Praxis
NRC - Praxis Humanitarian Report for March 2016
Throughout March 2016, NRC-Praxis continued its ECHO-funded humanitarian activities in Serbia. Activities included protection through presence, assistance and provision of information, and the distribution of food and non-food items (NFIs). However, the closure of borders along the Balkan route and the EU-Turkey Deal agreed in March 2016 resulted in increased arrivals in Belgrade in comparison to previous months, with refugees entering Serbia via unofficial routes from Bulgaria and Macedonia. Thus, the field activities mainly focused on Belgrade where the teams continued to work 24/7, but Praxis also kept its presence in Dimitrovgrad until the end of March, monitoring the situation. In March, nearly 2,500 beneficiaries were assisted.
Download the report HERE.
Emergency Protection, Shelter and Assistance for Refugees & Asylum Seekers in Serbia
In December 2015, in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council, Praxis began implementing the Project “Emergency Protection, Shelter and Assistance for Refugees & Asylum Seekers in Serbia” funded by ECHO, as a response to the refugee crisis in Serbia. The project aims to provide emergency humanitarian aid and protection to vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers transiting through or seeking asylum in Serbia.
NRC and Praxis provide protection through provision of timely, accurate and reliable information to refugees and asylum seekers in Serbia relating to their legal status, registration procedure, the right to seek asylum, other rights and available services, as well as referrals to other organizations for targeted assistance. NRC and Praxis also provide protection through presence in order to better assist and respond to refugees’ needs and mitigate the risk of trafficking and smuggling. The activities within the Project also include the provision of emergency humanitarian aid through shelter assistance and distribution of food and non-food items (NFIs) to refugees transiting through, or seeking asylum in Serbia. The Project mainly focuses on the field locations along the Eastern border, primarily Dimitrovgrad, but with a possibility to include other locations depending on the needs and situation in the field.
Within the Project, NRC and Praxis also cooperate closely with all the actors in the field, including Serbian authorities and local and international organizations for the purpose of better coordination of activities and improvement of protection of refugees and asylum seekers in Serbia.
Praxis at Defenders’ Days
Civil Rights Defenders has recently once again opened the doors to Defenders’ Days and welcomed us along with more than 150 human rights defenders from all over the world. The programme took place in Stockholm, from 4th till 7th of April, and included various presentations, panel discussions as well as a number of trainings and workshops, all focusing on human rights. It was the venue to network, attend the wide variety of events, deepen perspectives on the human rights related questions and share valuable experiences. Several of the world’s foremost human rights experts attend Defenders’ Days in order to host trainings and share their knowledge.
At the last day of the conference, Civil Rights Defenders announced the winner of the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award, recognition intended for the exceptional human rights defenders who strive to ensure respect for people’s civil and political rights. This year’s Award went to human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, who has, over the two decades, defended numerous individuals and organizations in Azerbaijan.
Initigam Aliyev has been an inspiration to a generation of young Azerbaijanis, both as a teacher and as a devoted human rights lawyer. In 2014, he was imprisoned together with other human rights activist in a nationwide crackdown on independent voices in Azerbaijan. His recent release from prison symbolizes a glimmer of hope for an improved human rights situation in Azerbaijan. However, despite the recent release of Intigam Aliyev and other human rights defenders, several prisoners of conscience still remain in prison in Azerbaijan. Learn more about Aliyev, Defenders’ Days programme and many other impressive human rights defenders and their initiatives at Civil Rights Defenders.
We Do Not Need to Be Perfect to Be Good, or to Be Respected Only If We Are Perfect
The International Roma Day, 8 April, is the day when we celebrate and promote the Romani culture, but also the day when we remind of and point at difficult position of Roma women and men in society, and of the obligation to do more to improve their situation. Despite the improvements made over the past years, problems faced by the Roma women and men in Serbia are still numerous, and daily life for most of them still remains below the limits of dignity. The Roma are still discriminated in almost all spheres of social life, while the access to status and socioeconomic rights is impeded or completely impossible to them.
