Statement by  Network of Organizations for Children of Serbia (MODS)

The Council for the Rights of the Child, the body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, appointed Jasmina Miković, the Deputy Executive Director of Praxis and the President of the Board of MODS, as their member in their new convocation.

MODS expects that a constituent session of the Council for the Rights of the Child will be held very quickly, bearing in mind that Serbia currently lack the basic strategic documents in the field of children’s rights, and that it is necessary to work intensively on developing mechanisms for coordination of activities and measures in the field of protection and realization of the rights of the child.

 * Observations and comments by the MODS on the Report on the Implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 23

We remind that with the Action Plan for Chapter 23, the Government accepted an obligation to strengthen its role in the formulation and monitoring of children’s rights policies. Accordingly, MODS expresses the hope that the new Government will work to strengthen the capacities of the Council for the Rights of the Child so that it grows into a leading inter-sector coordination mechanism with core competencies in the child protection sector.

In July, the number of refugees/migrants met and interviewed by Praxis’ mobile team on a daily basis did not exceed 250 per day, including the newly arrived ones, the refugees/migrants accommodated in the Asylum Centre Krnjača and the Reception Centre Obrenovac and those who returned to Belgrade after unsuccessful attempts to cross the Croatian, Hungarian or Romanian border. 

Praxis continued its field work and provided a total of 191 newly arrived refugees and migrants (106 adults and 85 children, out of whom 66 UASC) in Belgrade with relevant information, which is fewer than in the previous month when we informed 279 newly arrived refugees/migrants. Out of the total number of newly arrived refugees and migrants, 110 persons or 57.6% of them were from Afghanistan. Four (4) newly arrived refugees and migrants were from Syria, which accounts for 2.1% of the total number. Two (2) refugees/migrants came from Iraq (1%), which is a significantly lower percentage than in the previous period. Fifty-four (54) refugees/migrants (28.3%) were from Pakistan, mainly single men and unaccompanied and separated children (UASC), like in the previous period. Ten (10) refugees/migrants (5.2% of the total number) came from Iran. One (1) newly arrived refugee/migrant came from Morocco (0.5%). A total of 10 refugees/migrants (5.2%) came from other countries: Bangladesh, India, China, Nepal, Cuba and Guinea. 

The families waiting for registration or transport to one of the asylum or reception centres they had been referred to still had the option of spending the night in Miksalište. The adult men stayed outdoors overnight, in the parks or at the railway station. There is still no organised transport to the reception and asylum centres, like in the previous reporting period. As regards food, clothing and medical assistance, the situation in the field remains unchanged:  there is still no organised distribution of food and clothing outside of the Asylum Centre Krnjača and the Reception Centre Obrenovac. The organisations that provide medical assistance are not present in the field in the afternoon hours.      

Download the whole Protection Monitoring Report HERE.

The Equal Rights Trust (ERT), the Association of Citizens Praxis (Praxis), and Sandžak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (Sandzak Committee) invite applications from lawyers who wish to participate in a Strategic Litigation Program for Serbian lawyers to undertake strategic litigation on equality and non-discrimination issues at the national level.  The closing date for applications is 30 September 2017.

 The selected lawyer will be responsible for:

• all preparation required for the case to be filed, including:
• collecting evidence and conducting interviews;
• reviewing relevant jurisprudence; and 
• drafting briefs, including developing arguments and drawing on international and comparative law relevant to the particular case; 
• all attendances at court; and 
• all interactions with the client. 

Each lawyer will receive a fee of €800 to cover litigation costs at the domestic level.  

More about the call can be found here.

As part of the project “Improving the equality legal and policy framework in Serbia and monitoring implementation of equality norms and policies“, financed by the European Union and implemented by Praxis together with the Equal Rights Trust from London and Sandžak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, five civil society organisations were granted funds for monitoring and documenting cases of discrimination in Serbia.

These funds, allocated as sub-grants in the average amount of EUR 5,000, are to be used for documenting cases of discrimination and inequality in Serbia, which have not been yet thoroughly investigated, through the collection of quantitative evidence of cases and forms of discrimination, as well as the subjective experiences of victims of discrimination.

