Today we are marking the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the most important international act aimed at preventing statelessness.

It is estimated that worldwide there are about 12 million stateless persons – those who are not considered to be nationals by any state under the operation of its law and who are denied access to all other rights on a daily basis as a consequence of being deprived of citizenship.

Statelessness may be the result of the conflicts of laws, discriminatory regulations depriving the marginalised communities of the possibility to acquire citizenship, succession of states after which a number of citizens do not succeed in acquiring citizenship of the newly established states, administrative practices related to the acquisition, recovery and loss of citizenship, as well as other numerous reasons.

In a world divided into states and citizens, those who fail to fit in that division are subject to various forms of exclusion. As a result, people without any citizenship have always encountered expulsions and restrictions on their fundamental human rights and freedoms. The Convention, whose fifty years of existence is celebrated today, resulted from the efforts of the international community to provide protection to those who cannot get protection from any state and to prevent the emergence of more people that no country would consider to be their nationals. Half a century later, the lives of stateless persons still attract the attention of the international community; there are newly emerging obstacles to the realisation of the right to citizenship and new causes of statelessness, but also the expectations that a solution will be finally found for those that cannot call any country their own.

Marking the anniversary of the Convention is an opportunity to once again point to the difficulties of those who face a risk of statelessness in Serbia and the necessity of solving their problems that have been neglected for too long.

There are those among them who have not been registered in birth registry books and for that reason remained without citizenship. Some of them were registered in the citizenship registry books that were destroyed, while others were left without citizenship upon the dissolution of the former state or acquired citizenship of one of the former republics in which they do not live.

You can read more about the obstacles to exercise the right to citizenship in the Republic of Serbia, the groups whose right to citizenship continues to be violated and the recommendations for overcoming the identified problems in the Praxis’ report entitled "Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia."

Download the report: Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia   

The non-governmental organisation Praxis welcomes the fact that the Bill Amending the Law on Non-contentious Procedure has been recently sent to the parliamentary procedure. The adoption of this law will be a step forward towards resolving the problems of legally invisible persons - those who have not been registered into birth registry books and who are prevented from exercising their basic human rights granted by the Constitution and legislation of the Republic of Serbia.

Let us be reminded that after many years of continuous efforts invested by Praxis, the Center for Advanced Legal Studies and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, into resolving the problem of legally invisible persons in a systemic way, Praxis and the Center for Advanced Legal Studies, in cooperation with the Protector of Citizens, drafted a proposal of the Law Amending the Law on Non-contentious Procedure, which was adopted by the government last week. This law has ended up in the parliamentary procedure after numerous appeals of the civil sector, recommendations of international organisations, UN treaty bodies and the European Union, which persistently pointed to the necessity of solving the problems of legally invisible persons.

It has been estimated that around 6,500 of legally invisible persons, mostly Roma, live in Serbia and that due to administrative barriers, multi-generational social exclusion and poverty, war events and the absence of legal provisions that would recognise them as citizens of Serbia, they have not been able to exercise any of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and ratified international instruments in the field of human rights.

The non-governmental organisation Praxis expects that the MPs of the National Assembly will recognise the seriousness of the problems faced by legally invisible persons and that the current composition of the National Assembly will adopt the Bill Amending the Law on Non-contentious Procedure, which will allow these persons to enjoy equal rights like all other citizens of Serbia.

The Coalition against Discrimination strongly condemns the yesterday's racially motivated attack on A.O., a third grade student of the Secondary School of Commerce, which occurred in Belgrade. The attack on this young man was accompanied by racist insults and curses, which in addition to serious bodily harm, violated the dignity of this young man. A quick response of the police that have already arrested the perpetrators deserves praise and raises hope that the police will respond promptly and efficiently also in other similar cases with less media coverage.

In the past year, the Coalition against Discrimination recorded several cases of racially motivated attacks on Roma men and women and their homes, and other racist incidents to which the state authorities failed to respond in a proper manner. The investigation often ended with an indictment against unknown persons, and the motive of hatred towards the members of a minority group was not considered to be an aggravating circumstance. We emphasise that the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination stipulates that the punishable offences in which hatred or hostility towards a person because of his/her personal characteristic is a predominant or exclusive motive qualify as severe discrimination.

Moreover, the unambiguously racist attacks are often characterised as peer violence, hooligan incidents, usual quarrels among the neighbours, and so on. Even the Roma National Council, a body that should unreservedly represent the interests of its ethnic community, refrained to call the yesterday's event by its right name, opting for the neutral term "vandalism". By avoiding naming these attacks by their right name, we avoid facing with the essence of the problem. Therefore, we once again emphasise the importance of codifying hate crimes and introducing adequate legal penalties for the offences perpetrated out of hatred towards a minority group.
At the same time, the members of minority communities often, understandably, distrust the state and its institutions, and the hate crimes that go unpunished do not contribute to building confidence and do not encourage them to report these crimes. Particularly disconcerting is the indifference of society that has normalised racist stereotypes and insults, many of which have found their place in the media, literature, textbooks, and so on. Hence, in addition to the adoption of the laws and their consistent application, it is important to work on changing people's consciousness and achieving the commitment of the entire society that any form of racism will not be tolerated.

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 statement is supported by Women in Black.