On the occasion of the International Romani Day, throughout this week we have been pointing at impediments faced by our fellow citizens, but also at practices by which such impediments may be alleviated or overcome. We have talked to Bajram Kafu Kinolli, Balkan Bob Marley, and, as many people are already calling him, the successor of Saban Bajramovic. We met Bajram, the front man of Gipsy Groove and peace activist, while he was facing numerous impediments to exercise of his own rights.
We wanted to know what this day means to him personally…
For me, the International Romani Day is the same as the International Human Day. And, every day should be a human day. The rights of Roma are for me the same as the rights of any other person. Every person deserves respect and decent life. And we cannot defend the rights of one person and neglect the rights of another. There is no respect without exchange, without a dialogue. Therefore, it is nice that there is a day when we pay homeage to one community, its culture and customs. However, if the spirit of 8 April fails to come to life on other days in the year, then even that one loses its value and significance.
Greater social changes are never a result of one-side effort...
All due respect of the majority community would not make any sense if we do not invest the effort to acknowledge ourselves for the beginning, and then take a responsible position within the wider community. As long as we accept the role of a victim, and sometimes it seems to me that it is the easiest for people to lull in that role and blame others for all the injustice happening to them, the situation will not change. The changes should come from the community itself. People within the Roma community must be united in the fight for these changes. But, if you fight for your basic existential needs on a daily basis, your power to stay consistent to some struggle, to take a stand and step up as a social and political entity and, most importantly, to hold on it….is very limited. Therefore, major changes come rarely. However, I believe that we all have to fight for our own place. Support is always welcome, but the engine that drives a change is our responsibility. We should not be those who people talk about, part of statistics that is always considered and pointed at, but those who talk about themselves and represent themselves and their community in their daily lives.
One of the song from the Gipsy Groove’s first album starts with the lines “To be the first, to be the last, in the end you are just a Gypsy”…
Discrimination and violence go along with vulnerability and weakness. The stronger you are, the stronger attitude and greater support you have, the fewer people dare to express negative attitudes and practice violence guided by hate. And vice versa. When we started with Gipsy Groove, there were all kinds of situations…every fascist, every neo-Nazis, every nationalist would grant himself the right to insult, and leave offensive comments and threats. As the bend became more recognized and after some of the unpleasant events I personally faced were publicly condemned, there are fewer such situations. However, the colour of your skin marks you. At the end, it is up to you which attitude you will take. You decide not to look back on the fact that someone looks back on you because you are different. This is clear to all people who face problems because they are different. Not only are the Roma discriminated. Discrimination is, unfortunately, present in all social spheres, it occurs along with vulnerability and that is exactly the reason why we all have to combat discrimination. United. Just like when we fight for the rights of all citizens.
“I know it’s hard to be not for the black and not for the white…but, people, wake up”
My statements are the loudest and most direct, exactly through music. Gipsy Groove was created with the idea of engaged art. Each song of ours is a message. Through music we promote the values we believe in. We call for understanding, solidarity and loudly condemn single-mindedness, racism, nationalism and beliefs that encourage hatred. But our story does not stop there. Sometimes we present Roma culture with satire, we make jokes about our own customs, because it is the dehumanization and victimization of what we want to avoid and gladly make fun of. Roma, like all other people, are not the worst, or the best. We do something well, and something don’t. And that is a characteristic of every man. We do not have to be perfect to be good. Nor should we be respected only if we are perfect.
April 8, 2016 should be remembered by the sentence...
Education. Education as empowerment. Education as power. As a voice. Education as a path to understanding. To skill. Education as an attitude. And manner. As a goal and a path to every good change.
We Celebrate Transgender and Remind of the Importance of Joint Struggle for the Rights of Transgender People in Serbia
International Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31, is the day when we celebrate transgender, courage and persistence of individuals in the determination to live their lives outside gender norms and be who they are, despite all the difficulties they face after speaking out and affirming their own gender identity.
Although there are anti-discrimination legislation in Serbia, which prohibits discrimination and guarantees equality of all citizens, transgender people are, more likely than others, exposed to discrimination and violation of basic human rights such as the right to human dignity, bodily integrity, life without violence, the right to medical care, the right to marriage and many others.
The greatest legal impediments to protection and full equality of transgender people include the lack of legislation that would protect the rights of transgender people in Serbia and regulate important issues from different areas of life, such as the ability to change mark of sex/gender, name and personal identification number in all personal documents.
