Coalition against Discrimination has the pleasure to conclude that in the Progress Report on Serbia, the European Commission has dedicated due attention to the antidiscrimination issue. The Coalition further finds that the Report conclusions can make a significant contribution to further improvement of the public bodies’ actions for prevention of discrimination against certain discriminated groups.

In the Coalition's opinion, the state is obliged to dedicate special attention to the development of tolerance, non-violence and non-discrimination culture in all social life segments. Having this goal in mind, civil society organizations should impose as natural partners to the state bodies.

However, the Coalition cosiders that it is not possible to create a society of equally free individuals without exploiting efficient mechanisms for legal protection against discrimination. This is why it is crucial that state bodies, especially courts and prosecutors, Commissioner for Equality Protection, as well as ministries in charge, immediately start using legal means to deal with key antidiscrimination breaches, which have been burdening the public life in the country, and to publicly expose them in line with the Antidiscrimination Law.

Most of all, the state bodies' activities should focus on the following issues:

• Recognition of legal subjectivity to legally invisible persons, most of which are members of Roma population, as well as their full inclusion into the community’s social life; it is essential to pass adequate legal regulations as soon as possible, to enable legally invisible persons to get registered in public registers simply and efficiently;
• Full implementation of international standards in terms of the right to residence and forced eviction, transparency of the process of Roma settlements transfer, and provision of adequate alternative accommodation to the inhabitants of such settlements; persons who live in illegal settlements and homeless people need to be enabled to register their residence, and then they need to be issued personal ID cards;
• Recognition of the right to official use of mother tongue to all national minorities, including Vlach national minority, as well as the right to form a national council based on the results of the national council elections;
• Efficient and non-selective implementation of the existing laws that protect the rights of LGBT population against discrimination and violence;
• Passing laws and establishing institutional practice that would fully respect status and other rights of transgender and transsexual persons in line with the Council of Europe’s recommendations;
• Provision of full gender equality in all segments of social life, and in particular improvement of legal protection of women against domestic violence, including proscription of obligation for relevant state bodies to interconnect their activities in prevention and punishment of domestic violence; the care of state bodies should unreservedly aim at the legal status and rights of special categories of women, such as women with disabilities, single mothers, sex workers, and women in prison; 
• Introduction of special penal-legal regulations on punishment of hate crimes into the Penal Code and establishment of practice for implementation of the existing regulations on discriminatory criminal acts;
• Full achievment of inclusive education goals, especially system and systematic elimination of all forms of discrimination through reproduction of ignorance and discriminatory practices in schools; in order to eliminate cultural patterns which serve as a basis for intolerance, it is essential to work on the reform of homophobic and other discriminatory contents and practices in high schools; it is also necessary to show more decisive and complex support to the education of children and young people with disabilities in a regular educational system, as well as unambiguous definition of segregation of children and young people with disabilities in special institutions, schools, boarding schools and student residences, as a severe form of discrimination;
• Creation of a legal framework fit for full enjoyment of rights and freedoms of persons with mental disabilities, particularly those institutionally accommodated and persons who are deprived of working ability.

The Coalition remains at disposal to all citizens, state bodies, and international organizations in joint fight against all forms of discrimination. Apart from pointing to discriminatory cases in the society, the Coalition will continue to underline the examples if good practice and take active part in proposing laws and policies whose goal is the realization of full equality.

Members of the Coalition Against Discrimination are: 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, PRAXIS and Regional Centre for Minorities.

Non-governmental organization Praxis, with the support of the EU and in cooperation with partner organizations Heinrich Böll Foundation, Regional Centre for Minorities and Dokukino, is organizing the Expert Debate “European Good Practices - Advocacy Tool in Serbia” that will be held on 29-30 September 2011 in the Hotel Sumadija, 8 Sumadijski trg St, Belgrade, from 10:00 a.m. - 06:00 p.m.

The Debate will host experts from the countries of the European Union and national experts who, in their joint dialogue, will once again try to draw attention to the problems of Roma population in Serbia in relation to enjoyment of the right to be recognized as a person before the law and the right to adequate housing, present examples of good practices in the Europe, propose the best solutions and formulate recommendations for their implementation.