Download (only in Serbian): Discrimination in Serbia for 2010

The Coalition against Discrimination presented its 2010 Annual Report on Discrimination in Serbia and awarded prizes for combating discrimination in 2010. Sasa Gajin, Coordinator of the Coalition against Discrimination and Ljupka Mihajlovska from the Association of Students with Disabilities spoke about the report.

The Coalition against Discrimination established the annual Award for Combating Discrimination in recognition of individuals, organisations, institutions, companies and the media who have invested the greatest efforts, in the course of one year, to combat discrimination against minority and marginalised groups and contributed to the promotion of equality of all citizens in Serbia. The Coalition against Discrimination decides on the award winners on the basis of the proposals submitted by individuals and organisations by the end of 2010. The members of the Coalition against Discrimination are: 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.

This year’s winners of the Award for Combating Discrimination for the outstanding contribution to the fight against discrimination in 2010 are:

Public authorities:  Residential Institution for Adults Male pcelice
Civil society organisations: NGO IZ Kruga, Organisation for the Protection of Rights and Support of Women and Children with Disabilities in Serbia
Media: Film Festival Slobodna zona
Business sector: Metro Cash & Carry d.o.o. Belgrade
Public figures: Dragoljub Rasa Todosijevic, artist

Mr. Björn Mossberg, Head of Development and Cooperation Department of the Swedish Embassy in Belgrade, handed the awards to the winners.

The sixth generation of students of the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, have successfully completed their practice in Praxis within the Refugee Legal Clinic, initiated by UNHCR.

During practice, the students had the opportunity to visit the Praxis office, to meet with its employees and get acquainted with their work, and to attend the lectures on the right to access documents, property rights in Kosovo, access to rights for refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and protection of victims of sexual and gender-based violence.

In addition to visiting the office, the students joined Praxis mobile teams in their field work, where they were introduced to the life stories and legal problems of the Roma, refugees and IDPs living in collective centres and informal settlements.

At the final seminar held on 15 June 2011, the students shared their impressions gained from the completed practice, emphasising that it helped them a great deal to recognise the widespread prejudice about the target groups for whose rights Praxis advocates. During the final seminar, the students were awarded certificates.

Download: UNHCR Report Observations on the Situation of Asylum Seekers and Beneficiaries of International Protection in Serbia

On the occasion of the 53rd Session of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which will review the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in the Republic of Serbia, Praxis submitted a Parallel Report in cooperation with the European Roma Rights Centre. In order to give a clearer picture about the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Parallel Report contains information about the problems in the fields regulated by the Convention, primarily problems faced by women from particularly vulnerable groups – refugee, internally displaced and Roma women.

The Report gives information on implementation of the Convention in the fields of prevention of sexual and gender based violence, information on mechanisms for achievement of gender equality, access to right to personal documents, education, employment and health protection. The report further provides information relating to forced evictions from informal Roma settlements, as well as impeded access to justice.

At the end of the report, Praxis and the ERRC have suggested to the CEDAW recommendations the adoption of which would enable improvement of implementation of the Convention.

Review of the implementation of the Convention in Serbia was scheduled for October 2012, but, according to unofficial information, it will be postponed for mid-2013.

Download: Parallel Report to the Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
 

Law on Amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure, adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on 31st August 2012, prescribes a procedure for determination of date and place of birth of persons not registered in birth registry books. Thus, the first step was made towards solving the problem of several thousands of legally invisible persons in Serbia. Through the aforementioned procedure, the persons who do not fulfil conditions for registration in birth registry book in an administrative procedure will be able to exercise their rights through a separate court procedure which recognizes the particulars of the problems they are facing.

What preceded the amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure were many years of non-governmental organizations requesting adoption of a systemic solution, as well as efforts to draw attention of the state to the difficult position of persons who failed to subsequently register in birth registry book on the grounds of the existing regulations. Namely, it is estimated that at least 6,500 legally invisible persons live in Serbia, who are, almost exclusively, members of Roma national minority. Due to the administrative obstacles, generations-long social exclusion, poverty and lack of legal solutions which would enable them to prove their identity and obtain a birth certificate, those persons cannot enjoy any of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and ratified international documents – they cannot find employment, enjoy rights from social welfare and health care, receive education without impediments, to be registered as parents of their children or enjoy a series of other rights available to other citizens of the Republic of Serbia.

Coalition against Discrimination and Coalition for Access to Justice welcome the adoption of the Law that eliminates the first obstacle in exercise of the right to recognition as a person before the law and that forms basis for registration in birth registry books for those persons who have not been able to prove their fact of birth so far. At the same time, we would like to point out that full respect of rights of the above category of persons will be achieved only when the efficient implementation of the adopted solutions is provided, as well as the implementation of the supporting regulations relating to acquisition and determination of citizenship, registration of permanent and temporary residence and obtaining of ID card.

Signatory organizations:

Coalition against Discrimination
Coalition for Access to Justice

Coalition against Discrimination: Center for Advance Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, Gayten LGBT, Labris, Praxis, Regional Centre for Minorities, Association of Students with Disabilities

Coalition for Access to Justice: Center for Advance Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, Humanitarian Law Center, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, Praxis, Sandžak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms

Hereyou can listen to the report on evictions of large settlements of Roma people prepared by Daniel Bishton.