August 2011

Non-governmental organisation Praxis was established in June 2004 by taking over the Civil Rights Project from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). NRC had previously conducted the Project in the region as of 1996 and in Serbia as of 1997. With financial support of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Praxis continued to protect the rights of its target groups - refugees and internally displaced persons in Serbia - through legal remedies and advocacy activities, by promoting values of civil society and raising public awareness about the problems its target group face.

The aim of the Civil Rights Project (CRP) was legal protection of refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and internally displaced persons from Kosovo in order to enable their enjoyment of human rights on an equal and non-discriminatory basis and assist them in making a decision regarding a durable solution for themselves and their families.

During the past seven years, Praxis activities within the CRP primarily referred to provision of free legal assistance, information and counselling to refugees and internally displaced persons in relation to access to rights in the country/place of origin or exile/displacement, mainly with regard to access to documents, property and other socio-economic rights. At the same time, inseparable from legal assistance, Praxis also performed the advocacy activities aimed at removing systematic obstacles in accessing rights, changing and harmonizing the practice of competent bodies and preventing further violation of rights of the target groups. 

Film on Praxis’ activities can be seen HERE

The visitors to the Croatian island of Brac had the opportunity to watch the latest European documentaries shown at Supetar Super Film Festival in the period 10 - 14 July 2012. The festival selection included a number of documentaries from Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Croatia; after the screenings the audience exchanged impressions with the authors and voted for their favorites.

Based on the votes of the audience, the film (The Importance of) Hair of the Swedish director Christina Höglund won first place, the second place went to the film Bye bye c’est fini of the author Tora Mårtens, while Here I Am, the work of Irene Fabri, won third place.

The film Here I Am, produced by Praxis in cooperation with Dokukino and with financial support from the European Union, examines the existential problems of the residents of informal Roma settlements in Serbia and introduces viewers to the very much alive, parallel world of the marginalised whose faith and hope are their basic tools of survival. In the spirit of the marginalised and from the subjective point of view, the leading actor presents to the audience his friends whose fate often depends only on one paper or somebody's good will.

Let us be reminded that the residents of informal Roma settlements in Serbia do not have identity documents, because they are not allowed to have their permanent residence registered. The lack of identity documents prevents them from finding jobs, educating children and enjoying other socio-economic rights. Some of them are also "legally invisible" persons, i. e. the persons who are not registered in birth registry books and therefore live outside the system of health care, social welfare and employment; they are socially excluded and exposed to various forms of discrimination.

In order to draw attention to the most marginalised minority group in Serbia, Praxis plans to continue to promote the film at other festivals in the country and abroad. The promotional video clips of the documentary can be viewed on YouTube through the links entitled Here I Am -Legally Invisible and Here I Am - Forced Evictions.

We hope that the recognition of the documentary Here I Am will remind the government that the problems of the residents of informal Roma settlements in Serbia should be resolved as soon as possible.

See also the blog posted on the website of the European Network on Statelessness: Giving a Face to the Invisible

The non-governmental organisation Praxis strongly condemns today's action of the City Administration of Leskovac, which cancelled alternative accommodation to the Roma, who had previously been evicted from the informal settlement Belvil. Twenty-three Roma men and women, of whom eleven children, have been evicted today from the hostel Mimi in Leskovac, where they had temporarily lived since the eviction from the informal settlement Belvil. They do not know where to sleep tonight and plan to find temporary accommodation with relatives in Leskovac and its surroundings.
 
There were no incidents during the eviction; the families evicted from the hostel were given a one-off allowance in the amount of 20,000.00 to 30,000.00 dinars with the obligation to find accommodation on their own until the end of the week when the City Administration of Leskovac is supposed to secure permanent housing for them. The representatives of the City Administration of Leskovac have failed to provide alternative accommodation and switched the burden of finding accommodation to the former Belvil residents who are unemployed, mainly engaged in the collection of secondary raw material and on a daily basis face marginalisation and hindered access to the rights that are taken for granted by other citizens of the Republic of Serbia. In addition to violating the dignity and human rights of the former residents of Belvil by this latest eviction, the City Administration of Leskovac also inefficiently and irrationally spent over two million dinars, according to the rough estimate, for accommodation of the families evicted from the informal settlement Belvil. That money could have been spent on a durable solution to the housing problems of these families, thus paving their way out of poverty and social exclusion.
 
