Today, on the World Children's Day, once again we would like to draw attention to the practice of child marriages in Serbia. 

We are recalling that child marriages constitute a gross violation of the rights of the child, harm the mental and physical health of girls and expose them to the risk of statelessness, domestic violence, trafficking in human beings, and lead to an increased rate of early school leaving, and later to poverty and economic dependence. 

On that occasion, we talked to the children from four primary schools in Serbia, who expressed their opinions on the topic “Stop to child marriages” in the form of messages addressed to their mother, father, a friend or a politician/institution representative that, in children’s opinion, could contribute to ending this harmful practice. Most of the messages indicated that child marriages were the main obstacle to education and employment and that early pregnancy was very harmful to the health of girls. Some of these messages were printed on the postcards that we have sent today to representatives of all relevant institutions in Serbia.  

STOP to child marriages! 

In early October of the current year, Praxis warned about the situation of thirty-three families displaced from Kosovo facing a risk of becoming homeless after having been ordered to move out of the social housing in the suburban settlement “Beranovac” near Kraljevo.  

The residents of “Beranovac”, threatened with eviction, and Marija Dražović from Praxis spoke for Deutsche Welle about the situation of these people today and the lack of understanding and adequate response to their hardship.  

The DW footage that summarises all the events that happened after the publishing of our first statement is available here.

On the occasion of the upcoming European Commission’s Progress Report on Serbia, Praxis participated in the consultation meeting with the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia, and also submitted a written contribution on the progress achieved and the obstacles observed after the last, 2016 Commission’s report. The written contribution submitted by Praxis focused on the field of public administration reform and access to basic rights, while special attention was paid to the situation of Roma children. Praxis presented the observed shortcomings regarding the implementation of the new Law on General Administrative Procedure and pointed out that Serbia did not have yet the Law on Free Legal Aid, despite the ten-year debate on its adoption. The written contribution also mentioned the remaining obstacles to the prevention of statelessness and recalled that there was still no legal framework that would ensure that every child was registered immediately after birth. Praxis also warned about the over-representation of Roma children in the fostering system, and stressed the need for taking additional measures to prevent segregation in education and to ensure access to quality education for every child. Finally, the written contribution warned about the problem of child, early and forced marriages, especially affecting Roma girls who, due to the lack of adequate response to this practice, were denied access to a series of basic human rights.

Download the written contribution here.

MODS' announcement

The Network of Organisations for the Children of Serbia - МОDS welcomes the beginning of work and the constitutive meeting of the Children's Rights Council held by the new Government. The new president of the Children's Rights Council is Slavica Đukic Dejanović, minister without portfolio responsible for demography and population policy.

One of the new members of the Children's Rights Council of the Government of the Republic of Serbia is Jasmina Miković, Praxis' Deputy Executive Director and President of MODS Steering Committee.  

Since we currently lack the basic strategic documents in the field of children’s rights, and coordination of activities and measures in the field of protection and realisation of the rights of the child, MODS expects the Children's Rights Council to be fully committed and work actively on the attainment of these goals in the future.

We remind that under 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 its hope that the new Government will work on strengthening the capacities of the Children's Rights Council so that it grows into a leading inter-sector coordination mechanism with the core competencies in the child protection sector.

The MODS members expect that the Children's Rights Council will prioritise the following topics and legislative initiatives in order to improve the quality of children’s life:

- Launching an initiative for drafting the National Action Plan for Children and the Law on the Rights of the Child, which will be a framework for the general state policy towards children, so that the child protection system has a clear focus and goals;

- Adoption of the National Strategy for the Prevention and Protection of Children against Violence and Monitoring the Effects of the Implementation of this Strategy, as well as launching an initiative for the updating of the General and Special Sectoral Protocols for the Protection of Children from Neglect, Abuse and Violence;

- Initiating the process of drafting and passing the Law on Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child concerning the procedure of lodging a complaint with the Committee on the Rights of the Child;