In response to the public call, published in May this year, 32 applications for the allocation of funds were submitted timely. The selection criteria were: 

•  previous experience in research and reporting in the field of human rights;

•  legitimacy among disadvantaged groups and proper accessibility to such groups;

•  capacity to manage properly the allocated funds;

•  relevance of the proposed method of monitoring and documentation and geographical coverage;

•  whether the proposed topic for monitoring and documentation was poorly explored in the past and

•  inclusiveness and integrative approaches. 

The selected civil society organisations will be monitoring and documenting discrimination cases as of January 2018 as follows:

1. Da se zna! will focus on cases of discrimination against LGBT+ people in the field of health care in five cities in Serbia: Niš, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Novi Bečej and Prokuplje.

2. Roma Researchers will focus on young unemployed Roma, registered with the Employment Agency, in South Bačka District, with special emphasis on discrimination based on age, sex, level of education, ethnicity and religion, disability and sexual orientation.

3. NEOSTART will perform its work in the Belgrade Penitentiary and Correctional Institution in Padinska Skela and the Belgrade District Prison, with the aim of identifying cases of discrimination faced by the convicted returnees who have the experience of being released and becoming victims of some form of discrimination.

4. The Network of Committees for Human Rights in Serbia CHRIS will focus on discrimination against Roma women, who are also disabled, in the field of health care and social protection, in the following places in Serbia: Bujanovac, Vladičin Han, Vranje, Niš, Vlasotinac, Lebane, Negotin, Zaječar, Bor, Valjevo, Lazarevac, Draginje, Novi Pazar, Prijepolje and Tutin.

5. Association of Students with Disabilities will monitor the extent to which students with disabilities are discriminated against at higher education institutions, i.e. the public and private faculties in Belgrade. 

In this way, it will be ensured that discrimination cases are identified and documented and that adequate protection is provided to victims of discrimination.

On 28 July 2017, an informative meeting was held with media representatives in the premises of the Kraljevo City Administration. The aim was to highlight the importance of public administration reform and the role of the media in this process. The meeting was held as one of the activities of the project Contributing to Public Administration Reform in Kraljevo, implemented by Praxis as part of the Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform (WeBER), financed by the European Union and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Marija Dražović, Praxis Legal Advisor, informed the participants about the importance of public administration reform in the EU accession process. She also stressed that it was one of the priority tasks that Serbia had to perform successfully in that process. It was noted that the EU enlargement criteria recognised and emphasised the need for building a national public administration that would have the capacity to pursue the principles of good governance and effectively transpose and implement the acquis communautaire.

Taking into account the significance of the role of the media in monitoring of and reporting on the complex process of administration reform, its progress and challenges, the SIGMA Principles of Public Administration were presented and media representatives were invited to get acquainted with the content of these principles and the monitoring framework, which facilitated the monitoring of progress development over time.

Jasmina Miković, Praxis Deputy Executive Director, spoke about the role of civil society organisations and the media and emphasised their importance in raising awareness and knowledge of citizens about the progress of reforms and their significance for the European integration process through responsible and informed monitoring and reporting.

If we take a look at the stage of legislative drafting, as the main policy instrument, we shall notice  that it is often performed without sufficient preliminary analysis and regulation impact assessment, without a public hearing and citizen involvement. Research indicates that a public hearing is held for every tenth regulation only, while the percentage of law adoption by urgent procedure exceeds 70, which cannot be justified with the pace of the European integration process. In this regard, it is noticeable that there is a narrow space for the participation of civil society organisations, and there is also an impression that public authorities recognise their importance only because of the need to fulfill the EU’s expectations, and not because they consider it a condition of functional democracy.

The role of the media, as an initiator of public debate, is not sufficiently developed in the area of public administration reform, either due to financial instability or insufficiently conducive environment for investigating specific topics, which particularly applies to the local media.

Finally, media representatives emphasised that they recognised the importance of their participation in the process of public administration reform, but also the low level of awareness among citizens about the effects of successful reforms on their everyday lives.

It was concluded that the civil society and the media faced numerous challenges in the reform of public administration, and therefore it was very important to strengthen their capacities in order to be efficient "monitors" and active participants in the reform process.

