Today, on the World Children's Day, once again we would like to draw attention to the practice of child marriages in Serbia. 

We are recalling that child marriages constitute a gross violation of the rights of the child, harm the mental and physical health of girls and expose them to the risk of statelessness, domestic violence, trafficking in human beings, and lead to an increased rate of early school leaving, and later to poverty and economic dependence. 

On that occasion, we talked to the children from four primary schools in Serbia, who expressed their opinions on the topic “Stop to child marriages” in the form of messages addressed to their mother, father, a friend or a politician/institution representative that, in children’s opinion, could contribute to ending this harmful practice. Most of the messages indicated that child marriages were the main obstacle to education and employment and that early pregnancy was very harmful to the health of girls. Some of these messages were printed on the postcards that we have sent today to representatives of all relevant institutions in Serbia. 

The Council for the Rights of the Child, the body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, appointed Jasmina Miković, the Deputy Executive Director of Praxis and the President of the Board of MODS, as their member in their new convocation.

MODS expects that a constituent session of the Council for the Rights of the Child will be held very quickly, bearing in mind that Serbia currently lack the basic strategic documents in the field of children’s rights, and that it is necessary to work intensively on developing mechanisms for coordination of activities and measures in the field of protection and realization of the rights of the child.

 * Observations and comments by the MODS on the Report on the Implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 23

We remind that with the Action Plan for Chapter 23, the Government accepted an obligation to strengthen its role in the formulation and monitoring of children’s rights policies. Accordingly, MODS expresses the hope that the new Government will work to strengthen the capacities of the Council for the Rights of the Child so that it grows into a leading inter-sector coordination mechanism with core competencies in the child protection sector.

On 13 December 2017, Praxis held a conference „STOP to Child Marriages and Statelessness“, accompanied by the exhibition of children’s drawings on the topic of prevention and elimination of child marriages. The conference was attended by more than 100 people including a large number of the authors of presented drawings. 

The conference was opened by Ivanka Kostić, Praxis’ Executive Director, who welcomed the attendees and gave a brief overview of the activities implemented by Praxis in the field of preventing statelessness and child marriages with the financial support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The attendees were then addressed by Hans Friedrich Schodder, the UNHCR chief in Serbia, who pointed out that child marriages aggravated the problem of statelessness, constituted a violation of human rights and increased the risk of violence and abuse. He also expressed his satisfaction for continuing the cooperation with Praxis and his expectation that a common goal would be achieved, i.e. that every child in Serbia would be registered in birth registry books.

Milan Radojev, Praxis’ Status and Socioeconomic Rights Programme Coordinator, presented the results achieved over the past years in the field of preventing statelessness and exercising the right to registration into civil registry books. He pointed to the fact that after many years of neglecting the problem of legally invisible persons by the competent authorities, a significant progress had been made in this field since 2012.  In this regard, he particularly stressed the importance of amendments to the relevant legislation and established cooperation among stakeholders in resolving the problem, which resulted in the fact that a significant number of people obtained personal documents for the first time in their lives. Nevertheless, he emphasised that the problem of legally invisible persons in Serbia had not been fully resolved and that it was necessary to amend the by-laws that kept preventing children whose mothers did not possess personal documents from being registered at birth.

Jelena Petrović, Praxis’ Child Rights Programme Coordinator, briefly presented the activities implemented by Praxis for the third consecutive year in the field of prevention and elimination of child marriages. She focused on the activities aimed at preventing and eliminating child marriages and targeting school children, which were implemented by Praxis in 2017. Discussing about why some children dropped out of school, what marital duties were and why child marriages should be prevented, the children were empowered to continue their education and thus stand against child marriages. The children gave their answers in the form of drawings, some of which were presented in the exhibition that the conference attendees had the opportunity to see. Jelena also presented the leaflet „STOP to Child Marriages“, which summarised the experiences acquired by Praxis while working on the prevention and elimination of child marriages, included recommendations for further work and presented some of the children's drawings created in the workshops with more than 140 boys and girls from four primary schools in Serbia.

At the very end, Jasmina Miković, Praxis’ Deputy Executive Director, presented two girls from the Primary School "Jovan Cvijić" from Kostolac and their Roma language teacher, who took part in Praxis’ workshops on the prevention and elimination of child marriages. One of the girls presented her impressions from the workshops and said that it was not good for children to marry early and that it was very important for them to complete education. 