In addition to the foregoing, by conducting this eviction, the City Administration of Leskovac has acted contrary to the recommendation of the Protector of Citizens and revealed both the lack of plan for the integration of Roma and the lack of its interest to act on the recommendations aimed at improving the work of administration authorities and exercising the human rights of the most vulnerable and marginalised social group in Serbia.

We therefore urge the authorities to:

• Immediately find permanent accommodation for the families that have been evicted today;
• Establish responsibility for the irrational use of money for temporary accommodation, which could have been spent on securing permanent housing for those families;
• Urgently develop a plan for the integration of the former residents of the informal settlement Belvil, who were relocated to Leskovac, and begin with its  implementation in order to achieve full respect for human rights of all the citizens who have been evicted today.

The non-governmental organisation Praxis informs the public that the City of Leskovac intends to cancel the alternative accommodation provided to the Roma evicted from the informal settlement Belvil. The four Roma families with eleven children that had been accommodated in the hostel Mimi in Leskovac since 26 April 2012, received yesterday from the Deputy Mayor a notification saying that the City Administration would cover the costs of their accommodation only until 31 July, after which they would have to find accommodation by themselves, and for that purpose they would be granted a one-off allowance in the amount of 20,000.00 dinars from the town budget, through the Social Welfare Centre.

The accommodation of Roma families in Leskovac was accompanied with numerous problems including the lack of accurate information about the number of families, as well as the obstacles in finding alternative accommodation during the eviction, since the Ministry of Defence withdrew its approval for accommodating the Roma from Belvil in the abandoned military barracks in Leskovac. According to the rough estimate, the City Administration of Leskovac has paid so far over 2 million dinars for accommodating four families with eleven children in the hostel during a three-month period. With the existence of a clear plan and coordination between the central and city authorities, that money could have been spent on finding a durable housing solution for the Roma relocated from Belgrade.

According to international human rights standards, the public authorities are obliged to find alternative accommodation and not the residents themselves who have suffered forced eviction. Therefore, we invite the competent central and city authorities to abandon their intention of cancelling tomorrow the payment of accommodation for the former residents of the informal settlement Belvil, and also to develop a plan of their permanent integration and provide them with an alternative accommodation in compliance with international human rights standards.

Download (Serbian only): Letter Sent by the Deputy Mayor of the City of Leskovac
Download (Serbian only): The Protector of Citizens’ Report on Eviction from the Informal Settlement Belvil     

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is marked worldwide every year on November 25. It is also the day of the beginning of 16 Days of Activism against Women campaign, which is aimed at drawing attention to this global problem.

Within the global campaign 16 Days of Activism against Women, Praxis in cooperation with local Commissions for Gender Equality will organize two public forums on the protection against sexual and gender-based violence: on 1 December 2011 in Kragujevac and on 8 December 2011 in Prokuplje. The goals of public forums are to network the relevant local stakeholders, identify problems within the mechanism of protection against sexual and gender-based violence, and formulate recommendations on their solving.

Despite numerous regulations of the Republic of Serbia defining sexual and gender-based violence as a prohibited form of behaviour, their implementation in practice does not guarantee the complete protection of domestic violence survivors.

During the five-year implementation period of the project “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence among the Refugees and the Displaced – Prevention and Response” supported by UNHCR, Praxis has noticed the inconsistent implementation of regulations: (1) the reaction of state institutions, which domestic violence survivors address for help, depends on sensibility of their service providers, (2) the competent local institutions fail to exchange information and (3) there are no integral records of sexual and gender-based violence cases. Due to stated obstacles, domestic violence survivors are left on their own when in need of systemic support.
 