Download: Invitation letter and Agenda 

Media coverage:  Ibarske novosti

                         RTV KV

                         KRUG PORTAL                         

In June, the number of refugees/migrants present in Belgrade every day decreased significantly compared to the period before the relocation of the persons sleeping rough to the reception and asylum centres.  Praxis’ mobile team every day met and talked to 50-300 refugees/migrants, including the newly arrived ones, the refugees/migrants accommodated in the Asylum Centre Krnjača and the Reception Centre Obrenovac and those who returned to Belgrade after an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Croatian, Hungarian or Romanian border. 

Praxis continued its field work and provided a total of 279 newly arrived refugees/migrants in Belgrade with relevant information, compared to the previous month when the total number was 269. Out of the total number of newly arrived refugees and migrants, 95 persons or 34.1% of them were from Afghanistan.  Thirteen (13) newly arrived refugees and migrants were from Syria, which accounts for 4.7% of the total number. 57 refugees/migrants came from Iraq (20.4%), mainly families, which is a significantly higher percentage than in the previous period. 45 refugees/migrants (16.1%) were from Pakistan, mainly single men and unaccompanied and separated children (UASC), like in the previous period. 49 refugees/migrants (17.6%) came from other countries - Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Somalia, Comoros, China, Mongolia, Palestine, Ghana, Turkey and Libya. 

Since June, only one of the non-governmental organisations working in Belgrade has been present during the night – Save the Children partner, Center for Youth Integration. Thanks to them, women and children who are waiting for registration and referral to reception and asylum centres have the opportunity to spend the night in Miksalište. The adult men who were waiting for registration stayed outdoors overnight. Every morning, Praxis’ mobile team noticed between 15 and 50 people in the parks near the Belgrade Bus Station. In this period, special concern is the lack of organised transport to the reception and asylum centres for newly arrived refugees/migrants. In addition, the organisations that provide medical assistance have reduced their operations in Belgrade, and consequently in the afternoons there are no medical staff present in the field in Belgrade.

Download the whole Protection Monitoring Report HERE.

18-19 May 2017

The Eurochild National Partners Networks (NPN) Group, which gathers 20 networks and represents in total 2.000 child rights organizations around Europe, met for two days in Brussels. The Network of Organisations for Children of Serbia (MODS) was represented by Jasmina Miković from Praxis, president of the MODS Management Board. On that occasion, she was elected a chairperson of NPN Group with a two-year mandate.

The first day of the meeting was focused on capacity building on advocating for the rights of refugee and migrant children by mainstreaming children’s rights in all EU and national policies and practices. Eurochild’s aim is to advocate for the EU to encourage Member States to strengthen their child protection systems to accommodate the specific needs of migrant and refugee children. To this end, Eurochild is currently collaborating with other European networks with a broader expertise on migration. Some of the Brussels-based networks, the Missing Children Europe, the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, and the European Council on Refugee and Exiles shared their experience on advocating for the rights of migrants and refugees. They highlighted that action at national level is of key importance to improve the situation of migrant and refugee children. EU instruments, such as the Communication on the protection of children in migration, need to “leave Brussels” and become well-known at national and local level: there are tools to be used to encourage national authorities to implement policies. The EU Return Handbook is currently being revised and updated by the European Commission: there is a risk of stronger measures promoting returns so need to monitor how governments will be reacting to it.

Moreover, Eurochild, in partnership with SOS Children’s Villages International, is currently developing a Compendium of case studies on the integration of migrant and refugee children across Europe. Therefore, some of the contributors to the Compendium were invited to the meeting to present their project/practice, highlighting achievements as well as challenges and lessons learnt. Marion Macleod from the Children in Scotland, UK, presented two examples of different approaches: The Scottish Guardianship Service, a partnership between the Scottish Refugee Council and Aberlour, through which young people are allocated a guardian; and an initiative by local authorities to find families for young unaccompanied asylum seekers, relying on faith communities and cultural groups. Barbora Messova, Coalition for Children Slovakia, provided an overview of the main challenges and lessons learnt in relation to advocating for the rights of migrant and refugee children at national level, with a particular focus on UASC with families in detention. Barbora underlined the importance of adapting language and methods depending on the relevant stakeholder to be engaged, in order for advocacy to have a stronger impact. Daria Crimella, Fondazione Albero della Vita, Italy, presented the “Un Faro in Città” project, which involved the establishment of a reception centre in the city of Milan to foster families’ independence and integration. The project focuses on two areas of intervention: addressing the needs of the beneficiaries, such as accommodation, food, and health care; as well as empowering families by providing psychological and legal assistance. 

