On 3 March 2014, Praxis and Liceulice signed the Memorandum of Cooperation and thus formalized their commitment to protection and improvement of human rights, fight for equality and inclusion of marginalized groups.

With the strategic partnership, the organizations committed to join the efforts with an aim to affirm the values important for the development and empowerment of civil society, and support members of vulnerable population groups in their economic, social and cultural emancipation, inclusion and demarginalization, through the strategic use of communication tools and Liceulice media platform.

After the formal signing of the protocol, the partners discussed the joint actions and the possibilities of promoting and strengthening civic activism and visibility of activities conducted by civil society organizations.

Statement taken from World Vision

Why do we need community-based services?

Community-based services should allow the fulfillment of basic needs of the citizens of Serbia, both children and adults.

Services are intended for those to whom society needs to provide additional support to be able to participate in everyday life in the community in which they live - to go out of the house, to buy food, to bathe, to get medical treatment, to go to school, to be surrounded by other people, to develop their abilities.

There are different forms of these services - some services are provided to beneficiaries in their homes, some in specially equipped premises, while some facilitate the functioning of beneficiaries outside of their homes. These are, for example, home help for the elderly and children with developmental challenges, drop-in centres for children living and working in the streets, safe houses for victims of violence, various kinds of day-care centres - for children with risky behaviour, children with developmental challenges, etc.

Community-based services can be performed by service providers from the public, private and civil sectors, on the basis of public procurement tenders, from a range of services envisaged by law and deemed necessary by the local self-government.
Community-based services are needed not only by those who use them directly, but also by their families and community.

Why are the services for children in the community being discontinued?
The suspension of work and discontinuation of services for children in the community are ongoing in the territory of Serbia.

The provision of services is chronically at risk as a consequence of the lack of understanding of the need for them by national and local authorities, and recently also as a result of the way of the implementation of austerity measures and reduction of the scope of public sector.

The Amendments to the Law on Budget System, adopted towards the end of 2013*, prohibit the employment of new staff in the next two years, while the number of temporarily engaged associates in the institutions financed from the budget is limited to 10% of the total number of employees. Although the law provides exceptions to these restrictions for some users of public funds**, the social protection sector is not among them. Thus, the restriction on the number of associates without exemption applies also to social protection institutions (social welfare centres) that often provide community-based services through the engagement of associates - for example home care assistants for elderly people or for children with developmental challenges.
In addition to the national Law, the Decision on Amending the Decision on Social Protection Rights and Services for the City of Belgrade, adopted on 22 April 2014***, revoked two necessary services from the range of services provided by the law – Drop-in Centre and Personal Assistance. These services have not been adequately supported by the City of Belgrade even before adopting this Decision and they are now deleted as unnecessary, which prevents service providers from raising funds from donors for these particular services. Also, by revoking the services intended for a group of citizens, without prior evidence on these services being unnecessary or providing alternative solutions to meet the needs of beneficiaries, the attitude of the government and society towards citizens is brought into question.

We recall that in Serbia there have been investments for years in the development of local services, which should respond to the needs of citizens in their place of residence, without separation from the family and community. Great amounts of funds from international donors, including the funds from the European Union and individual EU member states, have been directed precisely on encouraging the introduction of new services, which should be sustainable after the completion of donor-supported projects, and taken over by local communities and funded by municipalities.**** Paradoxically, this kind of austerity measures has resulted in spending the resources invested by international donors, as well as our national government and local self-governments (for each of these services it was necessary to train personnel, equip premises, buy working material or vehicle) .

We consider it extremely harmful to prevent in this way the functioning of the services on which the exercise of basic rights of beneficiaries and their families directly depends. We invite stakeholders in the government - including the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Ministry of Finance, to find a way, as soon as possible and in cooperation with local self-governments and social welfare centres, to align the austerity measures, reduction of public sector size and its reform with the needs and rights of the beneficiaries of social services and their families.

World Vision is an organisation focused on humanitarian and development assistance and the situation of children, working in more than 100 countries, including the EU member states and the countries that initiated the EU membership process. The partner implementing the World Vision’s activities in Serbia is Agroinvest Foundation and the last few years the organisation has been active in the field of monitoring the development of local services (individually and in partnership with the Provincial Institute for Social Protection), as well as through the support of the Network of Organisations for Children (MODS), in partnership with the Open Club (Head Office of MODS Secretariat).
 