Praxis wants through public forums to invite the State once again to improve the system of prevention and protection against sexual and gender-based violence.

Download (Serbian only): Program of the Public Forum in Kragujevac

Download (Serbian only): The Invitation Letter for the Public Forum in Kragujevac

Download (Serbian only): Program of the Public Forum in Prokuplje

Download (Serbian only): The Invitation Letter for the Public Forum in Prokuplje

Download: HERE

Coalition against Discrimination has the pleasure to conclude that in the Progress Report on Serbia, the European Commission has dedicated due attention to the antidiscrimination issue. The Coalition further finds that the Report conclusions can make a significant contribution to further improvement of the public bodies’ actions for prevention of discrimination against certain discriminated groups.

In the Coalition's opinion, the state is obliged to dedicate special attention to the development of tolerance, non-violence and non-discrimination culture in all social life segments. Having this goal in mind, civil society organizations should impose as natural partners to the state bodies.

However, the Coalition cosiders that it is not possible to create a society of equally free individuals without exploiting efficient mechanisms for legal protection against discrimination. This is why it is crucial that state bodies, especially courts and prosecutors, Commissioner for Equality Protection, as well as ministries in charge, immediately start using legal means to deal with key antidiscrimination breaches, which have been burdening the public life in the country, and to publicly expose them in line with the Antidiscrimination Law.

Most of all, the state bodies' activities should focus on the following issues:

• Recognition of legal subjectivity to legally invisible persons, most of which are members of Roma population, as well as their full inclusion into the community’s social life; it is essential to pass adequate legal regulations as soon as possible, to enable legally invisible persons to get registered in public registers simply and efficiently;
• Full implementation of international standards in terms of the right to residence and forced eviction, transparency of the process of Roma settlements transfer, and provision of adequate alternative accommodation to the inhabitants of such settlements; persons who live in illegal settlements and homeless people need to be enabled to register their residence, and then they need to be issued personal ID cards;
• Recognition of the right to official use of mother tongue to all national minorities, including Vlach national minority, as well as the right to form a national council based on the results of the national council elections;
• Efficient and non-selective implementation of the existing laws that protect the rights of LGBT population against discrimination and violence;
• Passing laws and establishing institutional practice that would fully respect status and other rights of transgender and transsexual persons in line with the Council of Europe’s recommendations;
• Provision of full gender equality in all segments of social life, and in particular improvement of legal protection of women against domestic violence, including proscription of obligation for relevant state bodies to interconnect their activities in prevention and punishment of domestic violence; the care of state bodies should unreservedly aim at the legal status and rights of special categories of women, such as women with disabilities, single mothers, sex workers, and women in prison; 
• Introduction of special penal-legal regulations on punishment of hate crimes into the Penal Code and establishment of practice for implementation of the existing regulations on discriminatory criminal acts;
• Full achievment of inclusive education goals, especially system and systematic elimination of all forms of discrimination through reproduction of ignorance and discriminatory practices in schools; in order to eliminate cultural patterns which serve as a basis for intolerance, it is essential to work on the reform of homophobic and other discriminatory contents and practices in high schools; it is also necessary to show more decisive and complex support to the education of children and young people with disabilities in a regular educational system, as well as unambiguous definition of segregation of children and young people with disabilities in special institutions, schools, boarding schools and student residences, as a severe form of discrimination;
• Creation of a legal framework fit for full enjoyment of rights and freedoms of persons with mental disabilities, particularly those institutionally accommodated and persons who are deprived of working ability.

The Coalition remains at disposal to all citizens, state bodies, and international organizations in joint fight against all forms of discrimination. Apart from pointing to discriminatory cases in the society, the Coalition will continue to underline the examples if good practice and take active part in proposing laws and policies whose goal is the realization of full equality.

Members of the Coalition Against Discrimination are: Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, Labris – Organization for Lesbian Human Rights, Anti-trafficking Center, Network of Boards for Human Rights (CHRIS Network), Association of Students with Disabilities, Gayten LGBT, PRAXIS and Regional Centre for Minorities.