The second day of the meeting was focused on the Future of the EU, including the European Commission White paper on the future of Europe, the impact of Brexit, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European Semester Process. Réka Tunyogi, Head of Advocacy at Eurochild, gave a presentation providing an overview of the latest updates at EU level, and their potential impact on children’s rights, particularly focusing on the White paper on the future of Europe; the European Pillar of Social Rights; and the Work-Life Balance package. Also, she gave a presentation on the European Semester, as a process through which Member States’ progress towards achieving the Europe 2020 targets is monitored, and it represents an important tool to advocate for children’s rights at EU and national level.  

The next Eurochild NPN Group meeting will take place on 11 October 2017 in Belgrade, followed by the International Conference Investing in Children on 12 October 2017.

Praxis, jointly with the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, the European Network on Statelessness and the European Roma Rights Centre, under the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review, made a submission to the Human Rights Council about the outstanding issues related to the prevention of statelessness and protection of stateless persons in Serbia. The submission focuses on the obstacles concerning the timely registration of the fact of birth into civil registry books, problems in acquiring citizenship for the children born in Serbia who are not entitled to citizenship of another state, and the problem of persons who had been registered into civil registry books that were destroyed during the 1999 conflict in Kosovo or that are considered unavailable by the authorities of the Republic of Serbia.

Since Serbia could soon get a new Law on Foreigners, the submission also points to the current version of the Draft Law on Foreigners whose provisions on the determination and prolongation of immigration detention discriminate against stateless persons and make them subject to arbitrary detention. The submission also mentions the difficulties that may arise because of the lack of procedures for determining the status of a stateless person.

Finally, the submission contains clear recommendations suitable for ensuring timely registration of the birth of each child and more constant respect for the right to citizenship, and for facilitating access to guaranteed rights to the persons who have remained stateless and protecting them from prolonged or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

Download the submission here.

In May and June 2017, Praxis held four workshops for the girls and boys aged 10 to 14 on the topic of prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages and early dropouts of Roma pupils from the education system, in the primary schools "Jovan Cvijić" in Kostolac, "Boško Palkovljevic Pinki" and "Sutjeska" in Belgrade, and "Aleksandar Stojanović - Leso" in Novi Pazar. The workshops were attended by more than 120 boys and girls.

These workshops are part of the activities aimed at preventing and eliminating child, early and forced marriages, which have been implemented for the third consecutive year within the framework of the project Legal Assistance to Persons at Risk of Statelessness, financed by UNHCR. In 2017, Praxis will hold a total of 12 workshops, with an idea to raise an issue of child, early and forced marriages through discussing with children the causes and consequences of early dropout and then to empower them to stand against these phenomena based on acquired knowledge about the causes and consequences of this harmful traditional practice.

During the first round of workshops, through the completion of a questionnaire about the expectations of girls and boys from parents and school, as well as through discussions about early dropout, once again it was concluded that child, early and forced marriages were one of the causes of early dropouts of children from the educational system. In addition, it was shown that most children were not informed about the role of pedagogical assistants and their presence in school. In the second part of the workshop, the boys and girls created drawings to show the reasons why someone did not come to school and the typical daily routine of someone who did not go to school anymore. Their illustrations lead to a conclusion that children mostly dropout of school because they have to help their parents in providing income, because of going abroad and due to early marriage. However, all three reasons are tightly coupled with poverty. Thus, they mention poverty of primary families as a reason for early marriages, or the pressure of parents, which also correlates with poverty. An interesting fact is that, according to the drawings, mainly girls leave school. The drawings also show that girls/boys who have dropped out of school suffer badly because of that, since they are presented as sad and crying, while a large number of them are shown in the activity of physical work after the abandonment of school.

These workshops are just an initial part of Praxis' work with children on the topic of child, early and forced marriages, but they have certainly set a good foundation for further work and clearly pointed out to the existence of this problem correlating with poverty and early dropout of school. The next workshops will focus mainly on the prevention of child, early and forced marriages through defining the causes and consequences.