On 4 November 2014, Praxis with support of the Standing Conference of the Roma Associations on the Citizens (SKRUG) and Network of Organizations for Children of Serbia (MODS), which gathers 95 CSOs, sent a plea to the Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations to provide urgent assistance to the residents of the informal settlement “Cukaricka suma” by giving them firewood.

The reason to address the Commissariat was a recent protest organized by the citizens of the settlement “Cukaricka padina” against the residents of the nearby informal settlement “Cukaricka suma” for “the problems they have with the residents of informal settlement” because they are endangered by carcinogenic smoke coming from burning tires, cables and other secondary raw materials in that settlement.

Unfortunately, we have been witnesses of widely spread discrimination against the Roma, and numerous incidents that marked the previous period. We particularly point at violence and racial attacks at the residents in Resnik and Kamendin against which Praxis has already reacted together with other CSOs. Having that in mind, we express concern for the residents of the settlement “Cukaricka suma” as we find that protests are a serious violation of piece and safety of the residents of the settlement.  

Praxis repeatedly, independently and in presence of numerous delegations, visited this settlement in order to provide free legal aid to residents of the settlement in procedures for exercise of status and socioeconomic rights, so that we have an insight into the situation in the field both from the aspect of the access to rights and in regard to living conditions of the residents of the settlement.

The residents of the informal settlement “Cukaricka suma” are Roma, mainly internally displaced persons from Kosovo. Last year Praxis addressed the Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations and Municipality of Cukarica related to the problem caused by the lack of firewood. The Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations responded to Praxis request for access to information of public importance where the Commissariat was requested to deliver data on the type of service, especially firewood, which the Commissariat had given to the residents of the settlement “Cukarica suma” since 2006. It was said in the response that in the period from 2010 to 2013 “the resident of the settlement were not allocated any assistance in purchase of firewood”, and in the next letter it was said that in the period from 2006 to 2009 the Municipality of Cukarica was “not allocated any funds for the assistance in purchase of firewood”.

A few hundreds of internally displaced persons from Kosoovo have been living in this settlement for more than 15 years, in improvised housing without any infrastructure, in conditions that can be described as utterly inhumane. Almost without any exception, those are unemployed persons, and a significant number of them has not managed to obtain personal documents, and most often they live from collecting secondary raw materials and have no means to purchase standard fire wood. After 15 years, there is still no indication of finding a durable and sustainable housing solution for these persons. Although the citizens who protest pointed out that carcinogenic smoke affected their healthy and the health of their children, it is obvious that the health of the residents of the settlement of “Cukaricka suma” actually suffers the most, including a large number of children many of whom do not have health booklets.

We are aware of the fact that in order to solve the problems of the residents of the informal settlement “Cukaricka suma” and find a durable and sustainable solution for the housing problem, it is necessary to include all relevant actors. Therefore, we addressed the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration to take measures and activities that are within its competence, and in cooperation with relevant institutions and state bodies to ensure that solving of the housing issue of the residents of this settlement will be soon on the agenda, and as urgent assistance to provide them with firewood.

The lawyers’ strike had once again shown the weaknesses of the legal system in Serbia. In the Serbia Progress Report, the European Commission has also referred to the problems of the judicial system in Serbia. A large number of cases, the length of court procedures, statute of limitation and others are just some of the reasons which impede the access to justice.

The strike particularly threatens the part of the population classified as vulnerable population groups, such as women survivors of domestic violence, children, Roma men and Roma women. By representing the vulnerable groups, Praxis, through its advocacy activities, pointed at problems faced by the vulnerable groups in the procedure for court protection. The greatest problem for all of them is the length of court procedures, but also the inability within the short deadline to exercise the right to temporary measures that are urgent according to the applicable regulations.

The judicial system in Serbia has been unable to provide the protection to the vulnerable groups in Serbia for almost two months. For instance, criminal procedures for the criminal act of domestic violence are postponed because defenders and defendants do not appear at hearings, which threatens the very procedure as it can lead to statute of limitations. In addition, the survivors of domestic violence are deprived of the right to urgent protection due to failure of the representatives of defendants to appear in the procedures for determining the measures for protection of survivors of domestic violence. Thus, the safety of survivors is directly threatened.

We are calling on the Ministry of Justice to urgently find the solution for resolving this and other problems in the judicial system of Serbia in order to facilitate the access to justice for citizens.