Finally, the conference attendees, including the authors of drawings and their teachers, had the opportunity to view the exhibition and socialise.

Radio Belgrade I broadcast on the conference here.

The Eurochild National Partners Networks (NPN) Group, which gathers 20 networks and represents in total 2.000 child rights organizations around Europe, met for two days in Brussels. The Network of Organisations for Children of Serbia (MODS)was represented by Jasmina Miković from Praxis, president of the MODS Management Board.

The first day of the meeting was focused on capacity building on advocating for the rights of refugee and migrant children by mainstreaming children’s rights in all EU and national policies and practices. Eurochild’s aim is to advocate for the EU to encourage Member States to strengthen their child protection systems to accommodate the specific needs of migrant and refugee children. To this end, Eurochild is currently collaborating with other European networks with a broader expertise on migration. Some of the Brussels-based networks, the Missing Children Europe, the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, and the European Council on Refugee and Exiles shared their experience on advocating for the rights of migrants and refugees. They highlighted that action at national level is of key importance to improve the situation of migrant and refugee children. EU instruments, such as the Communication on the protection of children in migration, need to “leave Brussels” and become well-known at national and local level: there are tools to be used to encourage national authorities to implement policies. The EU Return Handbook is currently being revised and updated by the European Commission: there is a risk of stronger measures promoting returns so need to monitor how governments will be reacting to it.

Moreover, Eurochild, in partnership with SOS Children’s Villages International, is currently developing a Compendium of case studies on the integration of migrant and refugee children across Europe. Therefore, some of the contributors to the Compendium were invited to the meeting to present their project/practice, highlighting achievements as well as challenges and lessons learnt. Marion Macleod from the Children in Scotland, UK, presented two examples of different approaches: The Scottish Guardianship Service, a partnership between the Scottish Refugee Council and Aberlour, through which young people are allocated a guardian; and an initiative by local authorities to find families for young unaccompanied asylum seekers, relying on faith communities and cultural groups. Barbora Messova, Coalition for Children Slovakia, provided an overview of the main challenges and lessons learnt in relation to advocating for the rights of migrant and refugee children at national level, with a particular focus on UASC with families in detention. Barbora underlined the importance of adapting language and methods depending on the relevant stakeholder to be engaged, in order for advocacy to have a stronger impact. Daria Crimella, Fondazione Albero della Vita, Italy, presented the “Un Faro in Città” project, which involved the establishment of a reception centre in the city of Milan to foster families’ independence and integration. The project focuses on two areas of intervention: addressing the needs of the beneficiaries, such as accommodation, food, and health care; as well as empowering families by providing psychological and legal assistance. 

The second day of the meeting was focused on the Future of the EU, including the European Commission White paper on the future of Europe, the impact of Brexit, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European Semester Process. Réka Tunyogi, Head of Advocacy at Eurochild, gave a presentation providing an overview of the latest updates at EU level, and their potential impact on children’s rights, particularly focusing on the White paper on the future of Europe; the European Pillar of Social Rights; and the Work-Life Balance package. Also, she gave a presentation on the European Semester, as a process through which Member States’ progress towards achieving the Europe 2020 targets is monitored, and it represents an important tool to advocate for children’s rights at EU and national level.  

The next Eurochild NPN Group meeting will take place on 11 October 2017 in Belgrade, followed by the International Conference Investing in Children on 12 October 2017.

From 5-6 April 2017, the Eurochild membership gathered in Brussels for the annual General Assembly. The Network of Organisations for Children of Serbia (MODS) was represented by Jasmina Miković from Praxis, president of the MODS Management Board.

At the General Assembly, a children’s participation strategy was endorsed following the discussions facilitated by children and young people themselves. For the first time, children and young people are engaged in developing and implementing a strategy for the children’s rights network which represents 165 members. 

The Child Participation Strategy aims to engage children and young people directly to put children’s rights at the heart of Europe; give them a voice and build a community of children’s rights advocates. The Eurochild network has adopted this strategy, which will see the development of national and European Fora for children and young people to influence decisions that affect their lives and help organize events. 