* Law on Amendments to the Law on Budget System, Official Gazette no. 108/2013
** Article 6 of the Law
*** Official Journal of the City of Belgrade 37-14. Available at http://www.sllistbeograd.rs/pdf/download/707/
**** One of the most recent big investments was the donation of the European Union in the amount of three million euros for the development of community-based services for children with disabilities and their families in 41 municipalities in Serbia in the period 2011-2013. The donation was part of the 2008 IPA Social Inclusion (EuropeAid /130732/L/ACT/RS)

During April and May 2014, after more than a year and a half since the adoption of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure, which prescribes the procedure for determining the date and place of birth, the second cycle of seminars for judges and judicial associates on the implementation of the Law was held. The seminars, like the year before, were held in Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Niš and Belgrade, organised by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Judicial Academy, in cooperation with the Protector of Citizens, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Praxis.

The seminar programme was designed in a way to inform judges and judicial associates, in the introductory part, about the results achieved in relation with the implementation of the laws of importance for registration into birth registry books - the Law on Registry Books and the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure; to this end, presentations were given by representatives of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the Protector of Citizens and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The participants were reminded of reasons for prescribing the procedure for determining the date and place of birth, and they were presented other activities undertaken in the framework of the Technical Group for the purpose of solving problems of legally invisible persons. The speakers noted that all indicators suggested that prescribing a special court procedure had yielded the expected results. In this regard, Deputy Protector of Citizens for national minorities emphasised in the seminars that even the number of complaints related to the problems faced by legally invisible persons in registering into birth registry books had been considerably reduced, which, in his opinion, suggested that they exercised their rights effectively in court procedures.

In the second part of the seminar, Nikola Bodiroga, PhD, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, spoke about the procedure of determining the date and place of birth, with particular reference to the provisions interpreted in different ways in practice, highlighting also the problems observed in the application of the Law. The presentation was supported by concrete examples from the work of Praxis and constituted a good basis for discussion with the judges who attended the seminar. In particular, he stressed the possibility of submitting a joint request of several persons, being more cost-effective due to identical factual situation, but also pointed to the fact that this was a way to avoid a legal vacuum and solve the problem of registration into birth registry books for more family members at the same time. It was pointed that, again for the reasons of cost-effectiveness and expediency, judges should not convene "preparatory hearings" for the purpose of hearing legally invisible persons, and only then request reports from the competent administration authorities, but in accordance with the provisions regulating the procedure, they should convene hearings only upon receiving necessary information from these authorities.

Responding to one of the problems encountered in practice, which relates to who can be a witness in the procedure, the lecturer pointed out that witnesses may be the relatives of legally invisible persons and that they may not necessarily be those who attended the birth of the requesting parties, which was contrary to the practice of some courts that insisted on hearing non-relative witnesses and persons who attended the birth. It was reiterated that the hearing was mandatory under the provisions regulating the procedure, and that in situations where a legally invisible person was abroad, the provisions on international legal assistance applied, or where possible, the provisions of the Law on Civil Procedure envisaged the hearing by a conference call. The judges were informed about the situations in practice where the requesting parties had received warning notices to pay the costs of expertise, which was contrary to the Law, since it strictly provided that the costs of expertise in determining the date and place of birth was paid from the court budget. Another practical problem referred to the delivery of decision to the competent registrar, and the judges were particularly urged prepare and deliver to the registrar a written copy of decision and not a transcript of the hearing, which occurred in practice. At the end of the presentation, the judges’ attention was drawn to the fact that deadlines were usually not respected, and that in addition to the difficulties caused by waiting for the responses of competent authorities, the reasons for this, in some cases, could be found in non-compliance with the order of stages in the procedure.

