Belgrade, February, 2016

- Where am I from? I’m from planet Earth. A human being from planet Earth. But I guess I should have said that I am from Syria. It would be more useful, wouldn’t it? (Young man, YOB 1994, Pakistan)

- “Get in line. Here you are. Your clothes are right there. Signature here. Thank you. Next”. And so from one country to another. Sorry I am crying. People help us, of course. Just, it has been a long time ago since anyone asked me “How are you?”. (Man, YOB 1960, Syria)

The Higher Court in Belgrade concluded today, on March 17 2016, the final hearing upon the lawsuit for determination of discrimination, which Praxis filed against the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka, which denied the right to transport from home to school and back to a girl with severe sight impairment, and thus the possibility of education. Specifically, the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System envisages that the budget of a local self-government shall provide funds for transport, lodging and food for children and pupils with disabilities, regardless of the distance of the place of living from the school.

Since the above-stated support was not provided for the girl at the beginning of the first grade in 2012, the father of the girl and the school submitted the request for providing transport. Given that the President of the Municipality did not react, the father filed a complaint to the Commissioner for Protection of Equality in February 2015. The Commissioner established that the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka had committed a discriminatory act against the girl on the basis of her disability by not providing transport to the girl. On that occasion, the Commissioner recommended that the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka should take all necessary measures in order to provide transport to the girl. Since the Municipality did not act in accordance with the Commissioner’s recommendation, Praxis filed a lawsuit and requested from the Municipality to commit to provide funds for transportation of the girl from home to school and back during her education.  

The lawsuit also requested defining a temporary measure which would provide conditions for regular attendance of school for the girl until the completion of the procedure. Even though the decision on temporary measure was reached in February this year, the adequate transportation has not yet been provided. 

While we are waiting for the decision of the court, we would like to remind, once again, that pursuant to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Republic of Serbia is committed to ensure compulsory and free education on an equal basis for all and without discrimination. Also, the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, Law on Prevention of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, and laws and bylaws governing the area of education explicitly forbid discrimination against persons with disabilities in all spheres of life. 

See the announcement: Municipality of Smederevska Palanka Discriminated against a Pupil with Disability

"When I went to see a doctor last winter, I entered the doctor’s office and she told me that I didn’t need to come since she could see that I was not ill, although I really was ill. She didn’t even examine me and I didn’t complain to anyone.” (F, YOB 2000, Bor)

“In most institutions, employees are more unfriendly to Roma, even though they do not say it is the reason.” (F, YOB 1988, Prokuplje) 

 “In Pristina, I lived in a Roma mahala and children from the mahala mainly did not go to school. I don’t know why, simply it was so that children did not attend school, but they had to work. I looked after my siblings, and children of close relatives, while the adults were working.” (F, YOB 1969, Leskovac) 

“My parents thought that female children should not go to school; they were expected to look after younger siblings and do housework. They did not enrol me in school so that I wouldn’t be spoiled.” (F, YOB 1982, Bor)

How easily or how carelessly do we access our rights? How much and in what way do we become aware of our rights or the lack of them? What is multiple discrimination and how it affects the exercise of human rights? How easy is it to access „rights guaranteed by birth“ at the crossroad of gender, racial and structural discrimination?

Even though “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights“, the credibility of the words from the Universal Declaration or legal acts of the Republic of Serbia guaranteeing equal rights to all citizens, may be best assessed by those to whom these rights, though guaranteed and universal in the paper, are inaccessible, denied and often unknown in everyday life.

It seems to us that rights are not guaranteed and granted at birth. We exercise the rights within the state system, as members of a political community, as political subjects. However, the persons who do not have evidence on their birth, citizenship and do not possess personal documents, are legally invisible. In Serbia, those are mostly Roma, who daily encounter numerous impediments to exercise of the rights.

We exercise the rights as social subjects, and equal participants in society. If we are discriminated by the society we live in, the exercise of the rights guaranteed by the law and thus available to us as equal citizens of certain country, becomes impeded by discriminatory social practices. We exercise rights or are deprived of them, in a daily interaction with the other members of society. 