Why the visibility of transgender persons is important
The high level of violence, stigmatization, inability to change documents, unemployment, lack of financial resources for sex reassignment (for those who want it), lack of safety in public spaces and non-prosecution of hate crimes towards transgender people are just some of the difficulties that they face in everyday life. Nevertheless, transgender people and the problems they face remain largely invisible. Even if when they are mentioned, transgender people in the media are often presented in a negative context and in the spirit of sensationalism.
To support transgender people and encourage ethical and professional reporting which recognizes and respects the personal integrity and dignity of transgender people, we have analyzed the reporting of print and online media about transgender people in Serbia and made recommendations for reporting. In addition to the analysis of the value context related to transgender people and the presence of sensationalism in the texts, the essential category of analysis was the knowledge whether a transgender person, mentioned in the text, is referred to in accordance with his/her gender identity.
The Analysis of reporting of print and online media about transgender people in Serbia can be downloaded here, and Recommendations for media reporting on transgender people can be downloaded here. Both publications were created as part of cooperation with Gayten-LGBT and media archive EBART.
We hope that in this way we will contribute to a clearer definition of professional and ethical standards in reporting on the topic, but also to better visibility and knowledge of transgender identities and specificity of the context of existence of transgender people.
Praxis’ Mobile Team the First Hand to Refugees
The migrant “Balkan route” was officially closed on 8 March, which for many refugees from Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan meant that they could not move further from Greece. Nevertheless, the smuggling channels continue to do their work, and thus minimum 100 refugees per day find themselves in Belgrade most of whom do not even know in which country they are. In addition to the deadly tour, refugees are usually left on the outskirts of the city, and often most of them get lost. There comes Praxis, and organization whose mobile teams patrol the city. Praxis is a non-governmental organization engaged in providing free legal aid and struggle for human rights. Praxis most often inform the refugees about the residing conditions in Serbia, but most of refuges learn only from Praxis that most of them could not go further.
The experiences of Praxis’ volunteers are different and we can hear most of them in media. The never know what awaits them on a certain day, nor do the refugee they assist. When it rains, the refugees come frozen, wet, hungry and hopeless. Only later do they learn that Germany or Austria are banned for them at the moment. Few of them want to remain in Serbia, according to Praxis. However, their duty is also to explain the conditions of asylum in Serbia and asylum center near Belgrade.
"Get in line. Here you are. Food. Clothes are there. Signature here. Thank you. Next. And so from country to country. I'm sorry I'm crying. People help us, of course. Just, no one has honestly asked me for long ‘how are you’ (Man, 1960, Syria).” This is just of the sentences that volunteers of Praxis hear almost every day. Praxis’ refuge teams coordinator, Mirjana Nesic, told us what else they face and how difficult it is no help the people who have been on the road for months.
It was raining, and despite March it was still very cold. You must have had a lot of work, but it was a challenge to "catch" you for an interview. Can you first describe how one of your working day and your work with refugees look like?
Simply, this is a job that seizes and draws you in. We have been postponing this conversation for so long…Some new situation always occurs and requires exactly you to be in the field. I have been doing this since September, when all this started, because I speak Arabic and Turkish. I started by assisting and it drew me into one hundred percent. I have been at all border crossings and worked in the field a lot.
How do you manage to find them all over the town? How many of you in the organization do provide assistance to refugees?
Our team is basically the most mobile and our activity consists of patrolling. There are 15 of us, and we cover the field in three shifts. Volunteers patrol in groups, and it is the only way we can help the people well.
How do you help them?
In addition to providing humanitarian aid, because people are torn, wet, hungry, we talk to them. But the first problems occur there, because smugglers fill their heads with this and that, and that they should avoid us, among others. There are also fears of police that are always present. And in such situations, you should help them as soon as possible, as they themselves would say what they need that cannot be seen, such as maybe medical assistance. We also try to explain to them briefly their rights in this country, since they usually do not know where they are.
The official decision of Serbia is that they cannot enter Serbia, but still they are here. What do you advise them?
Officially they can no longer enter Serbia, but at least 100 of them are coming to Belgrade. Their only option is to seek asylum in Serbia, and we explain their advantages to them if they are asylum seekers. But, there are also those who are not interested at all.
