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On the occasion of 18 December, the International Migrants Day, Praxis wants to draw attention at difficult position of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Serbia.

During 2014, more than 10,000 persons with intention to seek asylum crossed over Serbia, running away from armed conflicts and harsh violations of human rights, without being able to exercise their rights in our country either. Non-functional asylum system, postponement of adoption of amendments to the Law on Asylum, insufficient accommodation capacities, impeded access to socioeconomic rights are just some of systemic problems that reflect the lack of political will to find a durable solution. In addition to these problems, there is also widespread xenophobia expressed not only by citizens but also by the representatives of public authorities.

The International Migrants Day is the last change to ask ourselves why, as a society, we are not moved when people in our neighborhood sleep in woods and abandoned factories, exhausted by hunger and thirst, with frostbite, in fear of an uncertain future. We are calling on authorities to fulfil their obligations with an aim of establishing the efficient asylum system, but also on citizens to show understanding for all those who are forced to leave their homes and seek asylum somewhere else.

On the occasion of the eviction of refugees and internally displaced persons from the unrecognized Collective Center "Pioneer City", Jasmina Mikovic, Praxis Deputy Executive Director, made a statement for Vecernje novosti Daily.

Read the news here.

On the occasion of the eviction of refugees and internally displaced persons from the unrecognized Collective Center "Pioneer City", Jasmina Mikovic, Praxis Deputy Executive Director, made a statement for Vecernje novosti Daily.

Read the news here.

In November, Praxis organized five trainings on anti-discrimination law in Belgrade, Novi Pazar, Novi Sad and Nis. The trainings were held together with the partner organization Equal Rights Trust (ERT) from London, with the support of the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, within the project Empowering Civil Society to Improve the Implementation of Anti-discrimination Laws in Serbia, supported by the European Union.

The first training was organized in Belgrade on 17-18 November 2014 in the premises of the National Assembly. It was primarily dedicated to lawyers dealing with anti-discrimination law. The goal of the training was to provide the participants with the knowledge about the national and international law, and strategic litigation for determination of discrimination. The training was led by Ivana Krstic (Faculty of Law of the University in Belgrade), Joanna Whiteman (ERT), Milica   Pavicevic (The Commissioner for Protection of Equality), lawyers Aleksandar Olenik and Violeta Kocic-Mitacek. The training was attended by the representatives of the persecution, public attorney’s office, the Ombudsperson, the Commissioner for Protection of Officer, Delegation of the European Union in Serbia and non-governmental organizations. The training consisted of the lecture about the legal framework on anti-discrimination, through illustrative examples from practice and exercises, aimed at practical application of knowledge and opening of a discussion. The participants had an opportunity to listen about anti-discrimination and strategic litigations from different perspectives: academic, non-governmental and that of independent institutions and lawyers.

This training was followed by trainings organized in Novi Pazar (20-21 November), Novi Sad (24-25 November) and Nis (27-28 November). These trainings were intended for activists of non-governmental organizations dealing with anti-discrimination and were led by Joanna Whiteman and Jim Fitzgerald (Equal Rights Trust), Ivana Stjelja (Praxis) and Rejhana Corovic, Lazar Rodic and Relja Pantic from the Office of the Commissioner for Protection of Equality.

In addition to the above stated trainings, on 26 November 2015 one more training was organized in Belgrade intended for media representatives. The training referred to the role of media in promotion of equality and was led by Vladimir Curgus (EBART),  Jim  Fitzgerald (Equal Rights Trust) and Danica Balaban (EBART). The participants talked about the principles of ethical reporting, different media reporting on children from different social groups and on discrimination in media based on national affiliation.

The trainings showed that discrimination is still an insufficiently explored issue, that term discrimination is often widely interpreted and often not recognized or wrongly understood in practice. The participants of trainings showed a great interest in this topic, especially in cases from practice. The conclusion of all trainings was that civil society needs to be more seriously empowered and informed about this subject and that such trainings are necessary. 

Download the report: Protecting the Rights of Migrants in the Republic of Serbia

Today we are marking the Human Rights Day and 66 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This day should remind us that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, but also that there are those whose rights are violated and who need protection.

