Nevladina organizacija Praxis, u saradnji sa Minority Rights Group Europe, će u septembru 2021. godine organizovati treninge namenjene sledećim ciljnim grupama:

• Diplomiranim pravnicima/pravnicama koji imaju interesovanja za oblasti zaštite od diskriminacije i socijalne pravde, kao i za rad sa romskom zajednicom;
• Predstavnicima romskih organizacija civilnog društva, kao i organizacija koje se bave zaštitom prava pripadnika romske nacionalne manjine na lokalnom i nacionalnom nivou;
• Romskim aktivistima i aktivistkinjama iz cele zemlje koji imaju iskustva u radu sa romskom zajednicom na lokalnom ili nacionalnom nivou i koji bi želeli da unaprede svoje znanje o nacionalnom antidiskriminacionom zakonodavstvu i načinima pružanja podrške žrtvama diskriminacije.

Treninzi za svaku od navedenih ciljnih grupa biće podeljeni u sledeće celine:

• Uvodni deo (online događaj u trajanju do maksimalno 2 sata), u okviru kog će se učesnici/ce upoznati sa ciljevima projekta i samog treninga.
• Onlajn kurs (u trajanju od 2 nedelje), prilagođen svakoj ciljnoj grupi pojedinačno. Tokom ove dve nedelje učesnici će moći da prate i završe trening prema sopstvenom ritmu: ne postoje „predavanja“ ili „seminari“, učesnici će raditi na interaktivnoj onlajn platformi. Svaka celina sadrži niz vežbi koje pomažu učesnicima da procene svoje znanje. Tokom trajanja treninga, učesnici će imati podršku voditelja kursa.
• Završni deo (onlajn događaj u trajanju od dva sata), specifičan za svaku ciljnu grupu.

Treninzi se organizuje u okviru projekta „Do ravnopravnosti Roma kroz unapređen pristup pravima“, koji ima za cilj unapređenje stanja u oblasti zaštite pripadnika romske nacionalne manjine od svih oblika diskriminacije podizanjem svesti javnosti, a naročito ključnih aktera o štetnosti ove društvene pojave, zatim poboljšanjem primene antidiskriminacionog zakonodavstva i osnaživanjem Roma da koriste dostupne mehanizme zaštite prava na ravnopravnost.

Polaznici koji uspešno prođu sve delove obuke, dobiće sertifikat o završenom treningu.

Prijavu na trening možete poslati na adresu This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. do 30. jula 2021. godine u 17h, uz naznaku na koji trening se prijavljujete. O tačnom datumu početka treninga u septembru ćemo Vas naknadno obavestiti.

Više detalja o pojedinačnim treninzima:

• TRENING ZA PRAVNIKE/CE O ANTIDISKRIMINACIONOM ZAKONODAVSTVU
• TRENING ZA ORGANIZACIJE CIVILNOG DRUŠTVA O ANTIDISKRIMINACIONOM ZAKONODAVSTVU
• TRENING ZA ROMSKE AKTIVISTE I AKTIVISTKINJE O ANTISKRIMINACIONOM ZAKONODAVSTVU

In the very center of Belgrade, Serbia, hidden behind the platforms of the Bus and Railway Station, invisible for the inhabitants of the city, during 2016 and 2017, a parallel city of refugees and migrants grew. All those who were, for various reasons, outside the reception and asylum centers, lived for months in abandoned barracks during the coldest winter in many years, when the temperature dropped below -20. From there, they started their journey to try to cross the border irregularly and reach Western Europe, where they were most often beaten, robbed and returned ill after unsuccessful attempts.

