Legal obstacles that prevent registration of all children into birth registry books immediately after birth have not been eliminated in 2018.  This means that due to inappropriate provisions of by-laws regulating registration into birth registry books, children whose mothers do not possess personal documents will continue to remain unregistered at birth. Consequently, in the most vulnerable period of their lives, these children will be deprived of or will encounter significant obstacles to accessing a large number of rights, including health care and social protection.

Such situation is contrary to both national legislation and ratified international conventions. More specifically, the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the Law on Family, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantee every child the right to personal name and entry in the registry of births immediately after birth. Therefore, setting conditions for registration into birth registry books that cannot be met by all citizens, such as providing that undocumented mothers cannot register their children, constitutes a gross violation of the rights of the child. Unfortunately, there is still a significant number of people in Serbia, mainly Roma, who do not possess ID cards and other documents.

A series of recommendations issued to Serbia by international organisations and treaty bodies indicate that the situation in Serbia related to timely birth registration is not satisfactory. Thus, the UN Human Rights Committee recommended to Serbia to enhance its efforts to enable registration of children born to parents without identification documents. Similar recommendations were given by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The European Parliament called for full implementation of the right to timely birth registration, while the the UN Human Rights Council, in the Universal Periodic Review for Serbia, recommended to Serbia to provide the registration into birth registry books immediately after birth, without discrimination and regardless of whether parents had personal documents. Serbia accepted this recommendation of the UN Human Rights Council and committed to fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including to provide universal registration into birth registry books.

However, despite the accepted obligations and proclaimed commitment to allowing every child to register in birth registry books immediately after birth, Serbia has not yet removed legal obstacles that impede registration of a significant number of children. Moreover, in 2018, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-government refused Praxis’ suggestions to amend legislation to allow all children to be timely registered in birth registry books. 

Given the fact that this situation is unsustainable both in terms of respecting human rights and in terms of compliance of secondary legislation with primary legislation, with Serbia being in the position of a state that does not fulfil its international obligations, Praxis once again stresses that it is necessary that the competent institutions take immediate action to allow every child to be registered in birth registry books immediately after birth.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted Concluding observations on the Second and third periodic report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Republic of Serbia and made recommendations for further improvement of the situation of children and the fulfillment of obligations undertaken by ratifying the Convention and the Optional Protocols.

The Committee considered the Second and third periodic report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Republic of Serbia at its sessions held on 24 January 2017 and adopted Concluding observations on 3 February 2017. The Committee’s Concluding observations welcomed the progress of Serbia in various areas relevant to the realisation of the rights of the child and instructed the state to continue work on the implementation of recommendations delivered to Serbia in 2008.

Concluding observations covered issues accented in Alternative periodic report prepared by the Coalition for monitoring child rights in Serbia, as well as those to which the representatives of the Coalition pointed at the preparatory meeting of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Some of the recommendations related to the necessity of adopting the state policy towards children as the National Action Plan ceased to apply in 2015, are:

• strengthening the role of the Council for Child Rights of the Government of the Republic of Serbia in coordinating cross-sectoral cooperation;
• establishment of the budget with a clearly visible allocations intended for children;
• adoption of the Law on the Protector of the Rights of the Child;
• the prohibition of corporal punishment in all settings including the family.

The Committee urged Serbia to submit its Fourth and fifth periodic report by 24 May 2022.

The Girl Who Lost Her Country is a children’s book which features 12-year-old Neha from Nepal who discovers there is a problem with her nationality and travels the world, meeting children and adults alike, learning about statelessness and what can be done to address it.

This book has been produced by the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, an independent organisation committed to realising the right to a nationality for all. One of their main focuses has been the issue of childhood statelessness, which impacts millions of children around the world. This book, and its sister website www.kids.worldsstateless.org, aim to contribute to raising the awareness of children and adults alike, on this phenomenon that places so much unnecessary strain on so many young shoulders. 

Download the book here. 

On 29 October 2018, Praxis held a consultative meeting with representatives of institutions in Zemun to discuss the prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages, as part of the project "Legal Assistance to Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia", financed by UNHCR. 

