Next year it will be 10 years since the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure was amended by adding certain provisions that introduced in the legal system of Serbia a new kind of procedure - procedure for determining the date and place of birth.

Thanks to this procedure, many citizens managed to register in birth registry books and finally exercise the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws.

However, in the process of providing free legal aid to persons who are not registered in birth registry books, Praxis has identified a number of problems and irregularities that in many cases hindered the conducting of procedures for determining the date and place of birth.

The Conclusion of the Civil Division of the Supreme Court of Cassation on the jurisdiction of the non-contentious court in the procedure of registration in birth registry books could particularly hinder the exercise of the right to birth registration.

The problems that arise threaten to significantly undermine the positive changes introduced about ten years ago by the amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure. These problems could again put many citizens - especially poor members of the Roma national minority - in a situation where they cannot register in birth registry books.

More information is available in this document.

The document has been prepared as part of the project “Ending Roma Statelessness in the Western Balkans”, financed by the Open Society Foundation through the European Network on Statelessness. The views expressed in this document are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the donor.