With the support of UNHCR and UNDP, on 10 December 2009, at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, a joint session of the Poverty Reduction Committee, the Committee for Labour, Veterans and Social Affairs and the Committee  for International Relations was held in form of a public hearing on the issue of “Statelessness and Poverty in Serbia“. Within the introduction, the participants were addressed by: Ms. Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Eduardo Arboleda, UNHCR Representative in Serbia, Mr. Sasa Gajin, representative of the Center for Advanced Legal Studies and Ms. Ivanka Kostic, Executive Director of Praxis.

At the beginning of the joint session the participants were addressed by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic. In her statement, the Speaker emphasized that the problem of statelessness was usually mentioned as part of the access to human and minority rights issue. She stressed that today’s gathering demonstrated the determination of the National Assembly to address this problem in an all-inclusive manner. Statistics show that at least 17,000 persons in Serbia have no citizenship, the majority being the “legally invisible” persons of Roma nationality who live on the social margins and face problems in exercising their civil rights. The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia guarantees access to human rights, as well as the right to legal person. The National Assembly ratified many international and regional agreements within the field of human rights, passed the Law on National Minority Councils and the Law against Discrimination, all indicating a determination in seeking a systemic solution for the problem of statelessness. She presented the advocacy activities conducted by international agencies and non-governmental organizations for the adoption of the Law on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law and invited all members of the Assembly and members of the executive authorities to jointly find a systemic solution for the “legally invisible” persons. The Speaker expressed her gratitude to the international organizations for the expert support that they provide to the institutions in Serbia and emphasized that the National Assembly would do all within its power for these persons to access their rights.

The UNHCR Representative in Serbia, Mr. Eduardo Arboleda suggested simple and concrete measures which could be implemented by the Assembly with the aim of preventing statelessness and poverty. First of all, he stressed the importance of the signing of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the importance of the legislative amendments which would create mechanisms for an easier identification of stateless persons and the reduction of statelessness, emphasising the positive experience of other countries. He also invited members of the Assembly and members of the executive authority to support the systemic changes by adopting the suggested Law on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law and the new Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence. Finally, UNHCR activities in Serbia were presented, as well as a film which was made during the implementation of the Project “Social Inclusion and Access to Human Rights for Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in the Western Balkans”.

The Chairman of the International Relations Committee, Mr. Miletic Mihajlovic, said that statelessness also presented a problem for the access to rights of national minorities and expressed the Committee’s full support in resolving this issue.

The Chairman of the Committee for Labour, Veterans and Social Affairs, Mr. Meho Omerovic, stated that the Committee would, within its authority and through the competent Ministry, work on amending the current laws, in order to achieve bearable living conditions for such persons. He announced that a new Law on Social Protection would be passed, which would define provision of urgent response measures to stateless persons until they acquire citizenship, enabling them to exercise other measures of protection provided by the state. 

Ms. Ivanka Kostic, Executive Director of Praxis and Mr. Sasa Gajin from the Center for Advanced Legal Studies made a brief presentation of the problems encountered in practice, activities of the non-governmental sector, suggested solutions in the Model Law on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law and current attempts to draw attention of the competent ministries to the problem of the “legally invisible” persons.  They expressed their concern regarding the absence of the representatives of the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government, who persistently evade attending meetings aimed at finding solutions for problems faced by the persons who are not recognized before the law.

Apart from the representatives of the Assembly, the public hearing was attended by representatives of the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Office of the National Security Council, the non-governmental sector and international organizations. During the discussion it was emphasized that there were no adequate mechanisms for protection of persons without citizenship, especially mechanisms for their identification, that statelessness was related to problems of poverty and crime, which could be issues of national and regional security, and that the problem should be solved proactively and not repressively. The issues of readmission and visa liberalization were also discussed in relation to statelessness, as well as the cooperation of the non-governmental sector, international organizations and competent ministries. 

At the end of the discussion, the Chairman of the Poverty Reduction Committee, Ms. Snezana Stojanovic-Plavsic summed up the results of the discussion and concluded that all of the participants agreed that there were no political and legal obstacles for the adoption of the Law on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law which would systemically solve this problem, and assessed that partnership of all actors is of great importance in the process of adopting such an important law.

Praxis launched an Initiative for Legislative Review of the Article 6, Paragraph 11 of the Rules of Procedure for Exercising Right from Obligatory Health Insurance before the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia. The Initiative points to the fact that the aforementioned provision of the Rules of Procedure is contrary to the Law on Health Insurance.

