Praxis
Field Activities 2018
Praxis' legal mobile team visited the following:
November
- 28 November - Roma settlements in Beocin, Beocin
- 21 November - Roma settlements in Kikinda and Mokrin, Kikinda
- 15 November - Roma settlements "Jablanicka ulica" and "Bosnjace", Lebane
- 8 November - Roma settlement in Margita, Vrsac
- 5 November - Roma settlements "Stubal" and "Lepenica", Vladicin Han
October
- 31 October - Roma settlements in Bavaniste, Kovin
- 24 October - Roma settlement "Korman", Kragujevac
- 17 October - Roma settlements "17. februar" and "Gornji Brestovac", Bojnik
- 11 October - Roma settlements in Backo gradiste and Backo Petrovo selo, Becej
- 5 October - Roma settlement "Midzor", Bela Palanka
September
- 26 September - Roma settlement in Backi Monostor, Sombor
- 20 September - Roma settlement "Bresnica", Kragujevac
- 18 September - Roma settlement "Fekovica brdo", Sjenica
- 5 September - Roma settlement "OMV pumpa", Cukarica
- 3 September - Roma settlements in Stari Banovci and Golubinci, Stara Pazova
August
- 30 August - Roma settlements "Tovarisevo" i "Pivnice", Backa Palanka
- 29 August - Roma settlement "Aleksinacki rudnik", Aleksinac
- 24 august - Roma settlement "Veliki rit", Novi Sad
- 23 August - Roma settlement "Antena", Novi Beograd
- 16 August - Roma settlement "Pionirska", Kostolac
July
- 12 July - Roma settlement "Mali krivak", Smederevo
- 11 July - Roma settlements "Novo naselje" and "Djurdjeve rupe”, Pozarevac
- 4 July - Roma settlement "Kolonija", Smederevska Palanka
June
- 26 June - Roma settlements "Karadjordjeva ulica" and "Batasevo”, Mladenovac
- 25 June - Roma settlements "Burdus mala" and "Poloj", Svilajnac
- 5 June - Roma settlement "Crvena zvezda", Nis
May
- 29 May - Roma settlement "Dalas", Tutin
- 21 May - Roma settlements "Bresnica" and "Licika", Kragujevac
- 11 May - Roma settlement "Masurica", Surdulica
- 8 May - Roma settlement "Karadjordjeva", Mladenovac
April
- 17 April - Roma settlement "Pustorecka ulica", Bojnik
March
- 27 March - Roma families in the village “Tovarisevo”, Backa Palanka
- 14 March - Roma families in Pozega, Pozega
February
- 6 February - Roma settlement "Dalas", Tutin
Field Activities 2017
Praxis' legal mobile team visited the following:
December
- 11 December – Roma settlements "Sever", "Brezonik" and "Ulica 7. jula", Bor
- 6 December – Roma settlements "Slavka Zlatanovica" and "Grdelica", Leskovac
November
- 14 November – Roma settlement "Vozegrnci", Novi Pazar
October
- 19 October – Roma families in the village “Mokrin”, Kikinda
- 17 October – Roma settlement „Karađorđeva ulica“, Mladenovac
- 17 October – Roma settlement Ljubic, Cacak
- 12 October – Roma settlements Suracevo, Donji Strizevac and 9. May street, Babusnica
- 6 October – Roma settlements Murica, Masinski park and Midzor, Bela Palanka
- 4 October – Roma families in the village “Bavanište”, Kovin
September
- 6 September – Roma settlement "Dobrivoja Radosavljevica Street", Knjazevac
August
- 31 August – Roma settlement "Veliki rit“, Novi Sad
- 23 August – Roma families in the village “Iverić”, Obrenovac
- 14 August – Roma settlement "Prcilovica", Aleksinac
July
- 11 July – Roma families in the village “Bajmok ”, Subotica
- 7 July – Roma settlement "Fekovica brdo", Sjenica
June
- 20 June – Roma settlement "17 February", Bojnik
- 13 June – Roma settlement "Vozegrnci", Novi Pazar
- 8 June – Roma settlement "Vidinska dolina", Vladicin Han
May
- 30 May – Roma settlements "Belosevac" and "Bresnica", Kragujevac
- 8 May – Roma settlement "Dalas", Tutin
March
- 16 March – Roma families in the village “Golubinci”, Stara Pazova
- 9 March – Office of the Roma coordinator, Kostolac
- 8 March – Roma families in Municipality of Zabari,
- 2 March – Roma settlement „Veliki rit“, Novi Sad
January
- 25 January – Roma settlement "Podvarce", Leskovac
- 17 January – Roma settlement "Kucavski Lug", Raska
What Do We Gain or Lose by Entering into a Child Marriage
She has now become a woman, someone’s slave. She will have to become a mother. She will have to be obedient to her husband and she will be busy with housework. She got a husband she has never even taught about. She got a new, different life she has never dreamed about.
