On 12 February 2019, the study Equality in Practice - Implementing Serbia’s Equality Laws was presented in the Media Centre in Belgrade as one of the results of the two-year project entitled Improving the Equality Legal and Policy Framework in Serbia and Monitoring Implementation of Equality Norms and Policies, implemented by partner organisations: Praxis, London-based organisation Equal Rights Trust and Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, with the support of the European Union.

The study was prepared by the Equal Rights Trust in cooperation with two professional consultants: Prof. Nevena Petrušić, PhD and Lawyer Kosana Beker.

The study addresses the issue of continuous discrimination in Serbia, analyses the exiting legal and political framework and assesses its effectiveness in practice.   In the absence of similar study, the aim of this comprehensive study is to serve as a key reference point and evidence base for all those who work on combating discrimination and promoting fundamental human rights and freedoms. On the other hand, the study aims to influence the government and the judicial system with its own authority and to serve as an effective tool in advocating for improving the efficiency of the anti-discriminatory framework.

The study is based on extensive research conducted over 12-month period including: field research conducted by civil society organisations in different regions of Serbia; focus groups with survivors of discrimination, lawyers and civil society organisations in Niš, Belgrade, Novi Pazar, Pančevo and Vranje; over 55 one-to-one interviews with key stakeholders including lawyers, government and private sector representatives.  In addition, the study includes the analysis and assessment of the compliance of Serbia’s anti-discrimination framework with the country’s international and regional obligations, and the analyses of the extent to which Serbia has adopted the practical measures that are necessary to ensure that its equality laws provide protection in practice.

For more information, see the announcement here.

The Commissioner for Protection of Equality, acting upon a complaint lodged by Praxis, established a discriminatory action of the Assembly of the City of Kraljevo because by its Decision on Helping Children with Disabilities, it deprived the pupils from internally displaced families residing in the City of Kraljevo of the right to the compensation of the costs of transport, dormitory accommodation and meals, and part of the costs covered by the City in case of necessity for a person accompanying the person with disability.   More specifically, the Assembly of the City of Kraljevo ruled out the possibility for internally displaced pupils with disabilities residing in the City of Kraljevo to exercise the said rights under equal conditions by determining permanent residence as one of the criteria for exercising these rights.  Due to this condition, the Decision violated Articles 7 and 22 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination, which was established in the complaint procedure by the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality who then recommended to the Assembly of the City of Kraljevo to take all measures within its purview to make the decision in question applicable to the pupils who were internally displaced persons with temporary residence registered in the territory of the City of Kraljevo.

It is very important to emphasise, as stated in the Commissioner’s Decision, that status must not be a limiting factor for the exercise of any rights enjoyed by other citizens, and that special attention should be paid to internally displaced children with disabilities who may be exposed to multiple discrimination based on several personal characteristics.

In addition to this, the Commissioner informed the Assembly of the City of Kraljevo that the language and terms were means of combating discrimination, and that it was necessary to recognise that the terminology used when talking about people with disabilities changed over time depending on approach. More specifically, the name of the Decision in question included some outdated terminology that was not in the spirit of anti-discrimination policy, such as "children with special needs", while some provisions of the Decision included terms such as "invalid", "blind and deaf persons", etc. The needs of all people are the same and only the ways of fulfilling them can differ, with disability being only one of the characteristics of a person. It is therefore unacceptable and insulting to focus on someone’s disability.

Before the Commissioner issued an opinion, the City of Kraljevo had not responded to the allegations of the complaint. This is one of a dozen of discriminatory decisions due to which Praxis lodged complaints against the Assembly of the City of Kraljevo. As usual, Praxis will continue to monitor further actions of the competent authorities in terms of aligning the disputed decisions with anti-discrimination legislation.

This is one more opportunity to address public authorities, stressing the importance of respecting human rights, adhering to the principles of non-discrimination and taking into account the needs of the most vulnerable citizens in the policy-making process.

Within the framework of the project Improving the equality legal and policy framework in Serbia and monitoring implementation of equality norms and policies, implemented by the partner organisations The Equal Rights Trust, Sandžak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms and Praxis, and supported by the European Union through EIDHR, Praxis held two consultative community meetings entitled Identifying the major challenges in non-discrimination legislation, policies and practices in Serbia.  The meetings were held in Niš and Belgrade, on 8st and 14th November respectively. They were attended by 106 participants. 

Community meetings gathered members of vulnerable social groups, representatives of civil society organisations dealing with the protection of human rights and freedoms, students of legal clinics, human rights activists at the local level, as well as representatives of local authorities, institutions, organisations and independent institutions, but also all other stakeholders, with the aim of joint contribution to the development of advocacy campaign for addressing major challenges and shortcomings in the field of implementation of legal and strategic anti-discrimination framework in Serbia.