- Activities in the area of the prevention of institutionalisation of children, as defined by the Action Plan for Chapter 23. In this context, it is necessary to monitor the achievement of goals and activities related to the transformation of residential institutions for children and the development of services for children and families in the community. The priority should be the adoption of the Rulebook on Intensive Family Support Services, the provision of which is aimed at preventing the separation of children from their families and strengthening the capacity of families to take care of their children;

- Establishing a system for recording and tracking of all cases involving child, early and forced marriages, and in particular among Roma girls, and providing shelter for children and appropriate rehabilitation and counselling services as well as conducting awareness campaigns on the harmful effects of children, early and forced marriages;

- Activities in the field of child poverty reduction - adopting amendments to the Law on Financial Support for Families with Children and the Law on Social Protection, in order to increase the coverage, adequacy and targeting of financial social benefits.

All these processes should be guided by the principle of child participation, which involves allowing a child able to form his or her free opinion the right to freely express that opinion on all matters concerning the child, while paying due attention to the child's opinion in accordance with his or her age and maturity. 

On the occasion of the 94th session of the  Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Praxis, in cooperation with the organisations SKRUG, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, European Network on Statelessness and European Roma Rights , submitted a written contribution including the information on the outstanding problems concerning the prevention of racial discrimination in Serbia, with a focus on hate crimes and discrimination against members of the Roma national minority and stateless persons as a particularly vulnerable group of foreigners.

The written contribution first pointed to the fact that Article 54a of the Criminal Code, which had introduced hate crime in the national legislation nearly five years before, was still not implemented in practice. It also stressed the problem of segregation and difficulties faced by Roma children in education, their over-representation in the fostering system and the absence of adequate response to the problem of early, child and forced marriages, which affected particularly Roma girls.

Commenting on the legislation and practices that affected particularly the Roma minority, the submitters of the written contribution warned of various obstacles that prevented timely birth registration for Roma children and of the remaining shortcomings in the procedures of permanent residence registration, which particularly affected Roma without the legal basis of housing.

Since Serbia could soon get a new Law on Foreigners, the contribution also pointed to the current version of the Draft Law on Foreigners whose provisions on the determination and prolongation of immigration detention discriminated against stateless persons, as a particularly vulnerable group of foreigners, and made them subject to arbitrary detention. The written contribution also mentioned the difficulties that may arise because of the lack of procedures for determining the status of a stateless person.

Finally, the contribution included some clear recommendations for allowing Roma and persons at risk of stateless to access their rights and for contributing to more consistent compliance with the obligations undertaken by Serbia under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.   

Download the written contribution here.

The report of the organisations European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), Institute for Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) and the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) warns that the lack of documents has extremely negative consequences for the lives of thousands of Roma living in the Western Balkans and Ukraine.

These organisations urge the countries in the region to focus on stateless Roma and to facilitate the birth registration procedure, which poses obstacles to Roma in accessing documents without which they cannot prove their identity and citizenship. It is emphasized that leaving Roma children without birth certificates leads to their growing up and living as stateless persons. As a result, thousands of Roma face difficulties in accessing core services and rights, such as the right to education, health care and housing.

One of the interviewed Roma women from Serbia says: "I did not give up, but I do not see that something will happen and change my situation for the better. I'm sorry because I know that many things would be better if I only had citizenship and documents.”

The report reveals the serious consequences that Roma suffer as a result of wars and dissolution of the former SFRY, along with systemic discrimination and social exclusion. It is particularly difficult for those who could not prove citizenship. The Roma who were forced to leave their homes during the war, often without any documents, upon return faced with complicated procedures and numerous difficulties in attempting to obtain documents. In addition, institutional discrimination and racism, recorded in some of the countries covered by the research, have created obstacles that prevent Roma from accessing the basic rights that other citizens enjoy.

The research also shows some positive and successful examples of civil society cooperation with the state aimed at facilitating the procedures for registering into birth registry books, eliminating legislative shortcomings and raising awareness about the importance of solving this problem. These efforts show that the problem of statelessness can be solved with a proactive approach and in line with the recommendations given in this report, which can serve as an example of good practice for other countries in the region.

At the same time, the report calls on the European Commission to recognise the problem of statelessness and discrimination against Roma as a matter of priority in the process of negotiations for EU membership. 

Download the report on this link.