Namely, the Article 22 of the Law on Health Insurance explicitly states that persons of Roma ethnicity who due to their traditional way of life, do not have permanent/temporary residence, may be beneficiaries of health care. There is no doubt that the legislator intended to ensure access of this category of persons to health care. This regulation of the Law may also, without a doubt, be applied to Roma IDPs who do not have permanent/ temporary residence.

On the other hand, Article 6 of the Rules of Procedure, however, derogates the application of this legal rule by stating that the insured must provide a personal statement that he/she is a person of Roma ethnicity, as well as his/her registration of temporary residence. In this way, persons who do not have their residence registered, for instance due to the fact that they live in an illegal Roma settlement - which is often the case with Roma IDPs - are actually deprived of the rights from health insurance, and exercise of the legal right to using health care services.

In its reply dated 18th March 2010, Constitutional Court informed Praxis that the aforementioned Rules of Procedure were no longer in force as of 10th March 2010 on the grounds of provision of Article 152 of the new Rules of Procedure for Exercising Right from Obligatory Health Insurance, adopted by the Administrative Board of the Republic Institute for Health Insurance on 11th December 2009. On that occasion, the Constitutional Court invited Praxis to inform them whether the Initiative was still in force and whether Praxis would change it in accordance with changed circumstances.

Therefore, Praxis changed the Initiative (Submission) in accordance with the new Rules of Procedure which, in fact, took over the same solution in relation to disputable Article 6, but it is mentioned in the new Rules of Procedure in Article 7.

Download (Serbian only): Initiative for Legislative Review of the Article 6, Paragraph 11 of the Rules of Procedure for Exercising Right from Obligatory Health Insurance

Download (Serbian only): Rules of Procedure

Download: Submission

Praxis lodged and Appeal for Amendment of Article 5, Paragraph 1 of the Rules of Procedure on Working Booklet (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 17/97) to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. Article 5, Paragraph 1 prescribes that a request for issuance of working booklet is submitted to the competent municipal administration body according to one’s place of permanent residence for an unemployed person, and according to one’s place of employment for an employed person. Consistent enforcement of this Article leads to unemployed refugees and internally displaced persons having to travel to places of their permanent residence to submit request for obtaining a working booklet, which most often presents an insurmountable obstacle for them. Thus, not only are they unable to get employment, but also to use programmes and services of the National Employment Service.

The Appeal suggests amendment to the Article 5, Paragraph 1 of the Rules of Procedure on Working Booklet, by which territorial jurisdiction for submitting request for working booklet would be extended to fall into jurisdiction of administration bodies according to applicants’ place of temporary residence, in addition to jurisdiction of administration bodies according to their place of permanent residence.

Download (Serbian only): Appeal for Amendment of Article 5 Paragraph 1 of the Rules of Procedure on Working Booklet

Praxis addressed the Ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia with a request for his engagement in solving the problems of members of Roma community in Serbia who do not possess personal documents, i.e. “legally invisible” persons, taking into consideration the fact that the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government has been ignoring the problem for years. With regard to the aforementioned, Praxis has prepared an analysis of proceeding of competent bodies in procedures of subsequent registration in birth registry books, compiled on the basis of Praxis experience in working on individual cases.

The analysis was prepared in order to better acquaint the Ombudsman with legally unbearable situation in practice caused by lack of legal provisions regulating the procedure of subsequent registration in birth registry books. Namely, the analysis confirms that the procedures are inefficient, not economical and complicated, and their outcome is often uncertain, which, put in the context of protection of a basic human right – the right to recognition as person before the law, must not be the case. It has been particularly emphasised that exercise of this right has been denied to a significant number of members of Roma community who are the most marginalized category of population, exposed to various forms of discrimination in social and cultural life. One should not neglect the fact that interests of “legally invisible” persons are represented free of charge by lawyers within projects of non-governmental organizations, since this category of population is often characterized by illiteracy, low level of education and live in utter poverty in unhygienic, illegal settlements, and, thus, they are not able to protect their rights.

Praxis also acquainted the Ombudsman with the initiative for reaching a systemic solution for the problems of “legally invisible” persons, launched by UNHCR, OSCE Mission to Serbia, the Centre for Advanced Legal Studies and Praxis, through the Model Law on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law, which offers advanced legal solutions with the aim to enable the “legally invisible” persons to subsequently register in birth registry books under facilitated conditions. It has also been mentioned that not even a minimum effort has been made by the authorities to solve this social problem and protect the rights of persons who are not registered in birth registry books.

