The human rights organisations, which have today prevented the execution of the decision on forced eviction of five Roma families from Skadarska Street No. 55, condemn the city authorities’ failure to respond to an appeal for finding adequate alternative accommodation for these families.

We emphasise that immediately after learning that the decision on eviction would be forcibly executed, on 20 July 2011, the residents of Skadarska Street submitted to the City Secretariat for Social Welfare a request for urgent provision of adequate accommodation. To date there has been no response from the City Secretariat for Social Welfare, despite the fact that twenty persons live at the aforementioned location, ten of whom are children.

Since the city authorities have failed to act despite of being informed that the forced eviction is scheduled for today, the only solution for the residents of Skadarska Street No. 55 was to try to physically prevent the eviction with the support of human rights organisations.

With the help of the police officers from the Police Station Stari Grad, an agreement was reached with the proxy of the abandoned building owner to postpone the execution of eviction for 15 days, so that in the meantime, the accommodation could be found for these families.

The international human rights instruments, primarily the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which is binding on the Republic of Serbia, guarantee the right to housing and the provision of alternative accommodation in cases of eviction. The result of evictions should not be homeless people who are subjected to further violations of other human rights. The state authorities must take all appropriate measures to ensure the availability of adequate alternative accommodation for the victims of forced evictions.

We demand that the City of Belgrade and the competent state authorities urgently provide adequate alternative accommodation for the families residing in Skadarska Street No. 55, fully in line with the international standards related to the right to housing.

The signing organisations:

1.    Praxis
2.    Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM
3.    Regional Centre for Minorities
4.    Women in Black
5.    Centre for Advanced Legal Studies
6.    Youth Initiative for Human Rights
7.    Humanitarian Law Centre