What is your strongest impression? You really encounter with the tragic human destinies.
We can rank the impressions daily, since every day prevails something new. What is repeated is the great satisfaction you have when you get someone’s gratitude and the fact that someone has left to you to resolve the situation and that he/she just trusts you.
We are aware that both in the media and on the street, one can see the prejudice against these people. Could you briefly explain to our young audience what you have learned by working with refugees?
That actually creates your empathy for people, you delete all the other prejudices that are served to you in the media. Whether we like it or not, we are all exposed to it, but when you meet an alive person who has experienced it, you become aware of how you do not agree with the existing models we are overcrowded with.
Taken from the website of Omladinski Radio.
Praxis Mobile Team Providing First-Line Help to Refugees - ORADIO
Mirjana Nešić, Praxis Refuge Teams Coordinator, in an interview given to radio ORADIO talked about the problems encountered by refugees transiting through Serbia and how Praxis mobile teams helped them.
Read the interview here.
Submission of Civil Society Organizations on the Implementation of the Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
On the occasion of the upcoming review of the Second and Third Periodic Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child of the Republic of Serbia, Praxis, in cooperation with the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and European Network on Statelessness, delivered Submission of Civil Society Organizations on the Implementation of the Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Even though Praxis had an opportunity to participate in the process of preparation of the state report, some of crucial comments and notes were not included in the report. Therefore, in addition to recognizing all the efforts in exercise of the right to citizenship, the submission of CSOs focuses also on the analysis of remaining problems important for complete understanding of the situation of child’s rights. An additional reason for submitting a special report was the importance of exercising the right to citizenship and impact which the exercise of this right has on the set of other status and socioeconomic rights, especially having in mind the permeating principles of the prohibition of discrimination and the best interest of the child.
The submission provides a general overview of the issues related to the problem of statelessness in Serbia, and in that respect also to the remaining challenges in the implementation of the Article 7 of the Convention which guarantees that every child will be registered immediately after birth and have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents. The problems in exercise of the rights are primarily related to impossibility of children to be registered immediately after birth, discrimination on that basis and the need for additional improvement of the legal framework and practice of competent bodies. The report is structured in a way to provide the delegation of the Republic of Serbia, which will present the report, with a proposed set of questions related to each problem. Finally, the report includes the recommendations as additional guidelines for the Committee on the direction and possibilities for improvement of the exercise of the rights from the Article 7 of the Convention.
European Network on Statelessness Continues with the Campaign “No Child Should Be Stateless”
"The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents."
- Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
European Network on Statelessness continues with the campaign “No Child Should be Stateless” aimed at raising awareness and promoting measures that would end childhood statelessness.
Registration of child at birth is one of preconditions for avoiding childhood statelessness, which is also a key component of #StatelessKids campaign, but also a part of the UN action plan to end statelessness by 2024.
We remind that at the beginning of March this year Praxis and European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), as members of the European Network on Statelessness (ENS), lodged a constitutional initiative to the Constitutional Court arguing that Serbia’s law on registers allows officials to deprive children of their right to a name and a legal identity by giving them legal cover for refusing to issue birth certificates. The law in question is a vaguely-worded provision that says registrars can delay registering the birth of a child in order to verify the information on the register.
#StatelessKids campaign and the initiative are part of ENS’s three-year pan-European strategy to end childhood statelessness. In addition, also as part of those activities, hereby we announce the upcoming #StatelessKids Youth Congress, which will be held in Brussels in the period from 11-13 July 2016. The Youth Congress will gather a group of 35 young activists aged 18-28, motivated to help end childhood statelessness. The participants of the Youth Congress will have an opportunity to talk about the statelessness issue with the leading experts and academics, UN agencies and Members of the European Parliament, as well as journalists, advocacy and communications experts on how to advocate for change.
This three-day event will be an opportunity for these young people to learn about the effects of statelessness and gain skills necessary to become Youth Ambassadors supporting #StatelessKids campaign across Europe
More information about the Youth Congress and application, at the link.