With the expansion of a grandiose infrastructure project, all the squats were demolished to give way to construction sites, the foundations of modern skyscrapers on the river bank and the future new landmark of Belgrade. From the settlement where 2,000 people lived at one time, among them a few hundred unaccompanied and separated children, only the ruins remained after the excavator. Most people were then relocated to reception centers, where they had incomparably better conditions. However, most grieved for the demolished barracks, a place that grew in some bizarre direction, with its streets, cricket fields, hairdressers, volunteers, its celebrations with traditional dances. Those of us who worked in that place every day knew the other side of it, much darker, all its risks, concerning health, safety and other issues, which were a consequence of what some of them perceived as the ultimate freedom. Clashes, various types of violence, robberies and frauds, fear and anxiety lurked beneath the layer of cheerful greetings and jokes. Life in such a place, between tons of garbage, had only one purpose - to be close to the station and immediately respond to the call of smugglers, to continue the journey as soon as possible.

A year later, incomparably fewer refugees and migrants were outdoors, out of the system. At the site of the barracks, construction machinery largely performed work on the construction of high towers. However, at that place, during outreach work, we found a group of minors from Afghanistan, unaccompanied boys. They slept in large pipes waiting to be set up on the construction site. Nylon was pulled over the opening of the pipe, to protect them from the wind and rain.

We have been creating a relationship of trust with them for a long time, making them aware of the risks of their decision to be there. The reasons were the same ones we had been listening to for years. By going to the Asylum Center, which is a 6-hour drive from Belgrade, they lose the opportunity to be ready to move as soon as the smugglers call them. By not answering the call, they lose money or a place in the next group.

Praxis' team for the protection of refugees and migrants repeatedly referred minors to Field Social Workers, as well as to other organizations that provided specific assistance. We took them to the doctors for medical care whenever necessary, but also to workshops organized by other organizations in the nearby safe space where they carried out their activities. The boys told us how they had crossed the borders in all ways, crossing rivers, smuggling on trucks, staying under trains or freezing for days wandering in the woods. All the failures, beatings by the border police, push backs to countries from which they would try to cross again irregularly, looting in the parks of the cities they passed through, encounters with wild animals in the "jungle", all this left marks that they tried to cover up, having only one goal, to move forward.

While visiting a space where several organizations worked with this group of children, one of them, a fourteen-year-old, quietly wrote something on a sticker that he carelessly pasted on a nearby wall when he left. Out of curiosity, we later invited a cultural mediator to translate the inscription for us. It said in Persian, "Mom, I miss you, I dream of you every night”.

Praxis' team worked with this group of children on a daily basis, and they eventually agreed to enter the social protectioin system, after which they were placed in a nearby Asylum Center. Although they were no longer exposed to the risks of staying outside, they did not stay in the Asylum Center for long. The boys called us after a few months from Western Europe.

Today, along the river, Belgrade Waterfront dominates the skyline. At the place where the bicycle path now passes, only a couple of years ago, some children stood in torn shoes, wet and frozen, towards their dreams. In one of those skyscrapers a pipe was built in, which was home to a group of boys from Kabul during the winter of 2018.

The case of a boy, who was identified by Praxis staff during their visit to Doljevac in 2020, demonstrates how failures in the work of institutions can affect the lives of citizens and their access to basic rights. A sixth-grade primary school pupil did not have a determined personal name for thirteen years. His parents failed to determine his personal name within the legal deadline, and the father did not recognise paternity.

After the parents went abroad, the boy's grandparents took care of him and his siblings, and after their death, the children lived alone in Doljevac for several months, until their father returned from abroad. The boy's mother left the family many years ago. The boy now lives with his brothers, two of whom are adults.

In such situations, the social welfare centre is obliged to take measures and perform activities to regulate the child’s personal status and enable his or her access to basic rights, in the best interest of the child. The guardianship authority was obliged to conduct a procedure and adopt a decision on determining the child’s personal name, and then to adopt a decision appointing a guardian in order to regulate the boy's personal status, and particularly his registration to health insurance.

Considering that in one of the field visits Praxis staff established that the boy did not have a determined personal name, they helped with submitting a request for determining a personal name to the Social Welfare Centre in Doljevac.

As there was no response to the submitted request, Praxis sent a letter to the Social Welfare Centre in Doljevac requesting information on the status of the case. In the telephone conversations that followed, Praxis reminded the Centre’s lawyer, supervisor and social worker of the fact that the Law on Family required the guardianship authority to determine the child's personal name in such cases, and that it was in the child's interest to be formally recognised before the law. Praxis then stressed that the boy, due to the lack of documents, was deprived of basic rights, and in particular the right to health care and education.

