Non-governmental sector has been drawing attention of the State for years to the need of urgent resolution of the issue of “legally invisible” persons in Serbia. So far, there has been no adequate legal reaction from the State in terms of adopting amendments to the existing laws in this field, which are in practise imprecise, incomplete and inefficient. The competent State bodies thus demonstrate that they are not ready and capable of assuming responsibility for providing protection and enjoyment of basic human rights and freedoms, guaranteed by the Constitution, for certain categories of population.

For the second year in a row, the need of resolving the issue of legally invisible persons has been pointed out by the European Commission in its Serbia Progress Report. Serbia has also been warned for many years about the hard position and social exclusion of these persons by other international organizations, primarily UN bodies, Council of Europe and the OSCE. In the second decade of the 21st century, Serbia is a European country where thousands of the poorest people, mainly Roma, are still outside the legal system of the country to which they belong.

The TV feature, broadcasted on the RTS, clearly shows that competent State officials insist on the standpoint that the existing legal framework is not an obstacle for subsequent registration of the “legally invisible” persons into birth registry books. Thus, they ignore the opinion of numerous non-governmental and expert organizations which have been pointing to the fact that “legally invisible” persons cannot meet the prescribed requirements for subsequent registration in birth registry books, and that refusal to adopt amendments to the existing laws in this field represents an act of indirect discrimination of the “legally invisible” persons, prohibited by the Constitution.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government itself, which is, in the first place, responsible for resolution of problems of “legally invisible” persons, has been denying for years that this problem in practice exists and that it is of systemic character, but claims it to be a mere incident.  In accordance with this standpoint, the responsible Minister Markovic has also been persistently rejecting the possible legal solution to this problem which was offered to him a few years ago by the non-governmental sector. He has been refusing the dialogue with the non-governmental sector on this topic, and also refusing to offer some other, alternative systemic solution to the problem which would, in simple and efficient way, enable the “legally invisible” persons to subsequently register into the birth registry books.

We invite the State institutions to finally stop denying the fact that the problem of “legally invisible” persons in Serbia exists and we request that the competent State authorities, primarily the Government and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, without delay legally regulate the procedure of subsequent registration into the birth registry books for this category of persons, as well as provide full enjoyment and protection of their other rights and freedoms.

Members of the Coalition against Discrimination are: NGO Praxis, the Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, Labris – Organization for Lesbian Human Rights, Anti-Trafficking Center, Network of Boards for Human Rights (CHRIS Network), Association of Students with Disabilities, Gayten LGBT and Regional Centre for Minorities.

Download (Serbian only): Transcript of RTS TV feature Superfluous Citizens