Topics to be discussed:

The first day – 29 September 2011
The right to be recognized as a person before the law

• Examples of good practices, good systemic solutions and international standards on (subsequent) registration in birth registry book
• Subsequent registration of children whose parents do not possess necessary documents
• Subsequent registration of adults who have no knowledge of their date and place of birth, persons whose parents have passed away, are unknown or reside at an unknown location
• The Model Law on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law as one of possible solutions
• Protection of the right to be recognized as a person before the law and its correlation with other human rights

The second day –30 September 2011
The right to adequate housing

• Examples of good practices, good systemic solutions and international standards regarding evictions of informal Roma settlements
• Legal remedies in cases of evictions
• Examples of good practices, good systemic solutions and international standards regarding sustainable development of informal Roma settlements (possibilities for legalisation of settlements, possibilities for registration of permanent or temporary residence, etc.)
• Protection of the right to adequate housing and its correlation with other human rights

Download: Profiles of Experts   Agenda

Human rights organizations are demanding the competent republic and city authorities to urgently undertake measures to provide a minimum standard of decent housing conditions for Roma evicted from the informal settlement Belvil to Nis.

To recall, on 26 April 2012, the City Administration of the City of Belgrade evicted about a thousand of Roma from the informal settlement Belvil. Internally displaced families from Kosovo and those with permanent residence registered in Belgrade have been accommodated in container settlements on the outskirts of Belgrade. On the other hand, families with permanent residence registered in cities throughout Serbia have been returned there. Four Roma families with seven children have been accommodated in the abandoned warehouse in Nis with no access to water and electric power, where hygienic and living conditions are below the minimum standards required to ensure dignified life. Over the past period, human rights organizations from Nis have been trying to affect the solution of the problems faced by Roma accommodated in the warehouse by providing direct assistance and meeting representatives of government authorities. However, even after more than seventy five days, city authorities of Nis and republic bodies failed to undertake measures to ensure elementary living conditions – access to potable water, electric power and sanitation. Extremely bad living conditions in the abandoned warehouse are additionally worsened by high temperatures and adverse weather conditions.

Gross negligence of the needs of the most vulnerable citizens of the Republic of Serbia once again points to deeply rooted neglect and marginalization of Roma. Moreover, authorities are strongly contributing to this negligence and inobservance of human rights standards on the right to adequate housing. Obligations related to respect for human rights stated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are clear – residents evicted from the informal settlement must be provided with an adequate alternative accommodation which, among others, includes the sustainable access to safe potable water, electric power for cooking, heating, lighting and sanitation.

Due to the above stated, we are once again calling on authorities to take urgent measures in order to ensure elementary standard of decent housing conditions for Roma accommodated in the abandoned warehouse in Nis i.e. the resettlement from the abandoned warehouse to adequate and decent alternative accommodation with sustainable access to potable water, electric power and sanitation.

Organizations that signed the statement:

1.    Platform for the right to adequate housing
2.    European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC)

Platform for the right to adequate housing consists of: Praxis, Minority Rights Centre, Regional Centre for Minorities, CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM and Novi Sad Humanitarian Centre.

Download: Analysis of the Situation of Internally Displaced Persons from Kosovo in Serbia: Law and Practice

Download: HERE

Download: HERE

Download: HERE

Download: HERE

Download: HERE

NGOs from Serbia – Regional Centre for Minorities, CEKOR - Centre for Ecology and Sustainable Development, CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, and Praxis submitted an alternative report entitled Information Submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on the Occasion of Initial Periodic Report of Serbia.

As a State Party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Republic of Serbia is obliged to regularly submit reports to the Committee, presenting all measures taken regarding the implementation of the Convention. Serbia submitted the Initial Periodic Report to the Committee in August 2009, 19 months late. It is also practice that non-governmental organizations submit alternative or shadow reports as additional information to the Committee in their estimate of State reports.

The organizations submitting the report have opted for the so-called “violations approach” which identifies burning issues in exercise of basic human rights, such as, for example, problems related to right to housing, right to nationality, right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State, right to own property and other basic human rights. Due to the selected approach, the report does not deal with the positive sides of the State policy in certain topics, but exclusively with serious violations of human rights of which no information was given in the Initial Periodic Report of the Republic of Serbia.
 
The data presented in this report are a result of years of field work, information and cooperation with grass-root organizations, analysis of our previous experience in the topics relevant for the report and following on and analysing the work of the State bodies.

The Committee will consider the report during the 78th Session, on Thursday 24th February and Friday 25th February 2011. The report will be considered together with those of the State and international organizations Amnesty International and European Roma Rights Centre.

Download: Information Submitted to CERD on the Occasion of Initial Periodic Report of Serbia