On 3 November 2014, Praxis and the Standing Conference of Roma Associations of Citizens (SKRUG) – League of Roma, an association that gathers 72 civil society organizations, submitted the initiative for assessment of constitutionality and legality of the Regulation on the measures of social inclusion of the beneficiaries of cash social assistance. At the same time, Praxis supported the request of YUCOM, Autonomous Women’s Centre and the Regional Centre for Minorities directed at the Government of the Republic of Serbia to urgently suspend the implementation of the stated Regulation.

To remind, on 15 October 2014 Serbian Government adopted the Regulation on the measures of social inclusion of the beneficiaries of cash social assistance (hereinafter Regulation), which was criticised in public by the civil society organizations for its incompliance with the Constitution and the Law on Social Protection.

Cash social assistance is meant for persons who do not have enough means for living and represents a basic form of financial assistance to socially vulnerable persons. Bearing in mind that the right to social protection, hence the right to cash social assistance, is one of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Thus, it can be limited by a law, and only if that limitation is allowed by the Constitution, for the purposes permitted by the Constitution and in the scope that is necessary for the purpose of the constitutional limitation to be satisfied in a democratic society without going to the heart of the guaranteed right.

However, the right to social protection, i.e. the right to cash social assistance as one form of the social protection rights, is limited by the Regulation, which is a by-law, for the purposes not permitted by the Constitution, by going into the very heart of this right and by enabling a social welfare centre to abolish the very right in case of unjustified failure to meet the obligations stemming from the agreement concluded with the social welfare centre. To conclude, the disputable Regulation conditions the exercise of the right to cash social assistance in a way that is contrary to the relevant constitutional and legal principles.

Some of the envisaged obligations of beneficiaries of cash social assistance include: participation in training on self-efficiency, registration with the chosen medical doctor, volunteering, socially useful work, participation in public works, etc. The obligations stated in some articles of the Regulation are defined as rights of the beneficiaries of cash social assistance by the Law on Social Protection. Thus, according to the provisions of the Law on Social Protection, “an unemployed beneficiary of cash social assistance has the right to assistance in finding employment, right to training, to participation in public works and other rights defined by the regulations related to employment.” Therefore, the beneficiary of cash social assistance has the right to training, right to assistance in finding employment, right to participation in public works. However, the Regulation has converted all the rights to obligations of beneficiaries of cash social assistance, and if the beneficiary does not meet his/her obligations, he/she will lose the right to social protection, that is the right to cash social assistance as one of the social protection rights which is guaranteed by the Constitution.

Prescribing the possibility of reduction or even suspension of the right to cash social assistance, depending on participation in the above-mentioned activities, does not acknowledge the human dignity of the beneficiaries of cash social assistance and, thus, the Regulation is contrary to the Constitution and the Law on Social Protection.

Download: Regulation on the measures of social inclusion of the beneficiaries of cash social assistance
Download: Initiative for assessment of constitutionality and legality of the Regulation on the measures of social inclusion of the beneficiaries of cash social assistance
Download: Request of non-governmental organizations  to the Government of the Republic of Serbia for suspension of the Regulation

UNHCR is today launching a global “I Belong” campaign aimed at ending within 10 years the problem of statelessness – a devastating legal limbo for the millions of people worldwide who lack any nationality and the human rights protections that go with it. The goal of eradicating statelessness is looking increasingly possible thanks to dramatic recent progress in the number of States acceding to two key UN human rights treaties.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie  and more than 20 celebrities and world opinion-leaders today published an Open Letter, saying that 60 years after the United Nations first agreed to protect stateless people, “now it’s time to end statelessness itself.”

At least ten million people worldwide are currently stateless and a baby is born stateless every ten minutes. Not allowed a nationality, they are often denied the rights and services that countries normally offer their citizens.

“Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care or legal employment… a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects or hope,” the Open Letter said. “Statelessness is inhuman. We believe it is time to end this injustice.”

UNHCR’s Special Envoy Angelina Jolie was among the first to sign the Open Letter. “Being stateless means you and your children having no legal identity, no passport, no vote, and few or no opportunities to get an education. Ending statelessness would right these terrible wrongs.  But it would also strengthen society in countries where stateless people are found, by making it possible to draw on their energy and talents. It is both an obligation and an opportunity for governments everywhere to put an end to this exclusion.”

Most situations of statelessness are a direct consequence of discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or gender. Moreover, 27 countries at present deny women the right to pass their nationality onto their children on an equal basis as men, a situation that can create chains of statelessness that span generations. There is also a very real link between statelessness, displacement and regional stability.

