of this informal settlement. According to the agreement, the first meeting of the working group, which will include the representatives of the informal settlement and representatives of Praxis, should be held on Friday, 18 November 2011.

The achieved agreement, which envisaged complete observance of international standards on the housing right, primarily the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and guidelines of the United Nations on development-based evictions, was questioned yesterday as well as the determination of the Republic of Serbia for the full respect of human rights for all citizens. Accepted international standards in the area of human rights clearly forbid forced evictions in bad weather, as well as those, which will result in homelessness of the residents.

We draw attention to the fact that most of the residents of this informal settlement are facing multiple discrimination in society related to employment, education, health care, access to documents and other rights. Accordingly, acting of state bodies must be complied with measures of affirmative action envisaged by the Constitution and other regulations. Non-governmental organizations are calling on competent state bodies to return to dialogue in order to find an adequate alternative accommodation and observance of the residents’ dignity.