The concluding observations from the meetings were based on the exchange of experiences related to discrimination from the perspective of both right-holders and duty-holders and constituted part of the advocacy strategy at the local level. Through joint efforts during the discussion, participants defined advocacy space and measures at the local level, and substantial consensus was reached on the need for education in the field of discrimination of all relevant actors and the importance of such meetings in that respect.

For more information, see the announcement here.

Following a complaint for service delivery discrimination on the grounds of disability lodged by Praxis, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality initiated a misdemeanour procedure before the Basic Court in Kraljevo against the owner of the children’s playroom “Maša i Medved” from Kraljevo for committing the misdemeanour referred to in Article 52, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination. 

In fact, the playroom owner committed discrimination and misdemeanour by refusing to provide the service of using playroom to an 18-month-old girl because of her disability, i.e. by imposing conditions that were not imposed on other persons.   

Since such conduct of the playroom owner is contrary to the Constitution, the provisions of anti-discrimination legislation and international conventions, which are directly guaranteed by the Constitution, and given that such conduct undoubtedly constitutes an act of discrimination that violates the right to equality motivated by the physical disability of a minor, Praxis lodged a complaint requesting from the Commissioner to establish discrimination and recommend measures to eliminate the consequences of such conduct. The Commissioner initiated a misdemeanour procedure against the responsible person, which is an option envisaged by the institution's mandate, i.e. a measure of responding to discrimination and the prevention of discrimination. 

In addition to protecting the victims of discrimination, we believe that the Commissioner’s decision and the outcome of the initiated misdemeanour procedure will significantly contribute to raising the capacity and knowledge of service providers, both in the public and private sector, about the obligations they must comply with in accordance with anti-discrimination regulations. We also hope that it will empower potential victims of discrimination to seek more protection of the right to equality.     

It should be emphasised that Serbian anti-discrimination legislation has been criticised for the lack of legal remedies addressing the cause of discrimination and it has been pointed out that the remedies are largely focused on the victims of discrimination. The Commissioner’s decision to initiate a misdemeanour procedure is also very important from that aspect since international good practice stresses the need for structural remedies that are beyond the provision of individual damage compensation to victims. 

Handling the complaints lodged by Praxis, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality issued an opinion establishing discrimination in five decisions of the Kraljevo City Assembly that denied the rights to the internally displaced persons with temporary residence registered in the City of Kraljevo. More precisely, in the Decision on Free Bus Transportation in the City of Kraljevo, the Decision on the Right to One-off Financial Assistance for the First-born Child, the Decision on Financial Assistance to Unemployed New Mothers and the Decision on Scholarships for Students of the City of Kraljevo, the Kraljevo City Assembly imposed the condition of permanent residence in the city, thus preventing internally displaced persons from exercising the rights granted by these decisions. Although the decision maker had a clear intention to use funds from the local budget for improving the position of the most vulnerable citizens, the imposed condition of permanent residence excluded all internally displaced persons and refugees residing in the City of Kraljevo over 20 years and fulfilling all other requirements set forth in these decisions. 

Responding to the allegations of complaints, the President of the Kraljevo City Assembly did not deny that the concerned decisions had violated the right of citizens to exercise the rights under equal conditions and stated that the City Assembly would undertake necessary measures to alter the disputed decisions.

The Commissioner established that the entire group of people in the City of Kraljevo was excluded in that way, violating Article 7 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination, and therefore recommended to the Kraljevo City Assembly to undertake all measures within its purview to make the said decisions applicable also to the internally displaced persons residing in the city.

The Commissioner also issued an opinion concerning the Decision on Financial Assistance to Multi-child Families in the City of Kraljevo, according to which parents must have the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia, children must be 7 - 15 years old, while the parents who exercised the right to social assistance from the social welfare centre were not eligible, and established that Articles 6 and 8 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination were violated. For that reason, she recommended to the Kraljevo City Assembly to undertake measures within its purview to align the said decision with anti-discrimination regulations. 

We remind that Praxis withdrew the complaints related to the Decision on Free Bus Transportation in the City of Kraljevo, the Decision on the Right to One-off Financial Assistance for the First-born Child and the Decision on Financial Assistance to Unemployed New Mothers after the President of the Kraljevo City Assembly had accepted our objections and expressed readiness to alter the disputed provisions. Praxis will certainly continue to monitor further actions of the competent authorities in terms of aligning the disputed decisions with anti-discrimination legislation.

On this occasion, we once again appeal to public authorities, both at the local and national level, to pay attention to the importance of respecting human rights, adherence to the principles of non-discrimination and needs of the most vulnerable citizens in the policy-making process. Active citizen participation in the decision-making and policy-making process can prevent the adoption of discriminatory and inappropriate decisions and make the work of administration accountable and efficient.  