The Centre’s representatives considered that it was not possible to determine the personal name of the child without the participation of his parents. Given that the guardianship authority still did not adopt a decision on the submitted request, Praxis sent an urgency letter, after which the Centre responded with a notification of the inability to conduct a procedure for determining the child's personal name, because the child's mother did not reside at the address covered by the Social Welfare Centre. The boy's mother lives in Germany and does not have a valid ID card.

The Social Welfare Centre is obliged to assign a name to every child, if it is not determined within the legal deadline, regardless of any circumstances, including whether the mother can participate in the procedure. The Constitution, the Law on Family, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantee every child the right to be registered into birth registry books and to have a personal name.

In the meantime, the boy's older brothers went to the Social Welfare Centre in Doljevac on their own with the intention to regulate the personal status of their minor brother. After repeatedly insisting with this guardianship authority to take measures to solve the boy's status, as they told Praxis, the Centre threatened to relocate the boy and place him in a foster family, after which they stopped contacting the guardianship authority.

Praxis has learned from the boy's brothers that the boy was diagnosed with diabetes last year. The boy experienced various symptoms for several days, after which the paediatrician of the Health Centre in Doljevac agreed to examine him, despite the fact that the child did not have a health card. The blood test revealed a high sugar level, after which the boy was urgently transported to the Clinical Centre Niš, where they initially refused to admit him for not having a health card. Since his health condition was critical, the boy was finally hospitalised. After being discharged from the Clinical Centre Niš, the boy could not be examined by an endocrinologist because he did not have a birth certificate or a health card. The boy bought all the medical devices and supplies necessary for the control of blood sugar levels, which he would have obtained for free if he had been registered to health insurance. The boy bought the necessary supplies when and if the family had the money.

Due to the seriousness of the situation and the boy's health condition, and due to the omissions in the work of the Social Welfare Centre, Praxis addressed the Protector of Citizens to take action within its purview and to control the legality of the Centre's actions. The UNHCR, the Protector of Citizens and the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia signed the Agreement of Understanding, with the aim of resolving the outstanding problems faced by undocumented persons. Their representatives are also the members of the Task Force set up on the basis of this Agreement.

Although Praxis repeatedly, during more than nine months, pointed out to the need to resolve the boy's case and the Centre's unlawful actions, it was only after the Protector of Citizens controlled the legality of the Social Welfare Centre's actions that the guardianship authority initiated a procedure for determining the child's personal name. The results were fully visible two months after the involvement of the Protector of Citizens in this case.

The Social Welfare Centre in Doljevac adopted a decision determining the personal name for the boy. His personal name was registered, his Citizen Unique Personal Number (JMBG) was determined and the fact of his citizenship was registered in the registry office in Niš. It was only then, thirteen years after his birth, that the boy obtained the necessary documents, which finally enabled him to exercise the right to health insurance, which he desperately needed. The Social Welfare Centre in Doljevac obtained a birth certificate and, in cooperation with the branch office of the Republic Health Insurance Fund in Doljevac, registered the boy for health insurance.

This finally solved the case of the boy from Doljevac who had been deprived of access to basic rights for thirteen years because his personal name had not been determined. The case was solved within two months of addressing the Protector of Citizens, thanks to the cooperation established within the Task Force, based on the Agreement of Understanding between the UNHCR, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia. Although this case has finally been successfully resolved, it shows that in practice a lot of work remains to be done to strengthen capacity, as well as to sensitise officials about the special position and needs of persons from the marginalised groups, so that all citizens can access their basic rights. The examples like this (the boy from Doljevac) show us the extent to which legal aid and also advocacy are necessary and important in such cases. Despite the successes that have been achieved so far in this area, unfortunately, in the field and in practice in general we continue to meet people who still do not have personal documents and, as a consequence, lack the opportunity to exercise basic rights.