UNHCR’s campaign is being launched amid signs of a shift in international attitudes surrounding statelessness. Just three years ago, there were barely 100 States parties to the two statelessness treaties - the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Today the number of accessions stands at 144, bringing critical mass within reach.

Nonetheless, despite such progress, new risks of statelessness have emerged with the growing number of major conflicts. The wars in Central African Republic and Syria for example have forced millions of people into internal displacement or into becoming refugees.

Tens of thousands of refugee children have been born in exile and UNHCR is working closely with the governments and partners in the countries receiving refugees on prioritizing birth registration for these children. This, and the fact that many lack documents or the fact that in some situations fathers have gone missing because of the conflict means that many of these children may face difficulties in proving that they are citizens.

UNHCR has partnered with the United Colors of Benetton to create the ‘I Belong’ campaign, which aims to draw global attention to the devastating life-long consequences of statelessness. Benetton, in its spirit of supporting social campaigns has developed the creative content of the campaign and the campaign website to host it. Following the campaign launch, the Open Letter will become an online petition on this new microsite, aiming to collect ten million signatures in support of ending statelessness within ten years.

UNHCR also released today a Special Report on Statelessness which highlights the human impact of the phenomenon, and a ten-point Global Action Plan to End Statelessness which aims both to resolve major existing crises and to ensure no child is born stateless in the future.

“Statelessness makes people feel like their very existence is a crime,” said Guterres. “We have a historic opportunity to end the scourge of statelessness within 10 years, and give back hope to millions of people. We cannot afford to fail this challenge.”

While issues of statelessness remain politically contentious in some countries, in others ending it can be as simple as changing a few words in a country’s citizenship law. Over the past decade, legislative and policy changes have allowed more than four million stateless people to acquire a nationality or have their nationality confirmed. For example, a 2008 High Court ruling in Bangladesh allowed 300,000 stateless Urdu-speakers to become citizens, ending generations of despair. In Cote d’Ivoire, where statelessness was a root cause of a decade of armed conflict, legal reforms in 2013 allow long-term residents in the country to finally acquire a nationality. In Kyrgyzstan, more than 65,000 former USSR citizens have acquired or confirmed their Kyrgyz citizenship since 2009.

2014 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, which, alongside the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, provides the international legal basis for ending statelessness. With enough political will, UNHCR believes statelessness can be resolved. And unlike so many other problems facing governments today, statelessness can be solved in our lifetime.

For more information about the campaign, please visit IBelong page.

The report "Civil Society Monitoring on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in Serbia in 2012 and 2013" was prepared by a civil society coalition comprising the following organizations: Standing Conference of the Roma Associations of the Citizens – the League of Roma (lead organisation), Yurom Centre, Roma Women’s Centre “Bibija,” Minority Rights Centre, Educational Centre of Roma and Association of Roma Students.

Download the report: Civil Society Monitoring on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in Serbia in 2012 and 2013

The recent fire in the informal settlement in New Belgrade with the tragic outcome, when three children lost their lives, is the consequence of the bad position of Roma population in Serbia, which still has an impeded or no access to basic human rights.

Despite the fact that Serbia as a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is obliged to recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, Roma population in Serbia still lives in unhygienic conditions with no clear prospects of possible solution of this problem.

Also, Praxis reminds that two out of four principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are dedication to best interest of the child and the right to life, survival and development. Not dealing with the core solving of the problem of Roma population, the state directly threatens the rights of child and fails to fulfil the duties it committed to by ratifying the international conventions.

It is also a disturbing fact that journalism ethics has failed again while reporting on this tragic event. Thus, the facts on ethnic origin came to the fore, and several printed media published the children’s names. This is yet another form of discrimination against Roma population, which is repeatedly practiced during media incident reporting.

Praxis notes that this is not a single case of human rights violations, particularly the rights of the children, caused by not finding a systemic solution to the problem of Roma population in Serbia for years. Therefore, it is necessary to consistently observe international standards in the area of human rights and address the problems faced by the Roma population on a daily basis more systematically.

The recently published Roma Health Report of the European Commission contains worrying data of research relating to exposure of Roma to discrimination, social exclusion and impact on their health, as well as comparative analysis of these indicators in other systems, since the research encompassed 28 EU Member States.

