In October and November 2016, Praxis held three community meetings in Leskovac, Pozarevac and Novi Pazar, as a part of activities aimed at prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages, carried out within the project “Legal Assistance to Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia”, funded by UNHCR.

The idea of the second round of meeting was to gather the representatives of all institutions which may have a key role in the prevention of child, early and forced marriages, and the institutions which are obliged to react in case of child, early and forced marriages, in order to review the defined policies and improve them additionally.

A total of 48 representatives of social welfare centres, police, prosecution, judiciary, educational and health institutions, NGO sector, as well as Roma health mediators, teaching assistants and activists, took part in the meetings. The participants stated that though the problem of child, early and forced marriages has been present for long, it is not treated enough, and therefore almost no one knows how to solve it.

One of the conclusions of community meetings was the general impression of the participants that despite the mechanisms that can adequately resist the problem of child, early and forced marriages, the activities of the relevant institutions are not synchronized, but happens that the responsibilities are transferred from one institution to another.

For more information, see the announcement Praxis Held the Second Round of Community Meeting on Prevention and Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Meetings.