A large number of national and international organisations, and the bodies monitoring the implementation of international treaties ratified by Serbia, have been drawing attention in recent years to the need to stop forced evictions from informal settlements. In March 2011, after consideration of the Republic of Serbia’s periodic report and other submitted reports, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommended to the Republic of Serbia to take steps to ensure that any dislocation of informal settlements did not involve further forced evictions, and to put in place procedural protections that would allow respect for human dignity of the residents of informal settlements. In addition, in October 2011, the European Commission in its Analytical Report on the Serbia's EU accession stated that: “There is still no systematic approach to the relocation of illegal Roma settlements, which is often conducted inappropriately, resulting in serious violations and breaches of basic human rights."

According to the latest information from the 2011 Census, there are about 780 settlements throughout Serbia, over one seventh of which are located in Belgrade. Since 2009, there have been 16 major evictions from informal settlements in Belgrade affecting nearly 1,500 persons. The conducted forced evictions were accompanied by numerous violations of human rights of the residents of informal settlements: property rights, the right to free choice of residence and the right to adequate housing guaranteed by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

As part of its activities aimed at resolving this pressing problem, in May 2012 Praxis published a report on the eviction from the informal settlement in Block 72 in New Belgrade.

Download the report: Eviction from the Informal Settlement in Block 72, New Belgrade