The strategy goes hand in hand with a Child Protection Policy ensuring all staff, members and partners fully embrace their responsibilities to protect children from harm. Eurochild members will, in the future, be expected to demonstrate compliance with Eurochild’s policy or to have in place their own child protection policy respecting national legislation. 

The Eurochild child participation strategy is going to be piloted via three National European Fora in Malta, Estonia and Bulgaria through which children can get directly involved. 

At the General Assembly and Members’ Day, a group of children and young people advised the membership on the provision of child-friendly spaces and making sure that views are gathered from disadvantaged groups. 

Eurochild believes that children’s participation is crucial for promotion and protection of children’s rights. As we demand participatory approaches from governments, we, as civil society, must lead the way, by embedding children’s participation into our own working structures. 

It is estimated that around 1,300 refugee children and unaccompanied migrants are exposed to the risk of exploitation, violence and trafficking in human beings due to an increasingly restrictive border control policy and often inadequate response of the social protection system in the countries along the so-called Balkan route. This is the conclusion of a report published by the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children, in cooperation with 10 national and international organisations involved in providing assistance to refugees and migrants.

The social protection systems in the countries along the route often fail to identify and adequately support these extremely vulnerable children, including nine-year olds, who, fleeing from the war and poverty, cross thousands of kilometres without parents or guardians. These children are often "invisible" and in some cases, even when the social protection system identifies them, they are placed in inadequate conditions, including detention in some countries.

Risks to children traveling in this way have been further increased following the implementation of the agreement between the European Union and Turkey, which led to the closure of the borders along the so-called Balkan route. Due to these restrictive measures, unaccompanied children are forced to take desperate moves, thus relaying on traffickers or smugglers, whom they perceive as the only way to continue their journey.

The report further states that in this way some of these children become victims of exploitation, because the smugglers and traffickers are forcing them to work so they earn the money to continue their travel, and they are often being abused. Under these circumstances the children get neglected and exposed to enormous stress and danger. Even though they are trying to act boldly, their stories and drawings reveal harrowing details about their experiences on the road, for which they thought, would lead them to safety.

The social protection systems of the countries of the region, which need to identify and provide protection to unaccompanied children, face difficulties in their efforts to respond to the needs of vulnerable children whose numbers have been growing since the beginning of the crisis in 2015. In Serbia, the new demands have been met by increasing the accommodation capacities for unaccompanied children and employing additional social workers to provide them with support. However, additional efforts need to be invested to establish systemic solutions for the adequate protection of this group of children.

"Children need comprehensive support tailored to their needs“, says Jelena Besendić from Save the Children. "It is almost impossible for them to safely and legally continue their journey towards the EU countries. Many of these children decide to stay outside the system, and therefore do not get support from humanitarian organisations, and then often become targets of smugglers who use threats to manipulate them. Thus they become exposed to the risk of becoming victims of violence, abuse or exploitation.“ 

It is necessary to increase accommodation capacities in all countries along the route, and provide accommodation intended exclusively for unaccompanied children. Even when they are identified as children, unaccompanied minors are often placed in some centres together with adult refugees, unknown to them, or in the accommodation similar to detention, as is the case in Bulgaria and Hungary.

It often happens that unaccompanied children are placed under the guardianship of the employees of Social Welfare Centres who are overloaded because of simultaneously handling several similar cases, who lack sufficient experience or training for working with refugee and migrant children, and who are therefore unable to support them in accordance with applicable standards. Some children also complain that they are not sufficiently familiar with their rights or with the legal options available to them.

Every child must get all the help and protection that it needs. The governments of the countries along the route have to improve their system of support to this most vulnerable group, but before doing so, we have to ensure that these governments get necessary support and financial means to be able to handle the crises. The European Union and EU Member States must fulfill the commitments they have made and promise to adequately respond to the needs of these children. This also includes the resettlement of unaccompanied children to the EU countries as well as the reunification with their families,” said Ashly Lovett from IRC. “The governments who are doing so, must discontinue with the practice of placing the children in detention, and should assign trained guardians to unaccompanied children. If this measures are not implemented, the children who have already suffered traumas due to war, conflict and difficult journey, will be put in an even more difficult position, because there is no safe and legal way for them, they are not being adequately protected, and they are desperate to move on.”  The report was coordinated by the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children, and its creation was supported by NGOs Atina, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Centre for Youth Integration, Ideas, Infor Park, Novi Sad Humanitarian Centre, Otvorena porta, PIN, Praxis and Terre des hommes.