The goal of the meeting was to bring together local stakeholders to try to jointly identify possible solutions for the prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages. A total of 13 representatives of social welfare centres, schools, prosecutors' offices, health care institutions, as well as Roma activists, participated in the meeting. After the introductory presentation, the attendees were informed about the activities conducted by Praxis in the field of elimination and prevention of child marriages, with particular focus on the conclusions reached. Praxis provided an overview of the problems of child, early and forced marriages in Serbia, the region and the world, with special emphasis on national and international regulations governing the rights of the child, marriage and family relations, as well as the role and responsibility of competent authorities to prevent the neglect of children and violence against children. Through an interactive approach to the topic and examples of good practice, the participants discussed possible solutions and the eradication of child marriages, which, among other things, is closely related to the problem of statelessness in Serbia. Accordingly, the Statelessness Index, which assesses how countries in Europe protect stateless people and what they are doing to prevent and reduce statelessness, was presented.

The participants demonstrated a high level of interest in the topic, regardless of whether they had encountered cases of child marriage or not. The presence of representatives of almost all relevant institutions at the level of local self-government, as well as representatives of the Roma community, initiated a quality interactive discussion, which showed the necessity of cross-sectoral cooperation and preventive work with parents in the form of educational and advisory sessions. However, although the participants were fairly aware of the seriousness of the problem of child marriages, they still perceived it primarily as part of the Roma culture and tradition, and expressed concern that imposing the culture and tradition of the majority would compromise cooperation with the Roma community. Despite being obliged to act in accordance with national and international regulations, representatives of institutions expressed their dilemma of whether dealing with this issue inevitably meant interfering with the tradition of the Roma community, while ignoring the fact that child marriages were primarily a serious violation of the rights of girls. Health sector representatives denied that the body of a 15-year old female was unprepared for reproduction and stated that the girls of that age were considered women, and not girls, which substantially differed from the views of national and international experts. This meeting demonstrated that it was necessary to continue with such or similar meetings aimed at raising awareness about the harmfulness of child marriages and stressing that child marriages should be seen as harmful traditional practices, endangering primarily the psychophysical health of girls and their overall development. 

In November 2018, Praxis will hold another consultative meeting in Zemun.

On 26 October 2018, Praxis held a consultative meeting with representatives of institutions in Požarevac to discuss the prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages, as part of the project "Legal Assistance to Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia", financed by UNHCR. 

The aim of the meeting was to gather representatives of all relevant institutions in Požarevac to discuss this issue and give proposals of the policies for eradicating child, early and forced marriages. The meeting was attended by representatives of social welfare centres and schools, while representatives of the police, health sector and prosecutors did not respond to the invitation. After the introductory presentation of the speakers, the meeting participants were informed about the activities conducted by Praxis in the field of prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages, thus getting a better insight into the problem and Praxis’ suggestions for its solution. After a brief overview of the state’s responsibility in the prevention and elimination of child marriages, the meeting participants were also informed about national and international legislation in this area. It was followed by a discussion about what each of us could and must do, and what we expected from other links in the chain of cooperation. Real-life case studies were also discussed in order to prevent the problem of child, early and forced marriages, which are closely related to the problem of statelessness in Serbia. Accordingly, the Statelessness Index, which assesses how countries in Europe protect stateless people and what they are doing to prevent and reduce statelessness, was presented.

One of the conclusions of the discussion was insufficient and uncoordinated cooperation of competent institutions, i.e. transfer of responsibility from one institution to another. Representatives of social welfare centres pointed out that it was necessary to establish agreements on cross-sectoral cooperation as well as to consistently apply the existing protocols on action in case of child abuse and/or neglect. They considered that one of the main obstacles was the lack of support from the relevant Ministry and disregard by the court and prosecutor’s offices. School representatives reported poor cooperation with parents as the main obstacle in solving the problem of child marriages. Despite being rather aware of the seriousness of this problem, professionals are still insufficiently sensitive to the problems of the Roma population; their actions continue to be guided by prejudice and they continue to perceive this problem through the lens of cultural tradition. Consequently, it is necessary to continue with this or similar education with constant awareness raising about the fact that the problem of child marriages must not be ignored and that traditional practice should not be an excuse for violating the rights of the child. 

