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United Nations CERD/C/SRB/1 International Convention on Distr.: General 1 October 2009 the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Original: English Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Reports submitted by States parties under article 9 of the Convention Initial periodic report due in 2008* Serbia** *** [14 August 2009] * This document contains the initial periodic report of Serbia, due on 4 January 2008. ** In accordance with the information transmitted to States parties regarding the processing of their reports, the present document was not edited before being sent to the United Nations translation services. *** The annexes to the report may be consulted in the files of the secretariat. GE.09-45479 (E) 110110 CERD/C/SRB/1 Contents Paragraphs Page I. Introduction............................................................................................................... 1–5 3 II. General information .................................................................................................. 6–13 3 III. Normative and institutional framework.................................................................... 14–29 6 A. Constitutional protection of human rights ....................................................... 14–15 6 B. The protection of national minorities............................................................... 16–22 6 C. Relation between international and national law............................................. 23 7 D. Institutional framework for the implementation of the anti-discrimination policy................................................................................................................. 24–29 8 IV. Implementation of articles 2–7 of the Convention................................................... 30–264 8 Article 2...................................................................................................................... 30–87 8 Article 3..................................................................................................................... 88 28 Article 4..................................................................................................................... 89–113 28 Article 5..................................................................................................................... 114–234 34 Article 6..................................................................................................................... 235–243 63 Article 7..................................................................................................................... 244–264 65 2 GE.09-45479 CERD/C/SRB/1 I. Introduction 1. The Republic of Serbia is the legal successor of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and is accordingly the member of all international treaties ratified by the predecessor States. 2. Pursuant to article 9, paragraph 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the initial report on the implementation of the Convention has been drafted, containing legislative, judiciary, administrative and other measures relevant to the implementation of the provisions set forth in the Convention. The report spans the period between 1992 and 2008. 3. The initial report comprises three sections. The first section outlines the information relating to individual articles of the Convention; the second section contains statistical data relating to specific areas covered by the Convention; the third section relates to the implementation of the Convention on the territory of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, prepared by the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija. 4. The present report has been prepared by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights. The following institutions took part in the development of the present report: the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Religion, the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, the Commissariat for Refugees, the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa, the Office of the National Council for Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, the Provincial Secretariat for Regulations, Administration and National Minorities, the Provincial Secretariat for Education, the Provincial Secretariat for Information and the Provincial Secretariat for Culture. 5. The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights published a public call for the participation of non-government organizations in the drafting of the report hereof. The non- governmental organization Praxis from Belgrade was the only organization to send its input for the development of the present report. II. General information History 6. Serbia is an ancient European State which emerged in the middle ages. The country became a kingdom in 1217 and an empire in 1346. Following the incursion of Turks into the Balkan Peninsula, Serbia lost its independence and was placed under Turkish authority in 1459. The development of modern Serbia started in 1804 with the First Serbian Uprising. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was acquired during the Serbian-Turkish wars of 1876-1878, which was reaffirmed at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created in 1918 and was later named the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Federative National Republic of Yugoslavia (Federativna Narodna Republika Jugoslavija – FNRJ) was created after the Second World War, later to be called Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (Socijalistička Federativna Republika Jugoslavija – SFRJ) with the Republic of Serbia as one of the federal units. 7. Following the dissolution of the SFRJ, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was created in 1992 comprising two federal units – the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of GE.09-45479 3 CERD/C/SRB/1 Montenegro. The constitutional reorganization of relations between the federal members led to the creation of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, which was dissolved after the referendum held in Montenegro in 2006. The citizens of the Republic of Serbia endorsed the new Constitution at the referendum held on October 2006. The Republic of Serbia is the legal successor of all the predecessor States. State polity and territorial organization 8. The Republic of Serbia is a parliamentary democratic State founded on the rule of law. The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia guarantees the division of power into legislative, executive and judiciary. The legislative power shall be vested in the National Assembly, the unicameral body of 250 deputies elected for the mandate of four years. The executive power shall be vested in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, which currently comprises 24 ministries. The President of the Republic shall express the State unity of the Republic of Serbia and shall represent the Republic of Serbia in the country and abroad. The President shall be elected directly, by secret ballot, to a mandate of five years. The judiciary shall be independent and the power shall be vested in courts of general and specific competencies and the Constitutional Court. 9. The administrative and territorial division of the Republic of Serbia comprises municipalities, towns and the City of Belgrade as territorial units, as well as autonomous provinces as a form of territorial autonomy. The territorial organization of the Republic of Serbia comprises 150 municipalities exercising local self-governance and 23 towns. The City of Belgrade is a separate territorial unit. The Republic of Serbia comprises the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (hereinafter: AP Vojvodina) and the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (hereinafter: AP Kosovo and Metohija) as forms of territorial autonomy. Population 10. There are 7,498,001 citizens living in the Republic of Serbia according to the results of the latest Census conducted in 2002. Women account for 3,852,071 (51.4 per cent per cent) and men account for 3,645,930 (48.6 per cent) citizens.1 11. The national composition of the population according to the results of the Census held in 2002 is outlined in the following table. Republic of Serbia Number % Central Serbia AP Vojvodina Serbs 6 212 838 82.86 4 891 031 1 321 807 Montenegrins 69 049 0.9 33 536 35 513 Albanians 61 647 0.8 59 952 1 695 Ashkali 584 0.01 413 171 Bosniaks 136 087 1.8 135 670 417 1 All statistical data refer to the territory of the Republic of Serbia excluding AP Kosovo and Metohija, since the Census could not be conducted in the territory thereof. Annex 1 of the present report contains table 1 which provides an overview of the population disaggregated by sex and age for each national community. 4 GE.09-45479 CERD/C/SRB/1 Republic of Serbia Number % Central Serbia AP Vojvodina Bulgarians 20 497 0.3 18 839 1 658 Bunjevac 20 012 0.3 246 19 766 Vlachs 40 054 0.5 39 953 101 Gorani 4 581 0.1 3 975 606 Greeks 5 72 0.01 352 220 Egyptians 814 0.01 685 129 Jews 1 158 0.02 706 452 Yugoslavs 80 721 1.1 30 840 49 881 Hungarians 293 299 3.9 3 092 290 207 Macedonians 25 847 0.3 14 062 11 785 Muslims 19 503 0.3 15 869 3 634 Germans 3901 0.05 747 3 154 Roma 108193 1.44 79 136 29 057 Romanians 34 576 0.5 4 157 30 419 Russians 2 588 0.03 1 648 940 Ruthenians 15 905 0.21 279 15 626 Slovaks 59021 0.8 2 384 56 637 Slovenians 5 104