Download: HERE

Praxis filed a lawsuit to the Higher Court in Belgrade for discrimination in one primary school, because the headmaster refuses to enroll Roma children. Specifically, the parents of three children of Roma nationality wanted to enroll their children in this school, and the headmaster allowed the enrollment for two elder children but she refused to enroll the youngest child, with an explanation that there was no place for the third child, which was not true. Since children could not go to the same school, the parents decided to withdraw two elder children from school, which was what the headmaster aimed at, according to witnesses.  

This school is attended by a very small number of Roma children, while the number of Roma children who attend a nearby school is almost ten times higher. Both schools are located nearby a large Roma settlement. That situation clearly indicates discrimination which is the responsibility of the headmaster.

Therefore, Praxis initiated a civil procedure against the headmaster before the Higher Court in Belgrade. However, the Higher Court rejected the lawsuit with an explanation that in order to conduct a procedure, it is necessary to provide consent of the defendants, because the lawsuit refers to specific persons and not to unspecific group. With that decision, the Court applied the substantial right erroneously and ignored the viewpoint of the Supreme Court of Cassation , which decided in such cases.

Specifically, the lawsuit referred to a group of persons and its purpose is to protect all children of Roma nationality, and not only a child who is prevented to enroll in school. Therefore, Praxis did not need a special authorization given by the defendants. This viewpoint was confirmed also by the Supreme Court of Cassation in the decision reached in the case of McDonalds. Specifically, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality filed a lawsuit for discrimination against McDonald’s restaurant in Novi Sad, because the security prevented the children of Roma nationality to enter the restaurant. Actually, the  Supreme Court of Cassation is of the viewpoint that decisions of low-instance courts that reject such lawsuits must be abolished, because the lawsuit is not directed at establishing discrimination against a specific person, when it would be necessary to provide a written power of attorney, but at discrimination against a specific group, i.e. unspecified number of persons – children of Roma nationality.

The above stated decision of the Higher Court in Belgrade was based on the wrong implementation of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, and consequently establishing of legally relevant facts was missing.  Owing to such practice of competent courts, conducting of already small number of civil procedures for determining discrimination is becoming more difficult and the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination is not adequately implemented, which additionally aggravates the position of vulnerable population groups.

Statement by MODS

The Network of Organisations for the Children of Serbia (MODS) welcomes the initiative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development to amend the Law on the Basis of the Education System in order to improve the existing legal provisions, eliminate problems in practice and harmonise the system of education in the Republic of Serbia with the system of education in the European Union and the modern world, thus responding most efficiently to the dynamic changes in our society, both in economic and in social fields.

Starting from the child's right to quality education that is inclusive and without discrimination on any basis, we expect that the Draft Law will substantially and practically allow children, pupils/students and adults with developmental challenges and disabilities to access all levels of education regardless of their own financial status.

Accordingly, it is crucial to establish and improve mechanisms to increase the coverage of children from vulnerable groups in preschool education, in particular before their inclusion in the compulsory preschool preparatory programme.

New legal provisions should be in accordance with the concept of inclusive education that is focused on children and their well-being, and that requires cooperation of all stakeholders in the education system, recognition of the importance and role of parents, and the development of mechanisms for greater participation of children. The introduction of special programmes and textbooks for children with developmental challenges is contrary to this, because changes and adjustments are to be made on an individual level and not at the level of textbooks.

On the basis of international conventions, the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Serbia, we believe that the introduction of special programmes for pupils with developmental challenges is not in accordance with the principles of inclusive education.

Legislation on education, in accordance with the standards of contemporary inclusive education, provides that changes and adjustments of the content of curricula are to be carried out at the individual level (for each child individually) and their purpose is to ensure adjustments in accordance with pupil’s individual needs, based on the Individual Education Plan (IEP).

Preschool education should be equally based on inclusive principles as primary and secondary education.

Parents are important in the education system and the legislative amendments must not reduce the participation of parents and their role in the management body, i.e. school board. It is necessary to develop a spirit of cooperation and equal participation of parents instead of insisting on the concept of obligations and sanctions.

The reduction of dropout rate and increase of the safety of children depend on cooperation between parents and schools, and on the offered measures and activities that involve various actors in schools before engaging external support and involvement of social welfare centres.

There remains a concern that these amendments may allow economic exploitation and child labour in schools, bearing in mind that the legal working age is 15 years.

Download: Proposal of MODS for Amendments to the Law on the Basis of the Education System
                Proposed Amendments to the Law on the Basis of the Education System
                Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the Basis of the Education System

During February and March, Praxis organised two meetings in the local communities, with the aim of bringing together all relevant actors involved in the protection of rights and improving the situation of the Roma population - representatives of municipal authorities, service providers and civil society, and improving their cooperation.

The Praxis’ extensive experience in dealing with the rights of Roma revealed the need for the networking of all the stakeholders working on the issues of Roma rights, as well as the need for coordination of their joint work and exchange of information. In addition, it has turned out that dealing with these issues at the local level is of great importance because it is the easiest way to identify and effectively solve problems specific to a particular municipality.