On this day we would thus like to point at the position of refugees and internally displaced persons accommodated in the informal Collective Centre “Pionirski grad”. Sixty three persons are being evicted at this moment. The evictions will be also carried out during winter, which is contrary to international standards binding on Serbia. The eviction of the CC “Pionirski Park” affects children, single parents, unemployed, socially vulnerable and persons of poor health, who are in constant fear and state of uncertainty, without durable and sustainable solution for their problems. We express sincere concern about the lack of understanding and will of the competent institutions to prevent homelessness, which for some is the only certain perspective. The authorities point out that the evictions are now unavoidable, but there will be opportunities for final resolving of their housing issue in the future.

Therefore, on this day we are calling on the authorities to urgently suspend the evictions during winter and find a durable and sustainable solution for refugees and internally displaced persons threatened with homelessness.

Statement by MODS

The Network of Organisations for the Children of Serbia (MODS) must respond to increasingly frequent appearances of Zoran Milivojević, who is known to the public for advocating corporal punishment of children and hate speech, which is especially illustrated by one of his recent statements given to the Novi Sad-based daily Dnevnik.

The Novi Sad-based daily Dnevnik published Mr. Milivojević’s statement that Roma children were doubly protected – for being children and for being Roma, and that therefore no one could do anything to them. Thus, he has criminalised an entire people, by vocalizing an opinion, which is discriminatory, to say the least, and basically labelled all members of the Roma minority. In doing so, he compares children with predators and gives himself the right to determine and speculate about the age limit for corporal punishment of children.

Using the media space, provided to him by the Politika daily, he continues to openly promote corporal punishment of children in Serbia presenting theses that are unsustainable and problematic, twisting the facts as he pleases without clear and logical consistency. So he first claims that there is no evidence that violence causes violence, and then makes the point that NON-VIOLENCE CAUSES VIOLENCE.

According to Milivojević, it seems that corporal punishment is the ONLY thing available to a parent in raising children and the only way for achieving parental authority! Only this totally disqualified Milivojević as a competent interlocutor on the issue of parenting. Milivojević consistently and erroneously equates the absence of corporal punishment with the so-called permissive parenting where “everything is permitted” to a child and parents are "powerless".

Milivojević persistently avoids talking about the abundance of ways to overcome difficulties in raising the child without beating. Such parenting may require more effort and a lot of patience, and sometimes may be harder.

In order to avoid judging what "permitted corporal punishment" and "abuse" are, violence should be prohibited by law and parents should be provided with great support in child raising, and genuine and real experts should be invited to help parents to provide better guidance to their children.

And we invite Mr. Zoran Milivojević to publicly apologise to the Roma community, parents and children for presenting discriminatory attitudes, hate speech, promoting violence and amateurish attitude towards the profession, parents and children.

We also invite professional associations, particularly the Union of Associations of Psychotherapists of Serbia, to distance from and condemn the statements and appearances of Zoran Milivojević, who violates the Code of Ethics of the Union by his actions and public appearance. Practicing psychotherapists know very well that they have a significant social responsibility because their recommendations and professional actions may alter the lives of others. Therefore, it is extremely unethical to recommend violence to parents as a way of solving problems that inevitably arise in child-raising, as Milivojević does. It is extremely unethical that professional associations remain silent to such statements and practice. We remind you that you as psychotherapists have committed to respect the integrity and protect the welfare of the persons with whom you work, to care about yourselves and others (physically, mentally), bearing in mind the uniqueness and worth of everyone. Are children less valuable and should we not respect their physical integrity?

More than 80 associations of citizens signed the Request for establishing responsibility and rectifying failures in the competition of the Ministry of Labour. The Request can still be signed by writing a mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Request

The Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Labour) announced a competition for grants for citizen associations in order to improve the social protection system. The competition was marked by numerous irregularities, including decisions on granting funds to a large number of newly registered associations (many of them just a month or less than a month before the competition), associations led by related persons (family members), associations led by local officials (primarily those from the Youth Office), associations that have identical statutes, including typographical errors and the like.