With regard to that, Praxis expressed hope that the Ombudsman would engage relevant ministries, especially the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government as the main stumbling block, with the aim to find normative solutions and provide effective and efficient legal framework regarding procedure of subsequent registration in birth registry books, which is a precondition for obtaining personal documents and accessing basic rights.

The Ombudsman is expected to gather representatives of relevant ministries in September 2010 in order to present to them problems of “legally invisible” persons and incite them to act in accordance with their powers and obligations for the purpose of protection of a basic human right - the right to recognition as person before the law.

Amendments of the Rules of Procedure for Exercising Right from Obligatory Health Insurance, which were adopted by the Republic Institute for Health Insurance on 9th July 2010, brought changes which significantly facilitate access to health care by the persons of Roma ethnicity. Article 7, Paragraph 11 of the Rules of Procedure was changed, on the grounds of which the Roma will from now on be able to obtain health booklet even if they do not have temporary residence registered.

What preceded the change of the Article 7, Paragraph 11 was the Praxis Initiative for Legislative Review of the aforementioned Article before the Constitutional Court of Serbia. The Initiative pointed to the fact that the disputable article was contrary to a provision of the Law on Health Insurance, whose aim was to enable issuance of health booklets to the Roma who, due to their traditional way of life, do not have permanent/temporary residence. During the validity of the previous (not amended) Article 7, Paragraph 11 of the Rules of Procedure, they could not obtain health booklet since, contrary to the Law, the Rules of Procedure obliged them to register temporary residence. Thus, an entire group of population, which is one of the most socially vulnerable groups in Serbia, was denied access to health care.

A few months after launching the Initiative, through communication with the Directorate for Health Insurance and Legal Affairs of the Republic Institute for Health Insurance, Praxis found out that this body had received a directive from the Constitutional Court requesting opinion on the launched Initiative, and that the amendments should be adopted which would harmonize the Rules of Procedure with the Law. Such solution was adopted through amendments of the Rules of Procedure in July 2010. Illegal condition related to registration of temporary residence for the Roma who, due their traditional way of life, do not have permanent or temporary residence was abolished.

The outcome of Praxis Initiative and adopted amendment of the disputable Article of the Rules of procedure is simplified exercise of right to health care by all persons of Roma ethnicity who cannot provide evidence on their place of residence. Instead of the certificate on temporary residence which had been requested earlier and which they could not obtain, in the future, they will prove their address of residence through a personal statement, which is a significant improvement in exercising right to health care by the Roma.

There are thousands of Roma in Serbia without permanent place of residence, who are constantly looking for opportunities for earning to provide for survival. Even in case they stay in one place, finding accommodation in illegal settlements, they still do not have the possibility to register permanent or temporary residence. Thanks to Praxis initiative, Roma without permanent address are finally given the possibility to obtain health booklet.

Eve though the procedure related to Praxis Initiative before the Constitutional Court has not been formally completed yet and Praxis, as the party which launched the Initiative, was not informed by the Court about the amendments of the Rules of Procedure, the amendments came into force on 17 July 2010. In spite of that, it has been noticed that the news about change of conditions for exercising right to health care by persons of Roma ethnicity has only recently started reaching branches of the Republic Institute for Health Insurance. Some branches refuse to apply the amended Article 7, Paragraph 11 of the Rules of Procedure. However, Praxis experience confirms that some branches have started applying the amended Rules of Procedure and issuing health booklets to the Roma on the basis of personal statement on place of residence. Thus, a client of Praxis of Roma ethnicity obtained a health booklet for the first time after ten years of exclusion from the health insurance system.

Download (Serbian only): Initiative for Legislative Review of the Article 6, Paragraph 11 of the Rules of Procedure for Exercising right from obligatory health insurance

Administration for Citizen Affairs of the City of Nis, administering some registry books dislocated from Kosovo, often issues registry book excerpts with incorrect personal data of citizens. The incorrect data in the documents are a result of errors made by the competent officer issuing the documents or the competent officer who entered the data in the registry books. The person who has been issued a birth or citizenship certificate with incorrect data is obliged to initiate an administrative procedure by submitting a request for correction of those data.

At the beginning of 2010, the Administration for Citizen Affairs of the City of Nis started to condition solving of the requests for correction of data in registry books by payment of republic and municipal administrative fees, as well as the fee for written notice amounting to a total of 850,00 RSD.

Even though the State administrative body is responsible for administering registry books, the one who was financially “punished” was the person who requested the correction of his/her data, since that person had to pay the fees for correction.

Praxis has addressed the above-mentioned State administration on behalf of its clients several times, pointing to existing regulations on the grounds of which the fee cannot be charged for correction of errors in official records, but without success.

