On 7 May 2015, the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Second and Third Periodic Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which contains also the information on the implementation of both protocols to the Convention. The Report was submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The Office for Human and Minority Rights coordinated the preparation of the report. All relevant republic and provincial bodies, and non-governmental organizations Praxis and Child Rights Centre, participated in the preparation.

The part of the Report devoted to Civil rights and freedoms gives the overview of the situation in the area of birth registration, name and nationality (Article 7 of the Convention, recommendations 33 and 34 CRC/C/SRB/CO/1). The report also states that the Law on Registry Books and the accompanying bylaws contributed to improving the exercise of the right to birth registration regardless of whether the child’s parents are known or unknown, the child is without parental care or adopted, whether the birth registration is entered within or beyond the legal time frame for registration. The exercise of the concerned right was also improved due to the adoption of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Republic Administrative Fees, while the birth registration procedure was also regulated by the Instruction on Administering the Birth Registry Books and Their Forms. It is also stated that the Law on Amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure provided for the procedure of determining the date and place of birth based on which all persons who are not registered in the birth registries and who, at the same time, cannot provide evidence on their birth as stipulated under the regulations on administering the birth registries, may submit the motion for determining the date and place of birth to the court.

Further on, the report states that the Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens envisaged a facilitated procedure for registering a permanent residence, which is necessary for issuing personal documents to all citizens, but particularly to the members of Roma population.  

The importance of the Technical Group in solving the problem related to birth registration, name and nationality, was also stressed in the report. The foundations of closer cooperation, coordination, planning and implementation of measures, whose goal is to provide immediate support to the Roma community, above all, in birth registration procedure, were established at national level for the first time.

However, the state did not refer to Praxis comments related to providing an efficient procedure for birth registration of a child right upon the birth, regardless of the status of parents. Specifically, the solution provided by the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure is not adequate given that a court procedure lasts 6 months on average. The children whose parents do not possess personal documents are still exposed to the risk of statelessness. In that sense, Serbia has not yet fully acted in accordance with the part of recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and subsequent comments provided by Praxis.

The report may be downloaded here.