We Should Fight against Racism and Discrimination Every Day and Every Moment
During the European Action Week against Racism, we presented a series of stories and information we encounter in everyday struggle for human rights respect. We are marking the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination by an interview with Natasa Tasic-Knezevic, the first Roma opera singer in Serbia and human rights defender ranked who OESCE among the most prominent Roma women in the world.
On racism, discrimination and importance of respecting each other’s differences
- We should fight against discrimination and racism every day and every moment. The problem of discrimination lies in difference. Each nation and each nationality carry within themselves huge wealth and culture, and to accept difference it means to enrich oneself and one’s country in the best possible way. However, usually human vanity, greed and pride make someone feels more valuable than someone else. So it was through the centuries, and the largest escalation in the 20th century led to the First and Second World War and the great suffering of Jews, Roma and Serbs. Today's Europe, accustomed to the coziness in the last seventy years, is facing asylum seekers from the Middle East forced to leave their homes, and the fact that asylum seekers are coming from different cultural and religious areas creates great pressure and fear among the Europeans. As for the Roma, they have always been in Europe, but also on all continents. Depending on the country which they lived in, they merged with the population, took the faith, but retained its own identity. This led to the fact that today Roma live isolated in "neighborhoods", and that they are mostly unaccepted by the local population. Roma and their culture have left a big mark in the written word, painting and music. I can talk about the influence of Roma culture and art on classical music composers such as Brahms, Dvorak, Verdi, Lehar, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Kalman, Schubert, Schumann ... If not for the Roma, today we would not have "Carmen" or " Il Trovatore ". However, as long as they were an inspiration in the culture, they were killed and rejected by all.
On inhibition, life struggles, lectures and dreams
- Schooling wasn’t easy for me and my sisters. We really tried hard and were excellent students from the first grade until the postgraduate studies, and I would like to thank our mother who was a great support to us during our childhood and later. All three of us sang in the church choir, and I wanted to learn to sing in order to improve chanting the liturgy, because the priests always called me to be a soloist in the liturgy. Then I came across the first closed door, in relation to music education. At the entrance exam, I was advised to continue with the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, because I had no perspective. There were no Roma in the opera, which is here still considered “elite" art. However, the God's will was obviously different, and later, as a student of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, and thanks to Jovan Cirilov, I met the Princess Elizabeth Karadjordjevic, who helped me and financed my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of solo singing. Had it not been for her, I would have never enrolled in the Academy. I am thankful also to my husband who was a great support and a loyal companion in joint performances. I cannot say that I have not been touched by remarks regarding my nationality, but I have never hidden who and what I am. The word "gypsy" really hurts me, because I know what's behind it, and I know how people can be evil, we felt it very much, but you surround yourself with kindness and arm with goodness and prayer and go on.
On the status of women and gender equality
- The position of women in our society is disastrous. They are victims of continuous discrimination and domestic violence. It is even more difficult with Roma because of greater poverty. Spouses have to go very well in order for a family to be healthy. We have been taught from the early age that a male is the boss in the house. Since I have been going to the church all my life, the priest has always told us that a neck cannot stand without a head or the head without the neck. The same is in a marriage or a common-law marriage, which is getting more popular nowadays. If there were any dispute before the birth of children, they are just deepened and that is why more and more women and children suffer violence and are often killed. Police and social workers are now trying to do something, though is too little. The laws are voted on, but almost no one does respect, nor are guided by them. The moment the state is stronger than an individual in the implementation of the law, everything will change.
On consequences of child, early and forced marriages
- Child marriages are violation of human rights, especially the rights of a girl to grow up and live normally. This usually happens because there is no choice or children are not given any option.
If children go to school and at school they run into rejection or neglect, they have nowhere to go but to return to the established way of life - the life that everybody lived before them. If a child does not appear in school, it is a duty of a social worker, pedagogue and a teacher to check why the child hasn’t appeared in school and to put constant pressure on parents unless the child appears in school and attend classes regularly. There are cases when an early marriage is concluded because two young children fall in love and parents are ashamed to return their children home and then they give consent for marriage. But, there are also cases of forced marriages when girls often end up as victims of trafficking. Each state should regulate the law related to conclusion of marriages of minors and if the law in violated, all those leading up to that should be automatically punished. Early marriages are not a tradition, but a consequence of the lack of a better choice. If we were given the choice, everything would work out.
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