In May 2010, and in relation to the same problem, Praxis addressed the Department for Administrative Inspection of the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government. At the same time, complaints have been lodged to the Ombudsperson against the work of the Administration for Citizen Affairs of the City of Nis.

Illegal practice of charging administrative fees for requests for correction of data in registry books was finally abolished following these interventions, of which Praxis was only verbally unformed by the Administration for Citizen Affairs of the City of Nis.

Soon after, in practice, the body stopped charging the fee for request for correction of data in registry books.

Centre for Youth Integration and Praxis have launched the Initiative for Resolving the Issue of “Legally Invisible” Persons, supported by 125 civil society organizations, requesting from the Government of Serbia to, without delay and on the basis of the solutions offered in the Model Law, determine the Bill on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law and table it urgently before the National Assembly for adoption.

The Model Law on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law , created over two years ago by  the Centre for Advanced Legal Studies in cooperation with Praxis and with the support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which offers an efficient and simplified procedure for subsequent registration into birth registry books, has not been adopted yet. At the same time, there has been no adequate legal reaction in terms of adopting amendments to the existing laws in this field, which are in practice imprecise and incomplete.

Right to be recognized as a person before the law is one of the basic human rights granted by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and by numerous international documents which Serbia ratified. The right of a person to be recognized as a person before the law is a basis for exercising all other rights, while its deprivation has serious consequences on life of each individual. Persons who are not registered in the birth registry books find themselves outside the system of health care, social welfare and employment, they are socially excluded and exposed to various forms of discrimination. There is more than 2,000 “legally invisible” persons residing in Serbia, including a large number of children. Number of “legally invisible” persons is increasing day by day.

Despite the efforts of the civil society to draw attention of the State to the need of urgent resolution of this issue, the authorized State institutions remain without an adequate response. In order to resolve this issue, it is necessary to urgently adopt a separate law which would resolve the problem of subsequent registration of the fact of birth into birth registry books.

For the second year in a row, the need of resolving the issue of legally invisible persons has been pointed out by the European Commission in its Serbia Progress Report. Serbia has also been warned for many years about the hard position and social exclusion of these persons by other international organizations, primarily UN bodies, Council of Europe and the OSCE.

Read the article published in daily newspaper Blic

Download: Initiative for Resolving the Issue of "Legally Invisible" Persons

               Model Law - The Bill of the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law

On 10th December 2010, on the International Human Rights Day, along with numerous other organizations, Praxis took part in the “ILLUMINATION”, a peaceful gathering in solidarity with those who are “invisible” to our society. The gathering was organized with the aim to jointly send a message to all competent State institutions to get down to the adoption and implementation of a systemic legal solution which would enable recognition of all citizens before the law.

There are many citizens living in Serbia today who are invisible, due to their living conditions, belonging to a national minority or their manner of living. The responsibility of everyone is to support them to become visible. The responsibility of the State is to provide conditions to make them visible.

They are invisible when we do not see them in the street, when we do not see where they sleep; invisible because we are not aware of their problems, because they are stigmatized and discriminated by others; they are invisible because they do not possess birth certificate and cannot finish school and find employment; invisible because they are different from the majority. They are invisible to other people and institutions, and, at the same time, they endure discrimination by both people and institutions.

The gathering was held at the Republic Square in Belgrade, where representatives, activists and beneficiaries of programmes of civil society organizations working with marginalized population groups read their requests.

The gathering was organized as part of the Project Illumination of the Centre for Youth Integration and, apart from Praxis and the Centre, other NGOs also took part – Labris, Regional Centre for Minorities, Association of Citizens “Woman Plus”, Association of Young Roma of Serbia, Velikimali and Women in Black.

You can find more about the Project Illumination here .

The Centre for Advanced Legal Studies, AIRE Centre from London, and Praxis organized a seminar entitled “Prohibition of Discrimination of the Roma and the Problem of Legally Invisible Person” on 14 December 2010 in Media Centre, Belgrade.

According to available data, the Roma in Serbia fall into one of the population groups most exposed to discriminatory treatment. Among the Roma themselves, the residents of so called “informal settlements” are in the most difficult position by far, and among them there is a high number of people often referred to as “legally invisible persons.” Legally invisible are those who are not registered in birth registry books and do not possess personal documents, due to which they are, as a rule, deprived of enjoyment of all other rights guaranteed by international documents and national legislation.

