Everyone must be protected from privation and must be able to enjoy minimum rights necessary for survival. Without protection from poverty and social exclusion there can neither be human dignity nor respect for human rights. Poverty and privation infallibly point to the existing violation of human rights and reduce opportunities of an individual to enjoy the rights he/she is entitled to. Inability to satisfy the main existential needs is almost always accompanied by social exclusion, illiteracy, malnourishment, poor health and discrimination. And these very consequences require that poverty be approached as an issue of human rights violations and not as an exclusively economic phenomenon.

The social protection system is inseparable from the phenomenon of poverty and from prevention of consequences brought on by privation. Although social protection itself cannot eradicate the causes of poverty and the phenomenon itself, it may still alleviate its consequences, the recurrence and spreading thereof. Therefore, the states have an obligation to assist the persons in need of social protection by use of the social protection mechanisms.

The group most severely affected by poverty and at greatest risk of staying in poverty in Serbia are the members of the Roma ethnic community. Their deeply rooted poverty cannot be observed as an economic problem solely, but as a reflection and a consequence of their long-standing marginalization and inequality in all the other spheres – in education, on the labour market, in access to health care and social housing.

Through this report Praxis first invested efforts in making an analysis of obligations of the State to set up a system ensuring social protection, meeting the social needs and enabling exercise of the right to social protection of one of the most disadvantaged groups living on its territory. The report also focuses on problems related to deficiencies of the legal framework and, accordingly, problems which Praxis and its clients have faced in practice, through describing examples of individual cases, which refer to establishing territorial jurisdiction of the social welfare centres and obstacles in exercising the right to social assistance for inhabitants of informal settlements and the “legally invisible” persons, as well as complicated administrative procedure. Finally, the report shows the consequences of derivation of the right to social protection.

Download: Analysis of the Main Obstacles and Problems in Access of Roma to the Right to Social Protection