On the occasion of the Universal Children’s Day, Praxis welcomes the efforts made to improve the position of children in Serbia. At the same time, Praxis is concerned about the children who were not registered at birth and are thus stateless. The right to legal personality and the range of related rights are inaccessible for hundreds of legally invisible children who are not recognized as persons before the law, and who are out of the system of health care and social protection. We remind of the Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which Serbia has ratified and which envisages that the child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name and the right to acquire a nationality.

In addition, Praxis is also concerned about discrimination against children, which is still prevalent in our society, and particularly the children from the marginalized social groups despite the existence of valid anti-discriminatory legal framework.

We call on all state bodies, institutions and other relevant stakeholders to pay special attention to children from the marginalized social groups in order to break the chain of social exclusion and to work intensively on development of tolerance, understanding, respect for difference and promotion of equality.