In May 2018, Praxis held four workshops with more than eighty girls attending 7th and 8th grades in Primary School “Jovan Cvijić“ in Kostolac, Primary School “Bosko Palkovljevic Pinki“, Primary School “Sutjeska“ in Belgrade and Primary School “Aleksandar Stojanovic – Leso“ in Novi Pazar on the prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages and early drop-out of Roma girls from school. The workshops were held as part of the activities performed within the project “Legal Assistance to Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia”, funded by UNHCR.
The workshops are the continuation of the activities performed last year when we jointly confirmed the presence of child, early and forced marriages through the discussion about their causes and consequences, as well as about the reasons why children leave school and about marital roles of men and women. In addition to these workshops, this year Praxis will hold eight more with children attending 5th and 6th grade under the slogan We Asked Children: “Why Do Some Children Leave School, What Are Marital Obligations and Why Shall We Say “STOP to Child Marriages.”
What Do We Gain or Lose by Entering into a Child Marriage is the question we dealt with at the workshops held this year. At the very beginning, the girls watched the UNICEF film "A storybook wedding – except for one thing” about the wedding of a 14-year old girl and a 35-year old man. During the film, the girls reacted with sighs, exclamations of shock and surprises. "She is still a child, maybe her parents forced her to do it for money, how sad she is, she still wants to be a child - she is playing with a teddy bear, how scared she is, he is big and she is small". During the discussion that followed, the girls tried to imagine what the girl's day after the wedding looked like. "She will wake up, he will take coffee for his husband; he will prepare his breakfast; she must now work at home to listen to her husband; he is greater than he can, and he can be beaten; no one is happy here, everyone is sad, everyone cries; maybe they had to get married ... ". In the second part of the workshop, the girls noted down what is gained and what is lost in a child’s marriage. According to the girls, a child marriage brings obligations, housework, mother-in-law, stress, a new family, limitation of movement, discomfort, denied voting rights, the obligation to give birth to children, a feeling of belonging to someone. On the other hand, girls say that a child deprives them of childhood, freedom, the right to education, innocence, education, time for themselves, time for playing and socializing with friends, but also of their own “me”, dreams, dreams, imagination and carelessness.
At the end of the workshop, the girls watched the film “I’m a Roma Woman”, which presents testimonies of Roma women who finished schools and achieved their life goals. The film inspired them positively and empowered them once again to continue their schooling.
The workshops significantly contributed to empowerment of girls to continue their schooling and resist child marriages.
Kraljevo Announced its Willingness to Change Discriminatory Decisions
In the past period, the Kraljevo City Assembly adopted several decisions whose implementation should improve the situation of vulnerable social groups or individuals, but by imposing the condition of permanent residence for exercising the rights established by the said decisions, it excluded the possibility for the internally displaced persons residing in the territory of the City of Kraljevo since 1999 to exercise the rights under the same conditions as their fellow citizens.
Thus, the Decision on Free Bus Transportation in the City of Kraljevo was adopted to ensure access to public services (free bus transportation) to persons who, due to their health or social status, encountered obstacles or were denied such access. On the other hand, the Decision on the Right to One-off Financial Assistance for the First-born Child and the Decision on Financial Assistance to Unemployed New Mothers aim to encourage procreation and increase birth rate, as well as to provide support to women who decide to have children despite being unemployed.
Despite the apparent intention of the decision-makers to allocate budget funds for improving the situation of the most vulnerable citizens, but also for improving the city’s demographic structure, by setting the permanent residence requirement, they unjustifiably denied the right to all the refugees and internally displaced persons residing in the City of Kraljevo. Undoubtedly, there is no reasonable and objective justification for such a different treatment.