We exercise the rights also within an immediate community, a family. The exercise of rights for the Roma women, who live and grow up in dominantly patriarchal social environment, with clearly defined gender roles which women keep in the private sphere, is additionally impeded. 

We gain awareness about the rights through education and the availability of information. Without the information and awareness about their rights, Roma women are in an extremely vulnerable position. Even when they possess personal documents, decision on their lives are often reached by their husbands or parents. If their personal choices are not in line with the imposed ones, the unavailability of information on who they may address for support and the lack of appropriate infrastructure for the implementation of support expose them to multiples discrimination and vulnerability. Their access to rights is then blocked from all sides. 

We exercise the rights through economic independence. 

Research on access to socio-economic rights for Roma women in Serbia, which we conducted in 2015, with the support of Civil Rights Defenders, in 10 municipalities in the south of Serbia, gave the following findings:

• the right to social protection is exercised by 38% of women who are right holders; 27% of women responded that their spouses/common-law partners were holders of the rights to social protection, while the same answer was given by only 7% of men;

• 31% of female respondents completed elementary school, 17% of female respondents have never attended school, a total of 39% female respondents said that they had been enrolled in elementary school, but had not completed yet; only 4% of female respondents have completed secondary school.

• out of 100 surveyed Roma women, 35% of them confirmed that they have received some income; 54% of surveyed Roma women have never applied for a job, and as many as 100% of women gave this response in Kursumlija, while in Leskovac and Prokuplje 90% of female respondents answered this way;

• 92% of female respondents live in dilapidated facilities made of brick, 88% live in the facilities that have electricity, 72% have access to drinking water, while 45% live in the facilities that are not connected to the sewage network;

• the most common reason for not exercising social protection rights and not possessing a health booklet is the is the lack of necessary documents; poverty is the major cause of non-enrolment or termination of elementary education.

Within European Action Week Against Racism, we want to point at social, legal and political barriers encountered by a large number of Roma women in everyday life on their way towards the exercise of rights – as members of a discriminated minority community, as women within highly patriarchal system, as legally invisible and without the voting right, both inside and outside their community.

What is hate crime? Why is it important to make clear distinction between hate crime and other crimes? What is the role of the local community in fight against hate crime?

In the period from 22 December 2015 to 26 February 2016, Praxis visited Valjevo, Nis, Kraljevo, Sabac and Pancevo and organized a series of trainings named Hate crime in Serbia.

The trainings gathered 40 participants – representatives of NGO sector, social welfare centres, police and courts – and opened a number of discussions about the problems faced by victims of hate crime, criminal procedures conducted for hate oriented attacks, role of local community in fight against hate crime and importance of registering such cases.

What should we know?

• hate crime is a criminal act motivated by hatred towards someone just because he/she is different!
  
  
• hate crime was introduced in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia in 2012, but it is inherent to society and there are many examples of hate crime throughout the history: suffering of Jews, Roma and the Slavs during the Second World War, violence against African-Americans in the USA in the middle of the last century, the genocide in Rwanda and other crimes
  
  
• hate crime is not caused by acting of a victim, but its innate qualities, or personal characteristics, such as national or ethnic origin, colour of skin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity
  
  
• psychological and physical violence occurs as a result of intolerance and hatred
  
  
• any of us may be a victim of hate crime and we all have traits that make us different from others
  
  

Why is it important to talk about hate crime?

• hate crime is a crime of high social risk, also called a message crime by some; by attacking an individual, a perpetrator also attacks the whole group to which the individual belongs, and sends a message to all members of the group that they are not safe or welcome
  
  
• responsibilities of state institutions, but also the responsibilities of the society and individuals are to encourage tolerance, instead of hate messages to send messages of understanding and support, through exploring and understanding the other and different to say NO to stereotypes and prejudices and thus prevent the occurrence of hate crimes  
  
  
• the task of state institutions is that if such criminal act occurs, there is an appropriate reaction meaning that the criminal act is adequately processed and registered and perpetrator properly punished 

March 21, The International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination is approaching. On that occasion, UNITED Intercultural Action every year coordinates the activities performed during European Action Week Against Racism, when the organization across Europe, following the principle of equality for all, initiate numerous activities with the united attitude and messages against racism, fascism, discrimination and intolerance.
 