The European Commission states that Roma populations in Europe experience discrimination and face obstacles to accessing quality housing, health care and education. The EC concluded in its report that “Roma populations in Europe are in poorer health than the non-Roma populations,” and emphasized that “while sufficient data on Roma exists to evidence social and economic exclusion, and poor health, there are still vast gaps in Roma health status data which impede any full understanding of the situation.” Worried about such situation, the EC called on the international agencies and Governments to undertake measures in order to protect the health of Roma.

In Serbia, there are no formal comprehensive and reliable data about the health status of Roma population. The results of the Serbia Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014 may be used for comparison. In regard to the Roma population, particularly significant is the survey conducted in almost two thousand households in Roma settlements. Some of the key findings in the field of health and nutrition suggest that there has not been major progress in the last five years, as well as that the differences between general population and that in the Roma settlements are still great. Thus, for example, child mortality in Roma settlements is still almost twice as high in comparison to the national average, while only 9% of children in Roma settlements have been fully vaccinated on time. These are just some of the indicators that illustrate the gap between marginalized children and the national average in Serbia, and indicate the need for intensifying the measures directed at the most vulnerable and excluded children and families in order to improve their living standard and reduce inequality.

The Commissioner for Protection of Equality has published the report as the result of the survey "Attitude of Public Administration Representatives towards Discrimination in Serbia ". You can download the report here.

Praxis calls on the competent state bodies to publicly condemn the participation of public authorities in the protest against building of asylum centre nearby the Municipality of Mladenovac and take adequate measures against the representatives of local authorities who spread intolerance and oppose to fulfilling the state obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers in Serbia. Praxis also calls on the competent stated bodies to immediately remove the posters “Stop to Asylum” at the entrance to the Municipality of Mladenovac.

On Monday, 6 October 2014, the protest was organized in front of the municipal building in Mladenovac when the citizens were expressing dissatisfaction with the decision of the Government on transforming the former barracks in Mala Vrbica located nearby Mladenovac into asylum centre. What is particularly worrying is the fact that the protest was supported by the representatives of local authorities, which contributes to spreading of xenophobia and direct undermining of the state obligation to provide the protection of the right to asylum.

In most cases, asylum seekers pass through Serbia running away from war conflicts, grave violations of human rights hoping to be able to attain basic living conditions and return their dignity in some EU country. Asylum seekers in Serbia are exposed to continuous verbal and physical assaults of local citizens and they are facing the lack of accommodation and problems during the whole asylum procedure even though according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as of 1948 everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. Praxis also reminds that the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia guarantees the right to asylum to every foreign national with reasonable fear of prosecution.

Praxis calls on competent state bodies to take measures against those who spread hatred and intolerance and who prevent the exercise of the right to asylum and state from fulfilling its obligations under the international laws, Constitution and Law on Asylum. Also, Praxis calls on state bodies to remove the posters “Stop to Asylum” and thus send a clear message that prevention of providing accommodation to asylum seekers is unacceptable.

Today the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) which represents over fifty civil society organisations from across Europe including Praxis will hand over a petition to members of the European Parliament calling on European leaders to protect stateless persons by ratifying the UN Statelessness Convention and committing to set up a system of safeguards and a regularisation procedure.
 
The petition coincides with the 60th anniversary of the 1954 UN Statelessness Convention, and is a part of a wider campaign bringing together a broad spectrum of actors mounting pressure on the European Union to fulfil its pledge made in 2012 that all EU Member States would accede to the 1954 Statelessness Convention. This campaign will see national level events in Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Slovakia among other countries.
 
As part of its campaign to protect stateless persons in Europe, ENS has prepared a report Still Stateless, Still Suffering – Why Europe must act now to protect stateless persons, which contain testimonies of stateless persons.
 
“For too long Europe has allowed stateless individuals to be exposed to human rights abuses and with no recourse to justice. Now is the time to resolve this issue once and for all”, said Chris Nash Director of the European Network on Statelessness. “Stateless individuals often face years of uncertainty, destitution and repeated, lengthy immigration detention. Yet the solution is a relatively simple one. Ratifying conventions is an essential first step, which most EU states have already taken, but must be followed by the introduction of identification and regularisation procedures which are critical to helping stateless persons re-build their lives.”
 

* The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) is a network of non-governmental organisations, academic initiatives, and individual experts committed to address statelessness in Europe. Based in London, ENS is a coordinating body and expert resource for organisations across Europe who work with or come into contact with stateless persons. It currently has 53 member organisations in over 30 European countries.