The final part of the seminar consisted of discussion about the problems identified in the introductory presentations and the presentation of existing practices and dilemmas of judges related to the conducting of procedure. In addition to confirming that they had problems in meeting the deadlines, the participants mentioned the problem of difficult delivery and pointed out that it happened in practice that the requesting parties stated only their name and surname and since they were not registered in birth registry books, the judge lacked sufficient information and did not know from which administration authority to request information about a person and was therefore compelled to first convene a hearing, although being aware that it meant a longer procedure. One of the practical suggestions for the solution of such situations was to provide the registry offices of all courts with a kind of leaflet that would be available to interested parties to inform them about which data a request for determining the date and place of birth should contain. In addition, there were questions as to whether the procedure could be conducted for persons born in the territory of Croatia or Macedonia and how to treat birth certificates issued in the territory of Kosovo. Practical questions were related to the role of expert witness in this procedure, while frequent difficulties in communicating with the requesting parties at the hearing were also mentioned. Although some questions remained open, the gathering was an opportunity to exchange opinions and practices of judges. The participants’ evaluation of the seminar organisation, in terms of its content and usability, was mainly positive.

Not possessing an ID card is the worst (...) I feel as if I were different million times for not having documents, and people surely see me in a different way because of it. They think I do not exist or that I am a criminal.

Isa was born in Kosovo - Former Yugoslavia. He fled to Belgrade following the 1999 conflict, but because he didn’t have any papers proving his identity, was never registered as an internally displaced person.  

His very first document, his birth certificate, was issued in 2013 when he was 29. This was only possible due to a new procedure  introduced in 2012. Up till then Isa lived a life of an invisible. He did not attend school, he did not have health insurance and the only pieces of evidence about his residence are the statements of his common-law spouse and his neighbours.

However, despite managing to register his birth into birth registry, Isa remains stateless without a nationality. He cannot “inherit” his father’s nationality since his father doesn’t have any (his father was born in Macedonia and lived in Kosovo since the 1980s, but has never had his nationality officially registered) or his mother’s (she left Isa  when he was only two weeks old and Isa doesn’t know if she held any nationality at the moment of his birth). Without nationality, Isa remains deprived of rights and services. He says:

“I cannot get married, recognize paternity of my children, visit my family in Kosovo. I cannot work legally, receive social welfare assistance or register for health insurance. To be without documents and a nationality is as if you never existed in this world.

Serbia currently lacks a procedure to recognise Isa’s statelessness and regularise his statuus. Meanwhile, the only option open to Isa now is to try to acquire Serbian nationality through the naturalization procedure. Unfortunately, the outcome of the procedure remains uncertain because Isa cannot provide any written proof of his residence, which is one of the legal requirements. So he remains stuck in a vicious circle and facing a life in limbo.

“I am scared of the police because I don’t have documents. I hope it will be better and different in the future and I hope to acquire a nationality. I believe I would feel much better then because I would be able to live without fear. ”

Sign the petition here.

European Network for Statelessness calls on all European leaders to sign the petition to demand protection for stateless persons in Europe.

The fact that there remain an estimated 600,000 stateless persons living in Europe today shows that action is long overdue. The time for action is now.

Recent research reveals that the absence of a route by which stateless persons can regularise their status leaves these individuals at risk of a range of human rights abuses. Many stateless persons find themselves destitute or forced to sleep rough on the streets. Others are subjected to long term immigration detention despite there being no prospect of return. Often stateless persons must endure years separated from their families abroad. Few are in a position to break this cycle, and as a consequence are left in legal limbo for years.

Timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the 1954 Statelessness Convention, this campaign will bring together a broad spectrum of actors and to put a human face on the statelessness issue. The campaign will culminate in a concerted day of action against statelessness across Europe on 14 October 2014 when this petition will be handed to European leaders.
 
Sign the petition here
Read: Isa - Face of Statelessness
See the animation: Everyone Has the Right to Nationality

Astra, Judges' Association of Serbia and the Autonomous Women's Centre, with the support of 38 civil society organisations issued an open letter regarding the amendments to a number of judicial laws, which entered the parliamentary procedure on 8 May 2014 as a matter of urgency, without a public debate or consultation with experts.

Taking into consideration the importance and effects that the proposed measures will have for the citizens of Serbia, these organisations request the withdrawal of the judicial laws from the urgent procedure and their return to the competent ministry for the purpose of conducting a public debate.