After the public has justifiably pointed out the irregularity of the competition and the obvious attempt of the embezzlement of taxpayers' money, the Minister of Labour Aleksandar Vulin attacked the entire civil sector, threatening with inspections and controls of the operations performed in the last 10 years and finally, completely illegally and without authorisation, stated that he had decided to direct the money earmarked for social protection services to the Fund for Treatment of Children with Rare Diseases.

The associations of citizens, signatories to this request, urge the competent authorities to do the following:

1. Cancel the irregular competition and announce new one, in accordance with the budget of the Republic of Serbia and the planned policy of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. The beneficiaries of social protection services cannot be deprived of the funds that have already been earmarked in the budget for that purpose. As regards the Fund for Treatment of Children with Rare Diseases, the Government of the Republic of Serbia needs to find a systemic solution and resources from the budget lines designated for this purpose instead of usurping arbitrarily the funds intended for social protection beneficiaries.
   

2. Initiate ex officio investigations and prosecute effectively all those who are responsible for the attempted misuse of taxpayers' money. The Prosecutor’s Office is obliged to act ex officio in this case and to examine reasonable suspicion that this was a well-organised group that attempted to appropriate money from the budget and whose members are from the relevant state and local institutions and newly established associations of citizens.

3. Urgently dismiss Minister Aleksandar Vulin. The Government of the Republic of Serbia must initiate a procedure for the replacement of the Minister of Labour because of his undoubted political responsibility in this case. Not only did Minister Vulin fail to respond adequately to the irregularities in the competition, but attacked the civil sector and announced unlawful decisions, such as redirection of these funds to the Fund for Treatment of Children. The amendments of budget are the responsibility of the Assembly of Serbia and Mr. Vulin cannot dispose at his discretion with the money of the citizens of Serbia in any case or make decisions about its reallocation.

The associations of citizens, signatories to the request, warn the Government of the Republic of Serbia that such behaviour is detrimental, both to Serbia’s finances and the rule of law, and to the development of civil sector, but also to the system of support to young people in Serbia through local youth offices and to the development of the whole society. The responsibility lies with the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Prosecutor's Office, which must take the measures prescribed by law. Associations of citizens will not give up their demands and will use all legal means available to defend the rule of law and freedom of association in Serbia.

The list of signatory organisations and more detailed information can be found on the website of Policy Center.

Blog by Bojana Balević, Gender Equality Programme Coordinator

Since a few years ago every 25th November has been marked in Serbia as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This day is marked not only by the civil sector, as it was in the beginning, but it has now become a practice of public authorities and institutions. In the period 25 November-10 December, during the campaign 16 Days of Activism, a large number of conferences, performances, public debates and other events will be organised to address the following topics: violence against women, disadvantaged position of women, social contexts leading to that, etc. Civil society representatives will once again present data and examples from practice illustrating the situation of women's rights; state representatives will confirm whether there is room for improvement, that there are differences in the position of men and women - primarily economic, but will also stress that Serbia does not lag behind the developed countries to a great extent, that the situation in the European countries is similar, that there are some worse than us.

However, the life before and after the campaign tells us that all those things debated during the campaign are changing slowly, and that in some segments there is stagnation and even regression.

The current situation in judiciary is such that the procedures in which women seek protection from violence are unacceptably lengthy. Thus, for example, it takes one year on average to issue an indictment for the crime of domestic violence after the filing of criminal charges. The criminal proceedings, depending on the type of crime, last from one year to as long as four years. The reasons for lengthy court proceedings are numerous, and we have most frequently encountered these: inability of delivering summons for the main hearing to the accused, scheduling main hearings at intervals of one to several months, non-attendance of summoned witnesses, delay in submission and submission of incomplete findings and opinions of expert witnesses in relation to the types and severity of injuries, etc. This period of time leaves room to the abuser to stalk the victim forcing her to withdraw from the proceedings. Besides the length of proceedings, victims of domestic violence were often dissatisfied with the judgments by which, in most cases, a suspended sentence was pronounced to perpetrators. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, the injured party does not have a possibility to appeal against judgement when the public prosecutor considers that it is not necessary. In cases where a suspended sentence is pronounced, the victim of violence simply cannot influence the altering of sentence. In cases where victims of violence had property claims in criminal proceedings, the court usually instructed them to initiate a civil procedure to exercise that right, which practically delays for several years the completion of all procedures relating to domestic violence.