Non-governmental organization Praxis, with the support of the EU and in cooperation with partner organizations Heinrich Böll Foundation, Regional Centre for Minorities and Dokukino, is organizing the Expert Debate “European Good Practices - Advocacy Tool in Serbia” that will be held on 29-30 September 2011 in the Hotel Sumadija, 8 Sumadijski trg St, Belgrade, from 10:00 a.m. - 06:00 p.m.

The Debate will host experts from the countries of the European Union and national experts who, in their joint dialogue, will once again try to draw attention to the problems of Roma population in Serbia in relation to enjoyment of the right to be recognized as a person before the law and the right to adequate housing, present examples of good practices in the Europe, propose the best solutions and formulate recommendations for their implementation.

Topics to be discussed:

The first day – 29 September 2011
The right to be recognized as a person before the law

• Examples of good practices, good systemic solutions and international standards on (subsequent) registration in birth registry book
• Subsequent registration of children whose parents do not possess necessary documents
• Subsequent registration of adults who have no knowledge of their date and place of birth, persons whose parents have passed away, are unknown or reside at an unknown location
• The Model Law on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law as one of possible solutions
• Protection of the right to be recognized as a person before the law and its correlation with other human rights

The second day –30 September 2011
The right to adequate housing

• Examples of good practices, good systemic solutions and international standards regarding evictions of informal Roma settlements
• Legal remedies in cases of evictions
• Examples of good practices, good systemic solutions and international standards regarding sustainable development of informal Roma settlements (possibilities for legalisation of settlements, possibilities for registration of permanent or temporary residence, etc.)
• Protection of the right to adequate housing and its correlation with other human rights

Download: Profiles of Experts   Agenda

Human rights organizations are demanding the competent republic and city authorities to urgently undertake measures to provide a minimum standard of decent housing conditions for Roma evicted from the informal settlement Belvil to Nis.

To recall, on 26 April 2012, the City Administration of the City of Belgrade evicted about a thousand of Roma from the informal settlement Belvil. Internally displaced families from Kosovo and those with permanent residence registered in Belgrade have been accommodated in container settlements on the outskirts of Belgrade. On the other hand, families with permanent residence registered in cities throughout Serbia have been returned there. Four Roma families with seven children have been accommodated in the abandoned warehouse in Nis with no access to water and electric power, where hygienic and living conditions are below the minimum standards required to ensure dignified life. Over the past period, human rights organizations from Nis have been trying to affect the solution of the problems faced by Roma accommodated in the warehouse by providing direct assistance and meeting representatives of government authorities. However, even after more than seventy five days, city authorities of Nis and republic bodies failed to undertake measures to ensure elementary living conditions – access to potable water, electric power and sanitation. Extremely bad living conditions in the abandoned warehouse are additionally worsened by high temperatures and adverse weather conditions.

Gross negligence of the needs of the most vulnerable citizens of the Republic of Serbia once again points to deeply rooted neglect and marginalization of Roma. Moreover, authorities are strongly contributing to this negligence and inobservance of human rights standards on the right to adequate housing. Obligations related to respect for human rights stated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are clear – residents evicted from the informal settlement must be provided with an adequate alternative accommodation which, among others, includes the sustainable access to safe potable water, electric power for cooking, heating, lighting and sanitation.

Due to the above stated, we are once again calling on authorities to take urgent measures in order to ensure elementary standard of decent housing conditions for Roma accommodated in the abandoned warehouse in Nis i.e. the resettlement from the abandoned warehouse to adequate and decent alternative accommodation with sustainable access to potable water, electric power and sanitation.

Organizations that signed the statement:

1.    Platform for the right to adequate housing
2.    European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC)

Platform for the right to adequate housing consists of: Praxis, Minority Rights Centre, Regional Centre for Minorities, CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM and Novi Sad Humanitarian Centre.