In order to point out that the disputed decisions violate the principle of equal rights and obligations, thus contravening non-discrimination regulations, Praxis lodged complaints with the Commissioner for Protection of Equality. Consequently, responding to the allegations of the complaints, the President of the Kraljevo City Assembly accepted the objections and expressed the readiness to alter the disputed decisions aligning them with anti-discriminatory regulations, which was also the reason why Praxis gave up the further complaints procedure.
Since the disputed decisions have not been altered and discriminatory requirements have not been changed yet as to allow all citizens to exercise the right under the same conditions, and given that the withdrawal of the complaints is based on the expressed intention of the representatives of the City of Kraljevo to implement the procedures for changing the decisions, Praxis will continue to monitor the actions of the City of Kraljevo in the coming period regarding the alignment of the disputed decisions with anti-discrimination regulations.
Despite the expressed willingness by the City of Kraljevo, Praxis expresses its concern over the statement made by the President of the Kraljevo City Assembly that it would not be possible to change the Decision on the Right to One-off Financial Assistance for the First-born Child and the Decision on Financial Assistance to Unemployed New Mothers until the local budget for the year 2019 was adopted. We remind that in this way the unequal treatment of individuals or groups on the grounds of their personal characteristics is tolerated, while the equal exercise of rights is postponed and conditioned by the planning of budgetary funds.
On the other hand, the adoption of general acts that violate the right to equality of citizens is not a rare phenomenon, and one of the main causes for such a situation, in addition to the non-transparent decision and policy making process, is certainly an insufficient knowledge of non-discrimination regulations, as well as a lack of sensitivity among decision-makers at the local level in cases where the basic values, such as the right to equity and equality, should be respected.
Praxis at the conference “Youth Engagement in the Danube Region” in Stuttgart
On 23 March 2018, a conference “Youth Engagement in the Danube Region” was organized in Stuttgart, gathering partners and associates of the foundation Agapedia, as a part of the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. The conference gathered the Minister for Education of the Baden-Württemberg region, Germany, as well as the representatives of organizations and institutions from the countries in the Danube Region. Network of Organizations for Children of Serbia - MODS was represented by Sasa Stefanovic, Director of MODS, Jasmina Mikovic from Praxis who is the President of the Steering Committee of MODS and Aleksandra Grubin, Project Manager from SOS Children’s Villages in Serbia.
Since the beginning of the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), there have been many efforts to deepen cross-border youth cooperation between the Black Forest and the Black Sea.
A multitude of initiatives and networks have for many years successfully brought together young people across all 14 countries of the Danube region; enabling cross-cultural exchange on issues as diverse as environmental protection, language learning, the future of the European Union or the challenges posed by digitalization. Yet, many initiatives are project-based and have only limited awareness of other undertakings. The Danube Strategy in itself provides only limited support in this particular field.
In the past, there have been several attempts to create more stable framework conditions and networks. The emergence of the Regional Youth C
ooperation Office (RYCO) as part of the so-called Berlin Process to improve cooperation among Western Balkan countries and the European Union marks an important milestone in this regard.
The first part of the programme provided an overview of the existing structures and networks, mapping the field of youth cooperation in the Danube Region. For the second part of the dialogue, stakeholders, experts and project practitioners from civil society, national and regional administration as well as academia were invited to share their experiences and identify joint challenges. Various thematic roundtables enabled a structured debate on issues to be targeted in youth cooperation, such as: Common European values, Employability, Migration and Brain drain, (Social) Entrepreneurship, New Media and Digitalization, Intercultural Cooperation and Environmental issues.
In the third part of the dialogue, working groups reflected on support mechanisms and networks in place to support youth cooperation in the Danube Region.
Anti-Gypsysm and General Discrimination against Roma Prevail in Serbia - Danas Daily
On 22 May 2018, the report entitled The Wall of Anti-Gypsysm - Roma in Serbia, prepared by the Civil Rights Defenders, was presented in the Media Centre in Belgrade.
On that occasion, Marija Dražović, Antidiscrimination and Gender Equality Programme Coordinator in Praxis, highlighted that decisions relevant to Roma were often made without participation of their community, due to which they were ineffective. She said that there was no awareness, at the national level, about the real problems of Roma, and consequently there was no progress n solving them.