For more information, see the announcement at the following link.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations (Committee) adopted the Concluding Observations on the combined II-V periodic report of the Republic of Serbia on the implementation of the International  Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/SR.2604), at its 2604th session held on 1 December 2017. Previously, in cooperation with the organisations SKRUG, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, European Network on Statelessness and European Roma Rights Centre, Praxis submitted to the Committee a written contribution related to the outstanding problems concerning the prevention of racial discrimination in Serbia, with a focus on hate crimes and discrimination against members of the Roma national minority and stateless persons as a particularly vulnerable group of foreigners.

Referring to the allegations from the written contribution submitted by Praxis and partner organisations, the Committee was concerned by indications that hate speech remained under-reported and by the absence of comprehensive statistics on investigations, prosecutions and convictions for acts of racist hate speech and incitement to racial hatred. The Committee advised Serbia to pursue its efforts to enforce Article 54a of the Criminal Code, notably by ensuring that all reported incidents, investigations, prosecutions,sanctions and remedies relating to racist hate crimes were recorded. The sanctions imposed on perpetrators should be commensurate with the gravity of racist hate crimes, while victims should obtain full redress. It was also recommended to designate within law enforcement services contact persons for racist incidents, provide training to them on conducting investigations, and ensure they engaged in regular dialogue with targeted groups in order to ensure adequate reporting of racist hate crimes. The Committee requested from Serbia to provide detailed statistics, disaggregated by ethnicity, on the number and nature of racist hate crimes reported, prosecutions and convictions, and redress provided to victims. The Committee also requests statistics on the number of such cases that were still pending at the Public Prosecutor’s Office and before the courts.

The Committee urged Serbia to put an end to de facto public school segregation ofRoma children and ensure access to quality education for Roma children, including through anti-racism and human rights training for school staff, awareness-raising efforts targeting parents, and increased employment of Roma teachers.  The Committee also recommended that the State party took measures to avoid the so-called “white flight” from schools where Roma were enrolled, including by developing effective mechanisms with a view to preventing further de facto segregation in schools.  The Committee further recommended that Serbia enshrined the desegregation of schooling in its national policies to ensure its sustainability, and provided adequate funding for its implementation, in line with Sustainable Development Goal on ensuring that by 2030, all girls and boys completed free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education. 

In addition, the Committee pointed to the problems of trafficking in persons, housing and status of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. The Committee recommended to Serbia to ensure that individuals with insufficient means to pay for legal representation had the legal right to free access to legal recourse for acts of racial discrimination. The Committee recommended to the State party to provide, free of charge, clear information to members of vulnerablegroups, in a language they understood, concerning their rights under the Conventionand complaint mechanisms for acts of racial discrimination. The Committee also recommended that Serbia continued to consult and engage in dialogue with civil society organisations concerned with human rights protection, in particular those working to combat racial discrimination, in thepreparation of the next periodic report and in follow-up to the present concluding observations. 

At the invitation of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs and the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the Anti-Discrimination Coalition, with Praxis being one of its members, submitted remarks and suggestions relating to the latest Draft Law on Gender Equality. 

The general objection made by the members of the Anti-Discrimination Coalition referred to the almost complete absence of a gender identity component. In addition, the Law does not mention sexual orientation at all, which does not contribute to a greater compliance of this regulation with European standards. 

Gender-based discrimination is defined as "any differentiation or unequal treatment or failure to treat (exclusion, restriction or prioritising), in an open or covert manner, in relation to persons or groups of persons, as well as members of their families or close persons, based on gender or sex, in political, educational, economic, social, cultural, sports and other spheres of social life“. 

However, the definition of gender excludes gender identity, since according to the Draft Law "gender signifies socially determined roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that society finds appropriate for women and men.” In this way, transgender and intersex persons are excluded from the Law, as well as non-binary persons, and a dilemma arises as to who determines what is appropriate for society and in which way.