Praxis, the European Network on Statelessness, European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) submitted Alternative Report to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The report points to the difficulties faced by Roma women in Serbia in exercising their rights. Their position is particularly difficult as they are often victims of multiple discrimination on the basis of their gender and ethnicity. The report contains information about problems Roma women face in accessing rights to health care, social protection, education, employment. At the same time, it highlights the issue of child, early and forced marriages, which are disproportionately more frequent among the Roma population, but specifically affecting Roma women and girls. Besides, the report also points to the lack of an efficient system of free legal aid, which additionally hinders access to rights.

Particular attention in the report is dedicated to obstacles aggravating birth registration and acquisition of citizenship, while the emphasis is specifically put on the issue of discriminatory regulations which prevent Roma women who do not possess personal documents to register their new-born children in the birth registry. For this reason, these children are also left without citizenship and registered permanent residence in the most vulnerable period of their life, and, consequently, the possibility to exercise rights to health and social insurance, as well as other rights for the exercise of which it is required to possess personal documents.

Finally, the joint submission also provides recommendations to the Committee for achieving equality and preventing discrimination of Roma women.

You can download the report HERE.

In the past period, the Kraljevo City Assembly adopted several decisions whose implementation should improve the situation of vulnerable social groups or individuals, but by imposing the condition of permanent residence for exercising the rights established by the said decisions, it excluded the possibility for the internally displaced persons residing in the territory of the City of Kraljevo since 1999 to exercise the rights under the same conditions as their fellow citizens.

Thus, the Decision on Free Bus Transportation in the City of Kraljevo was adopted to ensure access to public services (free bus transportation) to persons who, due to their health or social status, encountered obstacles or were denied such access. On the other hand, the Decision on the Right to One-off Financial Assistance for the First-born Child and the Decision on Financial Assistance to Unemployed New Mothers aim to encourage procreation and increase birth rate, as well as to provide support to women who decide to have children despite being unemployed.

Despite the apparent intention of the decision-makers to allocate budget funds for improving the situation of the most vulnerable citizens, but also for improving the city’s demographic structure, by setting the permanent residence requirement, they unjustifiably denied the right to all the refugees and internally displaced persons residing in the City of Kraljevo. Undoubtedly, there is no reasonable and objective justification for such a different treatment.

In order to point out that the disputed decisions violate the principle of equal rights and obligations, thus contravening non-discrimination regulations, Praxis lodged complaints with the Commissioner for Protection of Equality. Consequently, responding to the allegations of the complaints, the President of the Kraljevo City Assembly accepted the objections and expressed the readiness to alter the disputed decisions aligning them with anti-discriminatory regulations, which was also the reason why Praxis gave up the further complaints procedure.

Since the disputed decisions have not been altered and discriminatory requirements have not been changed yet as to allow all citizens to exercise the right under the same conditions, and given that the withdrawal of the complaints is based on the expressed intention of the representatives of the City of Kraljevo to implement the procedures for changing the decisions, Praxis will continue to monitor the actions of the City of Kraljevo in the coming period regarding the alignment of the disputed decisions with anti-discrimination regulations. 

Despite the expressed willingness by the City of Kraljevo, Praxis expresses its concern over the statement made by the President of the Kraljevo City Assembly that it would not be possible to change the Decision on the Right to One-off Financial Assistance for the First-born Child and the Decision on Financial Assistance to Unemployed New Mothers until the local budget for the year 2019 was adopted. We remind that in this way the unequal treatment of individuals or groups on the grounds of their personal characteristics is tolerated, while the equal exercise of rights is postponed and conditioned by the planning of budgetary funds.

On the other hand, the adoption of general acts that violate the right to equality of citizens is not a rare phenomenon, and one of the main causes for such a situation, in addition to the non-transparent decision and policy making process, is certainly an insufficient knowledge of non-discrimination regulations, as well as a lack of sensitivity among decision-makers at the local level in cases where the basic values, such as the right to equity and equality, should be respected.

After one year, administrative procedures of subsequent birth registration for three children have finally been solved in their favour before the Registry Office in Kraljevo. 

Due to unlawful conduct and non-compliance with the rules of procedure, the competent authority unjustifiably rejected the requests three times, which is why the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government adopted complaints and returned the cases for repeated procedure each time. Among other things, the competent authority rejected the requests considering them contrary to the Constitution because the submitted documents were not written in Cyrillic but in Latin script. It also considered that the Praxis’ activities of informing and advising the party were unconstitutional. The competent authority has failed to take care that illiteracy and ignorance of the party to the procedure should not prejudice the rights to which the party is entitled, which is an obligation of the authority conducting the administrative procedure that must be fulfilled ex officio. On the contrary, the authority abused its position and powers and used the illiteracy and ignorance of the submitter of request to her detriment, preventing her from exercising her statutory rights.

