Today, on 8 June 2016, the Law on Administrative Procedure, which should allow to the citizens to exercise their rights before the state bodies in a much easier way and with considerably less expenses, started being implemented. 

Specifically, the provisions of the Law on Administrative Procedure envisages the obligation of the authorities to inspect, obtain and process data on which the official records are kept. Practically, it means that when applying for the request for issuance of, for instance, an identity card or a passport, citizens will no longer need to enclose registry books certificates, or in case of applying for social welfare benefits, they will no longer have to obtain two-digit number of documents issued by various offices and bodies. All the evidence will have to be collected by the authorities before which the procedure is conducted, and a misdemeanor responsibility has been prescribed for an official who fails to collect the evidence ex officio. Thus, an official who fails to inspect or obtain data from another authority, or fails to deliver the requested data to another body within 15 days, will be fined a total of 5,000-50,000 RSD.

It should be noted that so far the Law on General Administrative Procedure has provided for the obligation of public officials to obtain information and evidence, but unfortunately this obligation has been rarely practiced. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the highlighting of this commitment and its positioning in the basic principles of an administrative procedure and misdemeanor responsibility of officials, will ensure the uniform application of the law.

No child chooses to be born as legally invisible, go into exile, become a victim of exploitation and live without being able to exercise his/her rights. Children do not choose poverty, violence, abuse, discrimination.

On the International Day for Protection of Children, we remind that in Serbia...

...  children without a name and an address are still being born, and the system does not recognize them because they are not registered in birth registries, even though the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international treaties ratified by Serbia, guarantee that every child will be registered right after birth and have the right from birth to a name and the right to acquire nationality!

 ... despite binding national and international regulations that prohibit discrimination on all grounds, children with disabilities and developmental delays, especially Roma children, are facing discriminatory behavior and segregation in the education system!

That...

... child, early and forced marriages are the reality for many Roma children, the reality that deprives them of the normal development and the possibility of growing up in an environment where there is a choice.

… children on the move during migration are exposed to multiple risks. The lack of the system for monitoring their position and movement exposes them to the dangers of human trafficking, violence and exploitation.

Children do not choose the environment in which they will be born and protection of their rights is the exclusive responsibility of us - the adults, who by our daily choices create possibilities and opportunities that the environment offers to them.

On the International Day for Protection of Children, we point out that the improvement of the circumstances in which children live and grow, especially children belonging to vulnerable groups, requires a daily commitment, and therefore we call upon the authorities to respect national and international laws and treaties and ensure that every child equally enjoys the rights he/she is entitled to by birth. 

In the period from 16-18 May, Praxis participated in a three-day workshop “Women on the Move” in Istanbul, organized by UN Women and Oxfam. At the workshop, the organizations active in the camps in the Middle East and in the “Route of Western Balkans” exchanged their experience in the field work with refugees, discussed about the problems of the refugee women and possible solutions, with an aim to empower the women to take an initiative over their lives. With concrete examples from the practice, the participants discussed about the causes of the refugee crisis, about the wartime and how it causes the current refugee wave, and how their effects, due to the lack of infrastructure, health care and education, would be the cause of the migrations for many years. 

One of the key topics was the problem of human trafficking, actually the risk of trafficking in a situation when the passage of refugees following the closure of the Route of Western Balkans was called irregular. In this respect, we talked about the possibilities of obtaining the asylum and temporary international protection in the countries on the route. The participants also discussed about the challenges of the cultural mediation in the transit countries, lack of information of refugees about their rights in the transit countries and accessibility of governmental and non-governmental organizations providing assistance to refugees, especially those which are highly specialized in providing assistance to women.  

The result of this workshop is the joint statement of the present organizations addressed to the currently held World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, with conclusions that there is an urgent need to work on elimination of the causes of displacement, that safety of women must be strengthened and gender-based violence prevented, as well as to ensure the participation of women in conflict prevention. Also, an agreement was reached to continue the intensive work on these issues, by monitoring and cooperating within the new regional coalition of civil society organizations and women's organizations, unless women on move regained their rights and dignity.

This week, for the first time after four years, a ten-year girl with severe sight impairment goes to school by a vehicle provided by the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka. Head of the Municipal Administration promised that the Municipality will provide a driver and a vehicle that would take the girl to school and back every day throughout the school year.