These laws are the foundation of the justice system in Serbia and therefore these organisations are expressing concern that some of the proposed measures may lead to legal uncertainty and inequality before the law, thus undermining the fundamental right of citizens to access legal protection and deepening the already great distrust of the legal system and the rule of law in Serbia.

Download: Open Letter

As part of the project Access to Social Welfare and Health Protection for Vulnerable Groups in the South of Serbia - Phase II, which was implemented by Praxis with the support of the Foundation Caritas Luxembourg in the period 1 November 2013 – 30 April 2014, on 10 April 2014 a roundtable was organised in Vranje for representatives of institutions and civil society in Pčinja District. The roundtable was attended by representatives of the Social Welfare Centres of Pčinja District and the Centre for the Development of Local Social Welfare Services of the City of Vranje, representatives of the Police Administration, Vranje City administration and the Office for Roma National Minority, the Trustee Office for Refugees and Displaced Persons, as well as numerous representatives of civil society (NGO Nexus Vranje, Association Bakija Bakić Vranje, Association Rom Vladičin Han, Roma Association KHAM, NGO OFER Bujanovac and Roma Cultural Centre Vranjska banja).

This meeting was preceded by a series of activities aimed at improving the system of social welfare and health care and, therefore, improving as much as possible the situation of vulnerable social groups, Roma and internally displaced persons, related to access to socio-economic rights. The achievement of the specified goal has been facilitated by providing information and counselling on the content and scope of the rights of target groups, but also on the mechanisms for their protection, through networking and strengthening cooperation among the relevant service providers at the local level and their further sensitisation with respect to the sensitive needs of certain categories of citizens, through the monitoring of normative regulations and administrative practices and advocacy for the elimination of obstacles to the exercise of the rights and insisting on the introduction of efficient and sustainable solutions.

Since a clear awareness of the consequences of the absence of intervention by competent institutions in the situations of social needs of citizens was expressed during the meeting, local community representatives who participated at the meeting actively contributed to the formulation of joint recommendations identifying the key obstacles concerning access to socio-economic rights and proposals for overcoming these obstacles.

RECOMMENDATIONS to overcome the problems and establish an effective system for exercising and protecting rights:

• Providing affirmative measures to recognise the special status and needs of vulnerable groups, and ensuring their equal treatment and equal opportunities in accessing rights.
• Adopting the remaining by-laws envisaged under the Law on Social Protection to ensure the full implementation of the Law, in particular a by-law that will regulate the establishment of a binding cooperation of all stakeholders responsible for supporting vulnerable groups.
• Adopting a local action plan or plans that will provide ways and means for the development of social welfare and health care services and intersectoral cooperation of local institutions.
• Revising the concept of means test in exercising the right to financial social assistance in order to align the implementation of these restrictions with the changed situation in the labour and capital market, especially in light of the consequences of the current economic crisis.
• Amending the regulations in a way to specify clear criteria for determining the possibility of missed earnings in exercising the right to financial social assistance, in order to prevent arbitrariness in decision making and align the regulations with the actual possibilities and needs of citizens.
• Amending the Law on Social Protection by deleting Article 84, which stipulates that the submission of claims for subsistence against relatives is a condition for exercising the right to financial social assistance, considering the effects that the mandatory litigation envisaged under this Article have produced in practice.
• Simplifying the complicated administrative procedure in exercising the right to social assistance, thus allowing the most vulnerable citizens to access the rights on which their survival most often depends.
• Ensuring consistent application of the Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens in terms of permanent residence registration at the address of social work centres because the exercise of the right to health care and social protection directly depends on this possibility, especially in case of the Roma living in informal settlements.
• Improving coordination of different service providers at the local level, for example Social Welfare Centres and the National Employment Service, in order to use all work engagement opportunities, thus providing an opportunity for social inclusion to a person in social need.
• Ensuring the capacity of institutions to adequately address the existing needs by securing resources from funds and donations for the purpose of improving the situation of vulnerable groups.
• Making the conditions for exercising the right to social welfare and health care sufficiently transparent and clear for all categories of citizens.
• Intensifying cooperation between all stakeholders at the local level, both among themselves and with civil society organisations, in order to improve access to rights.
• Making the role of Social Welfare Centres more efficient in exercising the rights to social protection in the case of families with minors who are not in the care of parents but other persons who are not formally the guardians of these children, with regard to the obligation of the guardianship authority to initiate procedures to determine guardianship and participate in them.
• Respecting the legal deadlines for bringing decisions (first and second instance) on the recognition of the right to social assistance, to make it meaningful, especially in case of one-off assistance.
• Conducting training for employees of institutions in order to improve the quality of services provided and further sensitisation to the needs and situation of beneficiaries.