Even though the 2006 Constitution of the Republic of Serbia explicitly guarantees every human being the right to recognition before the law, the legally invisible persons in Serbia have been denied the status of legal subjects for years. Thus, they are socially excluded, without the possibility to enjoy rights in the areas of health protection, social security, education, as well as other rights and freedoms guaranteed to other citizens of the State. Besides, a significant number of members of this population group lives in severe poverty, in utterly unfavourable living conditions, in informal settlements without running water, sewage system and electricity, in which the representatives of public utility services do not enter. The State has so far neither expressed significant concern for the position of this population group, nor has it taken all the measures it is obliged to in order to resolve their problems.  Through this negative political practice a large number of members of Roma community has, thus, been turned into second-class citizens – residents of a country whose citizens they are, but who do not enjoy the same level of protection of rights and freedoms as other citizens.

Serbia has been warned about this negative practice of social exclusion and deprivation of fundamental rights year after year by international organizations, primarily UN agencies, Council of Europe, OSCE and the European Union. For the second year in a row, in its Serbia Progress Report, the European Commission has been drawing attention of the competent bodies to the fact that further progress of the State towards the EU will not be possible without solving this problem.

The seminar “Prohibition of Discrimination of the Roma and the Problem of Legally Invisible Person” was organized with the aim to contributing to a change of political practice in the State and facing with a problem that is being constantly ignored. It was organized for representatives of Roma organizations, activists of non-governmental sector, journalists and representatives of public authorities.

At the seminar, Ivanka Kostic, Praxis Executive Director, presented the position of the “legally invisible” persons in Serbia through examples Praxis had come across in its work, i.e. through a Praxis publication about the position of these persons. Mr Cerim Gasi, Praxis associate in the field and representative of Roma community, spoke about living conditions in the Roma settlements from the perspective of their residents.

Afterwards, Mr Luke Clements from AIRE Centre, London, presented court practice, that is, the most important decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg which refer to discrimination of the Roma and the problem of informal settlements. Mr Sasa Gajin, Ph.D, from the Centre for Advanced Legal Studies, Belgrade, spoke about a proposition for a future legal framework for solving the problem of “legally invisible” persons in Serbia and presented the Bill on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law. 

Download: Bill on the Procedure for Recognition of Persons before the Law

On 4 February 2011, Praxis again submitted a request for accessing information of public importance to the Ministry of Interior. By this request, the Ministry of Interior was asked to deliver to Praxis the Draft Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens and information about the possible public hearing on this Draft Law.  

Praxis had already addressed this Ministry twice, on 24 May and 30 November 2010, with requests for accessing information of public importance related to the text of the Draft Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens. Based on the requests submitted, the Ministry of Interior answered that the Draft Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens did not exist yet. 

However, in December 2010, the Government of Serbia passed a Conclusion adopting the Action plan for fulfillment of priorities under the European Commission 2010 Progress Report, with the aim of accelerating the achievement of candidate country status. On the page 14 of the above-mentioned Action Plan, it is stressed that the Ministry of Interior has prepared the Draft Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens. Thus, Praxis again submitted the request for accessing information of public importance to the Ministry of Interior, this time enclosing the above-mentioned Conclusion adopting the Action Plan, as well as the part of the Action Plan containing information on existence of the Draft Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens.

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Interior delivered the response to Praxis dated 11 March 2011, again claiming that they did not possess the text of the Draft Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens, despite the fact that it is clearly stated in the above-mentioned Action Plan that Ministry had prepared the Draft Law. Ministry’s response also stated that Praxis would be informed about the possible public hearing related to the Draft Law at the same time as the general public, through the media.

From such actions of the Ministry of Interior, it can be concluded that the Ministry intends to table this Draft Law before the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia for adoption without a public hearing being held. In that case, expert public and relevant civil society organizations will not have an opportunity to give their suggestions and recommendations to make the Law better in comparison to the existing Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens which does not provide a possibility for persons without legal basis for residence to register their permanent or temporary residence. The concern remains that the Draft Law will not include all categories of persons and that the most vulnerable ones, especially inhabitants of informal settlements, will be denied the possibility to register permanent or temporary residence. As a consequence, they will not be able to obtain ID card, to get employed, to receive social welfare benefits, to register births of their children in birth registry books and to access the right to health care without difficulties. In other words, there is fear that these persons will stay on the margins of society, excluded from the current social trends, without a possibility to do anything for themselves and get out of the vicious circle of poverty.

The Action plan for fulfillment of priorities under the European Commission 2010 Progress Report, with the aim of accelerating the achievement of candidate country status can be downloaded at the website of the EU Integration Office.