Thus, the competent authority has repeatedly requested from the submitter of request, a Roma woman who cannot speak Serbian, to provide the services of an interpreter, although the authority conducting the procedure has that obligation pursuant to the Law on the Official Use of Languages and Scripts. Considering that the Registry Office in Kraljevo had committed discrimination, denying the submitter of request the participation in the procedure due to lack of knowledge of the language, Praxis filed a complaint with the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, and the decision is pending.

After initiating a procedure for determining discrimination, requests for birth registration of three children were granted. It is paradoxical that this was done on the basis of the same evidence and statements of the same witnesses submitted at the time of the initiation of procedure.

The Registry Office in Kraljevo did not apply the statutory measures to facilitate the participation of members of vulnerable groups in the procedure, but by ignoring these affirmative measures, rendered their position and participation in the procedure even more difficult. Particularly disconcerting is the fact that such conduct occurred in the case where this authority was deciding on the children’s right to be recognised as persons before the law, which is completely contrary to the basic principle that everyone must be guided by the best interests of the child.

In the European Commission’s Serbia 2019 Report, the EC states that most Roma in Serbia have civil documentation, but emphasises that the procedure for registering the birth of children whose parents lack personal documents needs to be monitored, and related secondary legislation needs to be amended.

In this way, the European Commission has joined a significant number of international organizations and treaty bodies which have also pointed to this problem in their reports and recommended to Serbia to enable birth registration to every child immediately after birth. Similar recommendations have previously been produced for Serbia by the UN Human Rights Council, UN Human Rights Committee, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Last year, the European Parliament also called on Serbia to enable full realization of the right to timely birth registration, while Serbia has also committed to fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including, inter alia, the one to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.

All these recommendations were produced because of the two by-laws that regulate the procedure for birth registration which prevent the birth registration immediately after birth of children whose mothers do not possess personal documents. In this way, in Serbia the right of the child to birth registration immediately after birth, which is also guaranteed by the ratified international conventions and Serbia’s Constitution and law, is violated. In the interpretation of the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF states that birth registration “immediately after birth” implies the deadline of several days, rather than months. However, in Serbia, these procedures last long, in some cases even more than half a year.

This problem in Serbia almost exclusively affects Roma ethnic minority, since a number of Roma women still do not possess personal documents. In relation to this, Praxis has sent appeals to competent bodies to amend the disputable by-laws for the purpose of resolving this problem. 

Finally, the EC Serbia 2019 Report also points to other problems faced by the Roma population in Serbia, to the difficult social position of the Roma and the gap that exists between them and the majority population. It is, thus stated, among other things, that almost 60% of girls from Roma settlements are married at an early age. It also states that the right to parental allowance depends on the children being vaccinated, while only 12.7% of Roma children have received all recommended vaccines, whereas this percentage among non-Roma children is 70.5. The Report also points out that significantly fewer number of Roma children attend kindergarten, and that drastically fewer Roma students finish school, compared to non-Roma children. The Report also provides data that show higher unemployment rate among the Roma, compared to the rest of the population, and also draws attention to insufficient representation of Roma in the public administration. 

Praxis took part in the process of preparation of the EC Report, both through consultations and by sending a written contribution to the Report precisely emphasising the above-stated problems.

Praxis sent these appeals because, there are still children born in Serbia who cannot get registered in the birth registry in cases when the mothers of these new-born children do not possess personal documents. In such situations, birth registration of children is not possible due to restrictive provisions of two by-laws which regulate the procedure for birth notification and registration in the birth registry. Thus, the Instruction on administering registry books and forms of registry books and the Rulebook on the procedure for the issuance of birth notification and form of the issuance of birth notification in a health care institution do not envisage the possibility of birth registration of new-born children in cases when the mothers do not possess documents.

Since the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Minister of Health are responsible for the adoption and amendments to these regulations, Praxis addressed them with the appeals to amend the disputable provisions and, in this way, to prevent the occurrence of new cases of legally invisible persons. In the stated appeals, Praxis has emphasised that the current situation represents the severe violation of the right of the child to birth registration immediately after birth, which is also guaranteed by the ratified international conventions and Serbian Constitution and law. A significant number of international organizations and treaty bodies have also recognized that the current situation is not satisfactory and provided recommendations to Serbia to resolve this problem.

A year ago, Praxis already sent an appeal to the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government for amendments of regulations. However, the Ministry responded that the normative framework enabled every person to be registered in the birth registry book, neglecting the fact that children whose mothers did not possess documents would not be able to get registered immediately after birth and that additional, often long-lasting procedures would have to be conducted for them. The fact that such situation represents the violation of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is also confirmed by UNICEF interpretation according to which the registration “immediately after birth” implies the deadline of several days, rather than months. 

This problem in Serbia almost exclusively affects the members of Roma ethnic minority, because there is still a number of persons among this population who do not possess personal documents. In this way, their already difficult position is additionally aggravated and the marginalization and deprivation of rights only intensified.