As regards civil procedures for the purpose of exercising the right to protection from domestic violence, the situation is no better. On average, somewhat more than a year passes from the moment of filing the lawsuit to the final judgment, which constitutes a serious violation of legal provisions. In fact, the majority of civil procedures in which we have represented victims of domestic violence are those related to family relationships, which were urgent under the Law on Family. That means that there will be, as a rule, a maximum of two hearings within the civil procedure, whereas the first hearing is convened so as to be held within 15 days of lawsuit and request being received by the court, and the appellate court is obliged to render a decision within 30 days of filing an appeal. Even when the right to judicial protection is exercised, i.e. when the measures of protection against domestic violence are imposed, it does not mean the end of troubles for individual victims of violence. For example, we had a case that measures of protection against domestic violence were imposed on the abuser: measure of eviction from the home, restraining order at a distance of 150 metres around the place of work and residence, and the prohibition of any further harassment. However, every day he parked his car in front of the house from which he had been evicted at a distance greater than prescribed and observed the victim. The police did not react to calls; they said that their hands were tied and that they could only talk to try to persuade the abuser not to do that again. They went so far as to say to the victim that they did not understand why it bothered her when the abuser was doing nothing. In the event that the abuser violates the court order and does not comply with the imposed measures of protection against domestic violence, new criminal charges are filed and another court procedure is initiated, exhausting for the victim of violence.

All this is especially important to mention in the light of the fact that Serbia ratified the Istanbul Convention, which entered into force on 1 August 2014. As a reminder, the Republic of Serbia has made a reservation in respect of two members of the Istanbul Convention. Article 3 of the Law on Ratification of the Convention reads: "The Republic of Serbia reserves the right not to apply the provisions of Article 30 paragraph 2 and Article 44, paragraph 1 point e), paragraph 3 and paragraph 4 of the Convention until it has harmonised its national criminal legislation with these provisions of the Convention."

The Istanbul Convention requires the States Parties to be guided by the due diligence standard in the prevention, protection, prosecution and punishment of acts of violence.

In the field of protection of the victims of violence, the state should ensure to place the needs and safety of victims in the focus of all measures and to prosecute and adequately punish the perpetrators of violence against women. This means that the states are obliged to take necessary legislative or other measures and to ensure that victims have adequate civil legal remedies against perpetrators, but also against public authorities that have failed to respond to violence in accordance with their powers. More specifically, the States Parties are expected to harmonise their legislations with the provisions of the Convention, and the Convention envisaged, inter alia, the following: introduction of criminal offence of stalking in domestic legislation; introduction of urgent measures for protection from violence (granting the power to the competent authorities to order to the perpetrator, in situations of imminent danger, to vacate the residence of the victim for a sufficient period of time and to prohibit the perpetrator from entering the residence or contacting the victim), to ensure the right to legal assistance and free legal aid to the victim in accordance with national legislation and others. In that process of protecting victims the state should create a system to protect at all times the rights and interests of the victim in order to prevent them from being exposed to secondary victimisation.

Serbia is still without the Law on Legal Aid; stalking is not defined as a crime in our legislation; there are no urgent protection measures that may be imposed by the competent authority, but they have to be sought in court. It should also be noted that the judicial system in Serbia has been blocked for more than two months because the Ministry of Justice did not find a way to solve the problem faced by the legal profession and (in)directly by citizens.

Moreover, in Serbia there is a lack of services for victims of violence - hotlines, shelters for victims of violence, crisis centres for rape victims and others.

Combating violence against women is not just immediate protection but primarily work on the prevention and elimination of harmful gender stereotypes and prejudices, customs and traditions, which are based on the idea of the inferiority of women or the application of stereotypical gender roles.

The question is whether, in this retraditionalisation of social relations that we have been witnessing in recent years, we as a society can respond to the challenges and protect the most vulnerable?