By the end of 2018, Praxis will hold two more consultative meetings in Belgrade.

On Monday, 5 November 2018, the Fifth Meeting of Children’s Rights Council of the Republic of Serbia was held.   The meeting was attended by Jasmina Miković, Praxis Deputy Executive Director and MODS Management Board President, who is also a member of the Children’s Rights Council, and Saša Stefanović, MODS Director.  

Saša Stefanović, MODS Director, presented the Recommendations for the development and improvement of measures, services and programmes for preventing the separation of children from families or returning of children to the primary family if the separation occurred. These recommendations derived from the conclusions of the national conference "Strengthening the Family - A Look at Opportunities", and the basic message is that existing resources in different sectors should be used to strengthen the family and support the child’s staying in the family.

At the meeting, the Preliminary Draft Law on Child’s Rights and Child Ombudsman was discussed. It was pointed out that this Law contained the provisions confirming all rights of the child and instruments of independent control and protection. Adoption of this Law represents a major step in the improvement, promotion and provision of control over the protection of child’s rights in the Republic of Serbia. Also, by adopting this Law, the Republic of Serbia fulfils its obligations contained in the recommendations from the latest Universal Periodic Review of the state of human rights in Serbia as well as in the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Action Plan for Chapter 23. A representative of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs presented also a plan for further work on the adoption of this Law, expected in the first quarter of 2019.

The Council members were informed about the guidelines and practices of UNICEF-supported Child Friendly Cities Initiatives around the world and the continuation of the project "Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour".

The Universal Children's Day will be celebrated in Serbia on November 20th, under the slogan "Let's Paint It All Blue, for Every Child", and on that day all the most important institutions in Serbia will be lighted in blue as a mark of respect for the rights of children and adolescents, as stated at the meeting of the Children's Rights Council.

Jasmina Miković, Deputy Executive Director of Praxis, presented the main achievements of the project "Contributing to Public Administration Reform in Kraljevo", implemented within the framework of the project 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

See the film here. 

The first meeting of the Working Group on Early Childhood Development of the Children’s Rights Council of the Government of the Republic of Serbia was held on 15 October 2018 in Belgrade. The Working Group was established by the Council’s decision of 1 March 2018 in order to coordinate policies at the national level.

The Working Group on Early Childhood Development is chaired by Anamarija Viček, State Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. The Working Group has eight members. In addition to representatives from relevant ministries in the Children’s Rights Council, one of the permanent members is Jasmina Miković from Praxis, MODS Management Board President. Saša Stefanović, MODS Director and Jasmina Miković participated in the first meeting of the Working Group as MODS representatives. 

The first meeting was dedicated to strategic priorities in the field of early childhood development and the method of implementing the Call for Action - Joint Message from the Ministers of the Government of the Republic of Serbia - Support to Children in Early Childhood and Their Families. The possibilities of improving the coordination of the activities of different ministries and other players in the field of early development were also discussed.

In the following period, the Working Group will work to initiate measures for the development of a comprehensive and coherent early childhood policy, including the integration of early childhood support policies in the National Action Plan for Children, as well as to define recommendations for achieving important social indicators in the area of early childhood support.

Why a special body of the Children's Rights Council was established to deal with early childhood development?

Early childhood development is one of the priorities of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, recognised in the key national and international documents such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Employment and Social Policy Reform Programme, the Action Plan for Chapter 23 and the Common European Guidelines on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care. 

Considering the importance of this developmental period for all individuals as well as the fact that every child has the right to a full realisation of his or her potential, it is necessary to systematically provide holistic and complete support to children and their families. In order to achieve this, mechanisms at the national and local levels should facilitate the coordination of programmes and services. The existing legislative and strategic framework for supporting children in different sectors (health, education, social protection) needs to be consolidated, supplemented and its implementation should be ensured through adequate funding.