How do we fight against racism, discrimination and intolerance while we are witnessing closing of borders, catastrophic and mostly helpless situations in which refugees and asylum seekers find themselves, xenophobic reactions, racist motivated acts of violence, hate speech, segregation of Roma children in schools, open intolerance and attacks on members of LGBT community?

During European Action Week Against Racism, we will present to you a range of information and stories we come across in our everyday work. In this way, we want to point at the urgent need for actions, open and loud protests against social injustice and disrespect for human rights, but also at the ways in which we can, individually or collectively, step up and say NO to racism, intolerance and discrimination.

Praxis took part in a discussion within the international youth training „A MILE IN MY SHOES: tools for fighting discrimination and building more inclusive society“, taking place in Belgrade from 5-14 March, organized through cooperation of Portuguese NGO Agora Aveiro and Serbian NGO Klub Putnika, and financed by Erasmus+.

The training gathered around 20 young people coming from Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, Hungary and Portugal, with the aim to build up the knowledge and offer various perspectives on one of the biggest crisis of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers since the World War Two. Furthermore, at the same time the purpose of the training has been to motivate and encourage young participants to come up with different ideas and tools for actions which would foster social inclusion and promote anti-discriminatory values.

During the discussion, we shared some of our experiences acquired through the field work related to refugees’ and asylum seekers’ protection and basic humanitarian assistance. If you would like to better understand the concept of “a mile in my shoes” and get a closer insight into the experiences of the refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, you are welcome to join the final part of the training, a public event called “A Living Library” which will take place in KC Grad on Saturday, 12 March, from 16h to 18h.

Praxis took part in a discussion within the international youth training „A MILE IN MY SHOES: tools for fighting discrimination and building more inclusive society“, taking place in Belgrade from 5-14 March, organized through cooperation of Portuguese NGO Agora Aveiro and Serbian NGO Klub Putnika, and financed by Erasmus+.

The training gathered around 20 young people coming from Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, Hungary and Portugal, with the aim to build up the knowledge and offer various perspectives on one of the biggest crisis of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers since the World War Two. Furthermore, at the same time the purpose of the training has been to motivate and encourage young participants to come up with different ideas and tools for actions which would foster social inclusion and promote anti-discriminatory values.

During the discussion, we shared some of our experiences acquired through the field work related to refugees’ and asylum seekers’ protection and basic humanitarian assistance. If you would like to better understand the concept of “a mile in my shoes” and get a closer insight into the experiences of the refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, you are welcome to join the final part of the training, a public event called “A Living Library” which will take place in KC Grad on Saturday, 12 March, from 16h to 18h.

The United Nations (UN) declared 8 March the International Women's Day in 1975. Since then, UN has been marking this day with a special theme. So, this year’s global initiative and action “Planet 50-50 by 2030”, under the auspices of the UN, calls for joining the efforts of world leaders and decision-makers to do everything to improve the status of women by 2030 through the implementation of objectives that include achieving gender equality and empowerment of women and girls around the world, and provision of an inclusive and quality education for all and promotion of lifelong learning. 

Achieving these goals requires the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, ending any form of violence against women and girls (including human trafficking, sexual and any other exploitation of women and girls), as well as the elimination of many other unacceptable practices such as child, early and forced marriages and female genital mutilation.

However, what is more important to emphasize, achieving these goals requires initiatives that go beyond the traditional 8 March discourse and which involve action both in the public and the private sphere.

During 2016, Praxis contributes to the achievement of these objectives through the implementation of a number of activities aimed at the prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages, and protection of children and women refugees, bearing in mind that their specific situation requires a significant number of gender-sensitive services and protection mechanisms.

In reference to the struggle for personal and human rights of women throughout history, and with an intention that 8 March spirit remains recognizable for the fighting spirit and fearlessness of women, we represent to you the story of incredible Nawal Soufi.

Read the story: Meet the One-Woman Syrian Rescue Mission