The decision of the Court of Appeals in Novi Sad confirmed the judgement of the Basic Court in Novi Sad, which established the discriminatory behaviour of the defendant – the City of Novi Sad, City Administration for General Affairs towards the persons of Roma nationality in procedures for subsequent birth registration.

The City Administration for General Affairs of the City of Novi Sad dismissed the requests for subsequent birth registration of three legally invisible Roma persons referring to the “current situation in Novi Sad, with ever greater influx of persons of Roma nationality claiming that they and their children were born in Novi Sad” and expressing a fear that “hasty, irresponsible and reckless” acting upon their requests “would cause numberless requests of a similar kind by persons of Roma nationality”. Therefore, Praxis filed a lawsuit against the City of Novi Sad in October 2010 requesting the establishment of discriminatory behaviour towards the persons of Roma nationality.

The judgement of the Basic Court in Novi Sad as of September 2011 established that the  “defendant was governed by personal features of the submitter of the request and made the unjustified difference between these and other submitters regarding their national affiliation, (…) and placed them in an unfavourable position in comparison to other submitters of requests who are not of Roma nationality, which is an act of direct discrimination”.

By deciding upon the appeal, the Courts of Appeals in Novi Sad dismissed the appeal of the defendant from December 2011 as ungrounded on January 18, 2012 and confirmed the first instance judgement which established a more severe form of discriminatory behaviour of the City of Novi Sad. The defendant is obliged to publish the complete judgment in daily newspaper Politika within 15 days.