After the successfully completed first phase of the Roma social inclusion project, the European Commission and the UNHCR continue with the second phase of the project entitled “Social Inclusion: Regional Support to Marginalised Communities”. The beginning of the project was officially announced at the press conference held in the Media Centre, Belgrade, on October 1st, 2009.

The project duration is from 1st August 2009 until 31st January 2011 and its main goal is to contribute to the inclusion of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities (RAE) in the society, prevention and reduction of statelessness and facilitating their access to basic human rights. Main activities will be focused on 18 municipalities in Serbia with the highest RAE population (Mladenovac, Cukarica, Grocka, Palilula, Zemun, Surcin, Pancevo, Lazarevac, Nis, Niska Banja, Kikinda, Bor, Boljevac, Leskovac, Surdulica, Backa Palanka, Novi Becej and Smederevska Palanka), which were not included in the first phase of the project.

UNHCR and Praxis, as the implementing partner, will conduct the intense information campaign, with the aim of awareness raising, educating and informing the RAE communities, as well as pointing to the local and central authorities and domestic population to the need and importance of civil registration and possession of personal documents.

Besides, within the project, Praxis will provide free legal assistance to Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities in obtaining documents from the registry books and initiating administrative and court procedures of civil registration to persons who were not registered into registry books. Furthermore, legal assistance and counselling will also include facilitating the access of this population to basic socio-economic rights, such as health care and social welfare, education, etc. The above-mentioned activities are aimed at reducing the number of “legally invisible” persons in Serbia and enabling the RAE to access their basic human rights.

Advocacy activities for adoption of a systemic solution related to recognition of every person before the law are also one of the basic components of the project.

In the previous phase of the project entitled “Social Inclusion of and Access to Human Rights for Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in the Western Balkans”, Praxis mobile teams visited 76 Roma settlements in 20 municipalities in Serbia. Over 2,500 requests for issuance of personal documents for more than 1,200 persons were submitted. By the end of September 2009, more than 2,300 documents for more than 1,100 clients were obtained. Praxis also initiated 198 procedures of subsequent registration and re-registration into registry books for more than 160 persons, out of which 100 proceedings were successfully solved, 13 were cancelled and 85 are still active at the end of September 2009.