See the article in Danas daily.
Presentation of Report Entitled "The Hoop of Anti-Gypsyism: Roma in Serbia"
On 22 May 2018, in the Media Center in Belgrade, the report entitled The Hoop of Anti-Gypsyism: Roma in Serbia, prepared by the Civil Rights Defenders, was presented. The report contains the information about the situation of Roma in Serbia in various areas of life, including employment, education, housing, access to justice, personal documents, health care, security and the prohibition of torture, asylum seeking and forced return.
On that occasion, Marija Dražović, Praxis Antidiscrimination and Gender Equality Programme Coordinator, stressed that, despite some progress, Roma continued to face problems in exercising their basic rights.
„In most cases, they need free legal aid, but the problem lies in the fact that the Law on Free Legal Aid has not been adopted and Roma have to address the civil sector”, said Ms Dražović. Emphasising the need to include Roma in decision-making processes related to the improvement of their situation, Marija highlighted the high importance of improving the existing laws and provisions concerning the exercise of the rights to citizenship, possession of personal documents, receiving child allowance.
„Due to the lack of financial resources, Roma mothers are not able to pay a fee for the issuance of ID card. Consequently, they are prevented from exercising the right to child allowance because they do not possess a valid personal document. Having in mind their social position, this is a serious problem for them; therefore, our recommendation is to find a solution as soon as possible in order to overcome such situations”, Ms Dražović concluded.
See the statement of Media Center here.
See the statement of EurActiv.rs here.
See the statement of Danas here.
Roma in Serbia Exposed to Systemic Discrimination - EurActiv.rs
On 22 May 2018, the report entitled The Wall of Anti-Gypsysm - Roma in Serbia, prepared by the Civil Rights Defenders, was presented in the Media Centre in Belgrade. The report includes the information about the situation of Roma in Serbia in different areas of life, including employment, education, housing, access to justice, personal documents, health, security and freedom from torture, asylum and forced return.
On that occasion, Marija Dražović, Antidiscrimination and Gender Equality Programme Coordinator in Praxis, said that the problem of discrimination against Roma should be seen from the perspective of good public administration.
"The basic problem is how our judiciary provides access to justice, because if citizens are not aware of their rights, they do not exist", said Marija, adding that institutions must begin to formulate regulations to address the situation of the most vulnerable groups of population.
See EurActiv.rs statement here.
Presentation of Report on the Situation of Roma in Serbia - Media Centre
On 22 May 2018, the report entitled The Wall of Anti-Gypsysm - Roma in Serbia, prepared by the Civil Rights Defenders, was presented in the Media Centre in Belgrade. The report includes the information about the situation of Roma in Serbia in different areas of life, including employment, education, housing, access to justice, personal documents, health, security and freedom from torture, asylum and forced return.
On that occasion, Marija Dražović, Antidiscrimination and Gender Equality Programme Coordinator in Praxis, said that despite progress, Roma continued to encounter problems in exercising their fundamental rights.
“Most often they need free legal aid; however, the problem lies in the fact that the Law on Free Legal Aid has not been adopted in our country due to which Roma have to rely on the civil sector”, said Ms. Dražović. Marija stressed the necessity of including Roma into decision-making processes regarding the improvement of their situation, but also a great importance of improving the existing laws and regulations regarding the exercise of the right to citizenship, possession of personal documents, receiving a child allowance.
“Roma mothers, due to scarcity of financial resources, are not able to pay fees for the issuance of ID cards. Thus, they are prevented from exercising the right to child allowance, as they do not possess a valid personal document. Given their social position, this is a serious problem for them, and therefore, it is our recommendation to find a solution as soon as possible in order to overcome such situations", Ms. Dražović concluded.
See the statement of Media Centre here.
Praxis Held Conference Contributing to Public Administration Reform in Kraljevo - WeBER PAR Monitor
Within the framework of the Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform (WeBER), financed by the European Union and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the non-governmental organisation Praxis examined the process of public administration reform in Kraljevo and gave proposals for the improvement of that process. One of the proposals was that the City of Kraljevo should ensure public participation in the process of decision making and adoption of general acts.
Read the full text here.
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