On 20 February 2014 a meeting was held in Surdulica with representatives of municipal authorities, institutions and civil society. This was the fourth and last meeting organised by Praxis in Pčinja District within the framework of the project Access to Social Welfare and Health Protection for Vulnerable Groups in the South of Serbia - Phase II, implemented by Praxis with the support of the Foundation Caritas Luxembourg. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Social Welfare Centre, Child Protection Department, the Organisation of the Red Cross, a member of the Municipal Council, pedagogical assistants of primary schools "Vuk Karadžić" and “Pera Mačkatovac" and representatives of non-governmental organisations Caritas Luxembourg Foundation, Roma Education Society and Veliko Srce from Surdulica, and Roma activists.

Based on the information obtained during the implementation of project activities, the vulnerable population in the Municipality of Surdulica is most often faced with the problems related to the exercise of the right to a one-off and financial social assistance. The way in which a social worker determines the amount of missed earnings and also the way of determining the entire socio-economic status of the family are seen as a major barrier to accessing the right to social protection. At the meeting, representatives of non-governmental organisations dealing with the protection of the rights of Roma pointed to a number of irregularities and poor treatment in the procedure of determining the socio-economic status of a family. In such situations, the social worker determines that persons can rent out their excess residential space or sell their real estate and movable property, without taking into consideration various circumstances that bring into question the estimated possibilities of individuals and families. Representatives of the vulnerable population stated that due to social intolerance and pronounced social distance towards the Roma population, it was almost certain that the possibilities for renting out excess residential space were significantly reduced. Also, as regards the possibilities of missed earnings, the legitimacy of the concept is brought into question, but the representatives also stated that they were not likely to miss opportunities to earn income but that opportunities were almost inexistent.

The representative of the Social Welfare Centre said that the actual needs of citizens far exceeded the limited funds from the national budget allocated for assistance to socially vulnerable individuals and families, and that the institution’s capacity was limited and usually insufficient since the Social Welfare Centre in Surdulica only had one social worker. Moreover, the representative of this institution believed that, in addition to insufficient capacity of the institution, the problem for both requesting parties and decision makers lied in certain legal concepts, such as missed earnings. In fact, she agreed that such imprecisely defined category and limited capacity rendered the determination of correct and complete factual situation very difficult, which was usually perceived by citizens as violation of their rights.

Given that the meeting was not attended by any representative of the Republic Fund for Health Insurance, in part of the meeting where access to health care for vulnerable groups of citizens was discussed, it was noted that access to this group of rights was often impossible for the most vulnerable persons, and it was concluded that it was necessary to intensify advocacy efforts to address this systemic problem.

As part of the project Access to Social Welfare and Health Protection for Vulnerable Groups in the South of Serbia - Phase II, implemented by Praxis with the support of the Foundation Caritas Luxembourg, on 4 February 2014 a meeting was held in Vladičin Han with representatives of municipal authorities, institutions and civil society. This is the third meeting that Praxis organised within this project in Pčinja District.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Social Welfare Centre, representatives of the Department of General Administration responsible for administering civil records, Assistant  President of the Municipality, representatives of the National Employment Service, pedagogical assistant, trustee for refugees and displaced persons, health mediator and representatives of non-governmental organisations Association Rom Vladičin Han, Association “Roma of Vladičin Han”, Association „Khan", Association of Roma Intellectuals, as well as Roma activists.

