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NGOs from Serbia – Regional Centre for Minorities, CEKOR - Centre for Ecology and Sustainable Development, CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, and Praxis submitted an alternative report entitled Information Submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on the Occasion of Initial Periodic Report of Serbia.

As a State Party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Republic of Serbia is obliged to regularly submit reports to the Committee, presenting all measures taken regarding the implementation of the Convention. Serbia submitted the Initial Periodic Report to the Committee in August 2009, 19 months late. It is also practice that non-governmental organizations submit alternative or shadow reports as additional information to the Committee in their estimate of State reports.

The organizations submitting the report have opted for the so-called “violations approach” which identifies burning issues in exercise of basic human rights, such as, for example, problems related to right to housing, right to nationality, right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State, right to own property and other basic human rights. Due to the selected approach, the report does not deal with the positive sides of the State policy in certain topics, but exclusively with serious violations of human rights of which no information was given in the Initial Periodic Report of the Republic of Serbia.
 
The data presented in this report are a result of years of field work, information and cooperation with grass-root organizations, analysis of our previous experience in the topics relevant for the report and following on and analysing the work of the State bodies.

The Committee will consider the report during the 78th Session, on Thursday 24th February and Friday 25th February 2011. The report will be considered together with those of the State and international organizations Amnesty International and European Roma Rights Centre.

Download: Information Submitted to CERD on the Occasion of Initial Periodic Report of Serbia

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Within the Project “Contribution to Sustainability of Return of Roma from Sweden and Other Countries in Europe to Serbia“, funded by the Swedish Migration Board, Praxis issued a report Access to Rights and Integration of Returnees on the Basis of the Readmission Agreements in August 2011.

The gravest problems that the returnee population is facing appear in the areas identified as a priority also in the 2009 Strategy for the Reintegration of Returnees on the basis of the Readmission Agreements. These are: access to personal documents and registration of permanent and temporary residence, education, employment, health care and social protection, and housing.

In addition to the returnees on the basis of the readmission agreements, there are other categories of population in Serbia such as the displaced persons and the members of Roma ethnic minority who are in an extremely difficult situation and whose successful social inclusion depends on removal of obstacles in the aforementioned areas.

Bearing in mind that Roma constitute the majority of the returnee population, Praxis launched a Swedish Migration Board – funded project Contribution to Sustainability of Return of Roma from Sweden and Other Countries in Europe to Serbia in September 2010. The aim of the project was to raise awareness and empower returnees on the basis of the readmission agreements, voluntary returnees and the general Roma population in Serbia to access their rights, protect them and to fully involve themselves in the Serbian society. At the same time, the aim of the project was to inform the relevant stakeholders at the national and local level about the problems the above mentioned groups faced, and to encourage them to cooperate in facilitating the access of all these groups to their fundamental rights.

The objective of this publication is to present the problems, which the returnees and the Roma population in general in Serbia are facing, through practical examples, to review the possibilities that the existing legal system and the system of social network offer in resolving them and to consider the consequences that the neglect of these problems may have on exercise of the basic rights of returnees and their successful social inclusion. The publication will also propose guidelines for future acting in integration of returnees, resulting from the work of Praxis with this population and from cooperation with the representatives of state institutions at national and local level and non-governmental organisations working with returnees and members of the Roma community.

Download: Access to Rights and Integration of Returnees on the Basis of the Readmission Agreements

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