Regarding the definitions of discrimination and special measures for achieving equality, this Draft Law does not contain any shortcomings related to the compliance with the EU directives dealing with the protection from discrimination, which are included in the Law on Protection against Discrimination. In fact, the definition of indirect discrimination is fully harmonised with EU directives. Inciting discrimination is defined as a form of discriminatory act. Special measures for achieving and promoting gender equality are of a temporary character, since it is emphasised that "special measures are applied until the prescribed aim of their determination and implementation is achieved," which is in line with international standards.

As regards judicial protection in a civil procedure initiated by a person and a group of persons subjected to gender discrimination, the Law states that it is exercised in accordance with the law regulating the prohibition of discrimination. This provision seems to be adequate, since it does not "duplicate" the system of protection and does not call into question the civil society organisations’ standing to commence an action. The associations that have defined the activities of assistance and support to victims of violence within their programmes are allowed to provide free legal aid.

The members of the Anti-Discrimination Coalition are: Centre for the Advancement of Legal Studies  - CUPS, Civil Rights Defenders, Gayten-LGBT, Equality, Labris - Organisation for Lesbian Human Rights, Network of Committees for Human Rights in Serbia CHRIS, Association of Students with Disabilities and Praxis.   

On the occasion of the 94th session of the  Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Praxis, in cooperation with the organisations SKRUG, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, European Network on Statelessness and European Roma Rights , submitted a written contribution including the information on the outstanding problems concerning the prevention of racial discrimination in Serbia, with a focus on hate crimes and discrimination against members of the Roma national minority and stateless persons as a particularly vulnerable group of foreigners.

The written contribution first pointed to the fact that Article 54a of the Criminal Code, which had introduced hate crime in the national legislation nearly five years before, was still not implemented in practice. It also stressed the problem of segregation and difficulties faced by Roma children in education, their over-representation in the fostering system and the absence of adequate response to the problem of early, child and forced marriages, which affected particularly Roma girls.

Commenting on the legislation and practices that affected particularly the Roma minority, the submitters of the written contribution warned of various obstacles that prevented timely birth registration for Roma children and of the remaining shortcomings in the procedures of permanent residence registration, which particularly affected Roma without the legal basis of housing.

Since Serbia could soon get a new Law on Foreigners, the contribution also pointed to the current version of the Draft Law on Foreigners whose provisions on the determination and prolongation of immigration detention discriminated against stateless persons, as a particularly vulnerable group of foreigners, and made them subject to arbitrary detention. The written contribution also mentioned the difficulties that may arise because of the lack of procedures for determining the status of a stateless person.

Finally, the contribution included some clear recommendations for allowing Roma and persons at risk of stateless to access their rights and for contributing to more consistent compliance with the obligations undertaken by Serbia under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.   

Download the written contribution here.

Preliminary results of the survey on the participation of civil society organisations and citizens in the decision- and policy-making process, conducted by Praxis within the framework of the project Contributing to Public Administration Reform in Kraljevo, as part of the grant scheme of WeBER project financed by EU and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, show that there is almost no public participation in the process of adopting acts in Kraljevo.

In the period 1 June 2016 - 1 August 2017, the Kraljevo City Assembly adopted 399 acts. With the exception of planning documents, whose adoption must be transparent according to the Law on Planning and Construction, none of other 399 acts were adopted after an organised public hearing, nor were citizens or civil society organisations involved in any other way in drafting these acts.

The situation is different only in case of strategic documents, which was demonstrated also in the process of drafting and adopting the Local Action Plan for the Roma in the City of Kraljevo for the period 2017-2020. This document was adopted in September 2017 following the consultations with interested citizens and CSOs and a public hearing. It is very important that CSOs got involved already in the drafting phase because it allowed them to substantially influence the content of the future act.  All the proposals presented during the public hearing were adopted and there was also the option to send additional written comments.

Although the procedure of adopting this act can serve as an example of good practice and the way of conducting genuine consultations, it is an exception, limited to the procedures of adopting strategic acts. Most decisions are adopted without public participation.

Apart from leaving a negative impression of the level of the local self-government’s commitment to public administration reform, a failure to include CSOs is a missed opportunity to use their experience for improving the quality of adopted acts and preventing the adoption of incomplete, unconstitutional or discriminatory decisions.

WeBER (Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform) is a three-year project financed by EU and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. More details about the project are available here. 

For more information, see the announcement at the following link.