Based on the information obtained during the implementation of project activities, including the meeting, vulnerable population in the Municipality of Vladičin Han is usually faced with the problems relating to the inability to register permanent residence and obstacles in exercising the right to financial social assistance. The reasons why individuals are not able to register their permanent residence at the addresses where they actually live lie mainly in their inability to provide proof of legal basis for residing in the residential building in which they live or in the consequence of common-law marriages entered by the minors who must provide the consent and presence of parents in order to submit a request for changing the address and issuing the identity card. Due to the inability to register their permanent residence, these persons are prevented from obtaining an ID card.

A number of underage mothers cannot exercise the right to health insurance in the Municipality of Vladičin Han since their permanent residence is in the place of their parents’ permanent residence. Representatives of the Republic Fund for Health Insurance and representatives of the Ministry of Interior did not attend the meeting, which means that it was not possible to obtain information from the representatives of relevant institutions about possible ways of overcoming these obstacles. It was noted that this problem required systemic solutions and that little could be done at the local level about the existing regulations in this field.

A large number of socially vulnerable citizens in this municipality are affected by deep poverty and therefore, in order to overcome the adverse financial situation, forced to address the Social Welfare Centre requesting the recognition of the right to social assistance or a one-off financial assistance. In this regard, by monitoring the individual cases of exercising the right to social assistance, it was found that these procedures were very lengthy and that decisions were not issued within the statutory deadlines, as pointed out by Praxis to representatives of the Social Welfare Centre. In addition, citizens mostly complain about inadequate treatment when submitting a request. In this respect, Director Dobri Stevanović, who has been in that position since recently, said he was aware of the described bad practice and that the improvement of institution’s work organisation had been planned through a series of measures, such as the introduction of reception officer who would be trained to work with members of vulnerable groups; printing of guides for the procedure before the Social Welfare Centre; education and sensitisation of institution staff in order to improve the quality of service provision. The Director stressed that he believed that close cooperation between the institution and civil society organisations was very important for ensuring the effective exercise of rights to social protection and that he would seek to enhance that cooperation.

The participants considered that such meetings were very useful for educating, informing and further sensitising the staff of institutions, in addition to being important for improving mutual cooperation.

Praxis, as a member and representative of the Network of Organisations for the Children of Serbia - MODS, since February 2014 has been participating in the work of the Policy Steering Group (PSG), consisting of 16 national networks for children from Europe, led by the pan-European network organisation for children Eurochild from Brussels. The Policy Steering Group works on achieving the common goal of putting the children’s rights and welfare at the centre of policy-making at the European and national levels.

The second meeting of the Policy Steering Group was held in the period 12-13 February 2014 in Brussels, and it was attended by Praxis Deputy Executive Director Jasmina Miković, as MODS representative. On the first day of the meeting, an activity report was presented by the Eurochild Secretariat; the participants then discussed the Eurochild’s strategic plan and activity programme for 2014-2017, overview of national advocacy priorities prepared by national networks, tasks of PSG members and ways of future work. On that occasion, the following activities were highlighted as most important: publishing Child Rights Manifesto, European campaign on deinstitutionalisation Opening Doors for Europe’s Children, joint action investment in children of  European networks and organisations for children and advocacy campaign for ratification of Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (OP3).

The second day was devoted to the upcoming elections for the European Parliament, i.e. to the possibilities of influencing the elections and committing the members of the European Parliament to ensure proper implementation of existing EU acquis relating to children, and to further improve the protection of child’s rights through the systematic inclusion of issues relating to children in all policy sectors, parliamentary initiatives, legislative and non-legislative activities. In addition, participants had the opportunity to attend an event where a joint UNICEF and Eurochild publication was presented: Realising the Rights of Every Child Everywhere: Moving forward with the EU, whose aim is to influence the European Union to improve the exercise of the right of every child and intensify the European debate on children's rights by bringing together the largest possible number of representatives from Europe, as well as to show the commitment of the institutions and civil society organisations in strengthening the actions of the European Union regarding the children’s rights. On this occasion, the participants were addressed by Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, who stressed the importance of this publication. She emphasised that the impressions presented in the publication by those dealing with children’s rights from different perspectives in the European Union represented a valuable insight in the situation where we were today. Viviane Reding also said that building a just and safe environment for children was a priority of the European Commission.

See the news: MODS at the Second Meeting of Eurochild’s Policy Steering Group