The first meeting was held in Prokuplje on 25 February and the second one took place in Aleksinac on 11 March. The meetings were attended by representatives of municipal authorities, institutions and civil society. The meeting topics were related to the areas of employment, education, housing, social protection, health care and discrimination. The main conclusions are: as regards employment there is a low percentage of applicants for self-employment grants and the lack of interest for the offered retraining and additional training programmes, and the entire procedure of granting subsidies should be simplified. As regards social protection, common problems were mentioned, such as complicated procedures, limitations of the right to financial social assistance for the beneficiaries able to work, and extreme arbitrariness/abuse of discretionary powers by some social workers. It was concluded that Roma children were not fully included in the education system. The Roma minority is usually exposed to indirect discrimination.

According to the participants, the meetings have contributed to increasing their knowledge and the formulation of joint conclusions that will facilitate easier problem solving in the future.

After these two, eight more municipal meetings are planned to be organised by the end of September in: Leskovac, Bojnik, Prokuplje, Kuršumlija, Bor, Bela Palanka, Kruševac, Lebane and Knjaževac, while the final, joint roundtable for government representatives, service providers and NGOs dealing with Roma rights at the national and local levels is scheduled for October. The conclusions previously reached at the mentioned municipal meetings will be presented.

These activities are conducted within the framework of the project entitled Legal Aid and Advocacy - Access to Rights and Combating Discrimination against the Roma, implemented in the period 1 January – 31 December 2015 with the support of Civil Rights Defenders. The project aims to facilitate equal access to justice without discrimination for the Roma population, through the provision of free legal assistance and legal counselling relating to socio-economic rights and protection from discrimination. The project also includes the activities such as monitoring and advocacy, which should contribute to improvement of legislation and practice of local institutions and service providers.

The publication "Nobody is Allowed to Harm You - a book for children and young people to help them understand what abuse and neglect means" is dedicated to children and young people, and primarily to children and young people with disabilities, but also to other children. It was prepared as part of the project "Empowering children and young people with disabilities to improve responses to child abuse and neglect", funded by the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia within EIDHR programme, and implemented by the international charity organization Lumos in partnership with Child Rights Centre.

Download the publication here.

Download the report by the Provincial Ombudsman here.

On 22-26 June, the European Roma Youth Forum from Spain and the United Associations of the Balkans from Greece organized a study session of young Roma in the European Centre in Budapest. The session was attended by 35 young people from all over Europe, with an aim to enable young Roma to gain new knowledge about how to involve the members of vulnerable groups in international projects dealing with youth problems.

Vuk Raicevic, a Praxis lawyer, also attended the session and made a statement on that occasion for Radio Belgrade I.

Download the statement here.

Within the series “The Citizen” at Radio Television of Serbia, which is dedicated to the life of national minorities in Serbia, a show about legally invisible persons was broadcasted. At the beginning of the show broadcasted on 16 June 2015, there was a word about a Praxis client, who after years of effort finally managed to get registered in birth registry book and obtain personal documents.

You can watch the show HERE.

On the occasion of the World Day against Child Labour, we would like to draw the attention of the public and competent bodies to the problem of child labour exploitation.

Worldwide, more than 168 million boys and girls are engaged in some form of child labour, which deprives them of the right to adequate education, threatens their health and denies the right to play. According to the estimates of the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 85 million children are exposed to the worst forms of the child exploitation, such as prostitution, pornography and trafficking.

Although the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia prohibits child labour, in line with the international obligations undertaken by signing ILO Convention and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to the research conducted by UNICEF in Serbia, 4% of children aged 5-14 are engaged in some form of child labour. The largest number of these children comes from the poorest families, and particularly vulnerable are Roma children, who are very often engaged in labour from an early age.

As the causes of child labour need to be sought primarily in poverty, solving this problem requires a holistic and multidisciplinary approach. The emphasis should be placed on prevention and thus it is necessary to enable available, compulsory, qualitative and completely free education for every child up to the age of acquisition of working capacity.

Today, on the World Day against Child Labour, we appeal to the public, control and state institutions to address the problem of child labour more seriously so that all children equally enjoy the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and Convention of the Rights of the Child.

We mark the 20th June, World Refugee Day, with a feeling of a great uncertainty over the faith of a great number of migrants passing through our country, lacking protection from violence, discrimination, abuse, maltreatment and insults.

Unaccompanied child migrants are one of the most vulnerable groups. Misdemeanour courts in Serbia proceed upon charges against child migrants for illegal border-crossing, even though numerous international and European regulations state that children cannot be deprived of liberty only because of the lack of migratory status. Furthermore, there have been cases of breaching legal obligations by conducting procedures without the presence of a guardian or an interpreter.

Unaccompanied child migrants are forced to leave their homes, which is sufficient reason for being granted international protection. Regardless of the fact that most migrants do not wish to stay in Serbia, state bodies are obliged to ensure protection of their rights during their stay in our territory and to treat unaccompanied child migrants in accordance with the principle of the best interests of a child.