Text entitled "Personal Documents for Legally Invisible Citizens", published in the daily newspaper Politika on 12 February 2009, can be downloaded here (Serbian only).  

A short video dealing with "legally invisible" persons was broadcasted on Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) news programme DNEVNIK at 19:30. On that occasion, Ivana Stankovic, Praxis Project Coordinator, gave a short interview for RTS. You can download the text "Ghosts of the System" and the video here.

Experts of the Department for Rights of National Minorities of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia spoke to the representatives of NGO Praxis, who presented their longstanding experience in representing citizens in the procedures of obtaining personal documents before the competent bodies. During the discussion, the importance of engaging all competent institutions in the process of promotion of normative solutions was emphasised, in order to establish a more efficient procedure of subsequent registration of the fact of birth in birth registry books, as a basis for obtaining personal documents, especially concerning members of Roma community. With respect to the above-mentioned, future cooperation was agreed. Furthermore, taking into consideration that the number of complaints submitted to the Ombudsperson was increased, due to impossibility of citizens to exercise rights to registration of permanent residence, the discussion was also about the need to adopt new legal solutions in the field.

The news about the meeting was taken from the official web site of the Ombudsperson.

It seems that the Law on the Seats and Territorial Jurisdiction of Courts and Public Prosecutor’s Office (in effect as of 1 January 2010) has not offered the best solution with regard to jurisdiction of courts in the procedure of issuance of certificate confirming that no criminal proceeding is conducted against a person with permanent residence in Kosovo.

On one hand, the Law prescribes jurisdiction of Basic Court in Kosovska Mitrovica for the territory of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, but on the other hand, it prescribes that cases from municipal and county courts from Kosovo should be taken over by basic or higher courts in Vranje, Kraljevo, Krusevac, Leskovac, Nis, Prokuplje and Pozarevac.

What does it look like in practice?
A person that has permanent residence registered on the territory of the Municipality of Urosevac, Kosovo, addressed the Basic Court in Leskovac (which took over the cases of the Basic Court in Urosevac) with a request for issuance of a certificate confirming that no criminal proceedings are being conducted against him/her. The Basic Court in Leskovac refers the person to the Basic Court in Kosovska Mitrovica, which again refers the person to address the Basic Court in Leskovac. Both courts claim that they do not possess records to be able to issue such certificates.

A way to a solution?
In order to clarify the situation, on 9 June 2010, Praxis addressed the Ministry of Justice with a request for opinion on the matter – which court is competent to act in the procedure of issuance of a certificate to a person with permanent residence registered in Kosovo confirming that no criminal proceeding is conducted against him/her. A month later, the Ministry informed Praxis that it had taken certain measures aimed at establishing the manner of proceeding of courts upon parties’ requests for issuance of the certificates. The outcome of the Ministry’s action should contribute to courts’ making available information necessary for citizens’ accessing their rights in a transparent manner.

At a meeting of the Coalition against Discrimination, held on 30 September 2010, Praxis officially became a member of the Coalition against Discrimination, upon agreement of all Coalition members.

The Coalition against Discrimination was established in 2005. Work of the Coalition is founded on the principles of respect of differences and development of solidarity with discriminated groups, on non-violence, openness in work, equal protection of human rights for all and the principle of non-hierarchy of human rights.

Non-governmental sector has been drawing attention of the State for years to the need of urgent resolution of the issue of “legally invisible” persons in Serbia. So far, there has been no adequate legal reaction from the State in terms of adopting amendments to the existing laws in this field, which are in practise imprecise, incomplete and inefficient. The competent State bodies thus demonstrate that they are not ready and capable of assuming responsibility for providing protection and enjoyment of basic human rights and freedoms, guaranteed by the Constitution, for certain categories of population.

For the second year in a row, the need of resolving the issue of legally invisible persons has been pointed out by the European Commission in its Serbia Progress Report. Serbia has also been warned for many years about the hard position and social exclusion of these persons by other international organizations, primarily UN bodies, Council of Europe and the OSCE. In the second decade of the 21st century, Serbia is a European country where thousands of the poorest people, mainly Roma, are still outside the legal system of the country to which they belong.

The TV feature, broadcasted on the RTS, clearly shows that competent State officials insist on the standpoint that the existing legal framework is not an obstacle for subsequent registration of the “legally invisible” persons into birth registry books. Thus, they ignore the opinion of numerous non-governmental and expert organizations which have been pointing to the fact that “legally invisible” persons cannot meet the prescribed requirements for subsequent registration in birth registry books, and that refusal to adopt amendments to the existing laws in this field represents an act of indirect discrimination of the “legally invisible” persons, prohibited by the Constitution.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government itself, which is, in the first place, responsible for resolution of problems of “legally invisible” persons, has been denying for years that this problem in practice exists and that it is of systemic character, but claims it to be a mere incident.  In accordance with this standpoint, the responsible Minister Markovic has also been persistently rejecting the possible legal solution to this problem which was offered to him a few years ago by the non-governmental sector. He has been refusing the dialogue with the non-governmental sector on this topic, and also refusing to offer some other, alternative systemic solution to the problem which would, in simple and efficient way, enable the “legally invisible” persons to subsequently register into the birth registry books.

We invite the State institutions to finally stop denying the fact that the problem of “legally invisible” persons in Serbia exists and we request that the competent State authorities, primarily the Government and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, without delay legally regulate the procedure of subsequent registration into the birth registry books for this category of persons, as well as provide full enjoyment and protection of their other rights and freedoms.

Members of the Coalition against Discrimination are: NGO Praxis, the Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, Labris – Organization for Lesbian Human Rights, Anti-Trafficking Center, Network of Boards for Human Rights (CHRIS Network), Association of Students with Disabilities, Gayten LGBT and Regional Centre for Minorities.

Download (Serbian only): Transcript of RTS TV feature Superfluous Citizens