We remind that the girl was born with severe sight impairment and that over the past four years, ever since she started the primary school, her parents have been trying to persuade the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka to provide her the transportation to and from school, which is the obligation of each municipality according to the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System. The Municipality of Smederevska Palanka has been unsuccessfully reminded of this legal obligation over the past years by the School Inspection, the Ombudsman and the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, which in 2015 found that the Municipality shall take all necessary measures to ensure the transportation to the girl. 

As the Municipality failed to act upon the Commissioner’s recommendation, in November 2015 Praxis filed a lawsuit for establishing of discrimination against the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka which by denying the right to transportation to and from school to the girl also denies her the right to education. On the basis of the above-stated lawsuit, the Supreme Court in Belgrade issued a judgment in April 2016 and established that the Municipality acted discriminatory towards the girl as it rejected to provide the transport to school, violating thus the principle of equality prescribed by the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, and provisions of the Law on Prohibition of the Discrimination in Education.    

With the provided transportation, the continuation of education would be significantly facilitated to the girl. However, the access to school is just one of the steps towards the exercise of the right to education. Quality education and respect for the principle of equality means much more – along with the transportation, the textbooks in Braille alphabet, as well as a qualified personal assistant, should be also available to the girl.

Today, we are celebrating 17 May, the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the annual holiday which was established to coordinate international events that remind of LGBTI rights violations and the importance to respect them worldwide. The date of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was chosen to commemorate the decision of the World Health Organization (WHO) to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases in 1990.

One of the main goals of 17 May is creation of a globally visible event without a need to adapt to a specific type of action. Though united in their messages, due to the variety of social, religious, cultural and political contexts in which LGBTI rights violations take place, the present action around the world include various activities - large street marches, parades and festivals, dance flash mobs, musical events, street art, etc.

The main purpose of each action is to raise awareness about violence, discrimination and repression against the LGBTI communities around the world, which in turn provides an opportunity for action and engagement in dialogue with media, decision makers, the public and the wider civil society.

LGBTI persons are day-to-day exposed to discrimination and violence, including physical violence and abuse. Therefore, it is necessary that the government and society in general pay more attention to measures to protect the physical and psychological integrity of LGBTI people as well as to the prevention of discrimination and hate speech.

Thus, on the occasion of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, we remind you of the Analysis of print and online media reporting about trans people in Serbia and Recommendations for media reporting on trans people which we developed in cooperation with Gayten-LGBT and media archive EBART, to encourage ethical and professional reporting which recognizes and respects the personal integrity and dignity of trans people.

In the period from 19-21 April 2016, the 8th Children Rights Coalitions Forum in Europe 2016 took place in Tallinn, Estonia. The Network of Organizations for the Children of Serbia - MODS was represented by Jasmina Mikovic from Praxis, member of the MODS Steering Committee, and Sasa Stefanovic, MODS Director. The Forum brought together 75 representatives of national, regional and European coalitions and networks working towards the implementation of children’s rights and the well-being of children.  

The European coalitions working for children’s rights and well-being have recognized that there are numerous factors which influence children’s well-being over the world, perceiving the policy making, which sets children’s rights in the center of the attention, as a centralized issue that can be greatly empowered from a coordinated cross-national effort.

The Forum provided a unified voice and coordinated focus in addressing issues on child rights advocacy, monitoring and networking. In addition, an accompanying one-day training provided participants with practical skills in children’s rights advocacy, and with advice on how to work effectively with internal and external stakeholders and generate additional resources that can be of benefit to both national and EU policy-making process.

The Children Rights Coalitions Forum is seen as an important step in the development of strong child rights coalitions’ platform. With its primary objective to establish continuity in the development of a pan-European platform, where national coalitions can strengthen advocacy efforts, it contributes towards influencing governments’ policies to focus on a better wellbeing for all children across EU and wider Europe.

In order to increase public awareness on children’s rights issues, the event particularly encouraged engagement with country specific stakeholders in children’s rights coalitions, as well as external stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, academia and media. 

The outcomes of the Forum will promote further understanding of the UNCRC principles and will advocate for sustained implementation of children’s rights in the current socio-economic climate, having in mind that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and taking into account the changing environments and situations and specific needs that attendees came with.