Praxis, jointly with the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, the European Network on Statelessness and the European Roma Rights Centre, under the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review, made a submission to the Human Rights Council about the outstanding issues related to the prevention of statelessness and protection of stateless persons in Serbia. The submission focuses on the obstacles concerning the timely registration of the fact of birth into civil registry books, problems in acquiring citizenship for the children born in Serbia who are not entitled to citizenship of another state, and the problem of persons who had been registered into civil registry books that were destroyed during the 1999 conflict in Kosovo or that are considered unavailable by the authorities of the Republic of Serbia.

Since Serbia could soon get a new Law on Foreigners, the submission also points to the current version of the Draft Law on Foreigners whose provisions on the determination and prolongation of immigration detention discriminate against stateless persons and make them subject to arbitrary detention. The submission also mentions the difficulties that may arise because of the lack of procedures for determining the status of a stateless person.

Finally, the submission contains clear recommendations suitable for ensuring timely registration of the birth of each child and more constant respect for the right to citizenship, and for facilitating access to guaranteed rights to the persons who have remained stateless and protecting them from prolonged or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

Download the submission here.