Promotion of positive interethnic relations toward peace building, development and integration in multiethnic regions of West, Central East and South East Serbia

GENDER AND MINORITY OVERVIEW IN SERBIA 2005

English version

Belgrade – Niš

2006

The Project is cofinanced by the European Union in the framework of the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights and COOPI.

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Community. The views expressed herein are those of Coopi and FER and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of European Commission.

CONTENTS

• Introduction Claudia Iacovacci, COOPI…………………………………………………...2

• Brief overview of the training course “Local leaders on new democratic minority policy” Forum for Ethnic Relations …………………………………………………5

• GENDER AND MINORITY OVERVIEW IN SERBIA: From institutional framework towards the implementation Danijela Nenadić……………………………………………………………..8

2 Introduction

The three years project “Promotion of positive interethnic relations towards peace building, development and integration in multiethnic region of the West, Central East and South East Serbia” has been funded by the European Union and COOPI – Cooperazione Internazionale - in the framework of European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights1.

From 2003, we have been working in 16 municipalities2 in Sandžak, Central and South East Serbia with our Serbian Partners, in the field of post conflict confidence building strategies with different models to facilitate dialogue, tolerance and maintain and further improve multiethnic community equilibrium, involving both local institutions and local civil society, since we believe that local level is an important pillar of democracy building3.

The improvement of participation of ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups to public life and the enhancement of the cultural, linguistic and religious rights is pursued by our project through:

1. Promotion of diversity at cultural, linguistic, religious level through original theatre and social research techniques and the implementation of artistic events (realization of murals and painting workshops, radio programs lead by children on fairy tales and different cultural traditions, multiethnic days, photo exhibitions, theatre plays, international youth camps, social history trainings and researches).

2. Implementation or strengthening of the mechanism of monitoring of discrimination and of violation of rights of minorities and other vulnerable groups. With this regards, the project affords the training of cultural mediators and human rights monitoring activities and is calling for further implementation of the local ombudsmen system.

3. Raising awareness on minorities’ issues, supporting the education to non violence and peaceful resolution of conflict and interethnic coexistence.

The “Local Leaders Training Course on New Democratic Policy” that has been held all along 2004 and 2005 in ten municipalities belongs to these two last groups of activities and has proved to be relevant not only to train local leaders, NGO activists, media professionals and local public officers but also to facilitate discussion, exchange views, problems of local communities and to look for common solution to several shapes of discrimination, and reinforce the implementation of human rights and minorities rights monitoring systems.

1 This program has been created in 1994, putting together different budget lines which previously dealt with human rights issues, to support democratization and ensure protection of human rights. It is not merely a financing instrument but also a policy one which underpin EU’s common Foreign and Security Policy in the fields of human rights, democratization and conflict prevention. 2Central East Serbia- Kladovo, Negotin, Knjazevac, Zaječar ; South and South East Serbia:Pirot, Bosilegrad, Niš, Dimitrovgrad, Vranje, Leskovac; Sandžak, Raška, Novi Pazar, Prijepolie, Priboj, Nova Varos, Sjenica

3 The European Charter of Local Self-Government is the first multilateral legal instrument to define and safeguard the principles of local autonomy, one of the pillars of democracy which it is the Council of Europe's function to defend and develop.

3 With these training courses lead by FER we approached institutions and local authorities that are to face problems and needs of vulnerable groups. Their results are interconnecting with other project’s partners’4 efforts to give opportunities to the people of the selected municipalities to improve their capacities of participation in local public life. Art and creativity have been used to make people meet each other, exchange opinions, reflect and explore new possibilities for their own life and for the life of the local community to which they belong.

We strongly believe that common participation in artistic and training activities, which have been led by pedagogues and professionals, is a useful way to express concepts and free energies that, because of social and economic conditions, recent events and general situation and the feeling of isolation, have been neglected or used to promote intolerance and distance.

Young people and children showed great enthusiasm, enormous talent and an outstanding capacity to express and elaborate their personal and collective discomfort in a society which is looking for a way to reconstruct itself. With our work, we wish and mean to influence local and national authorities to take these capacities and energies into consideration, to further protect and lead them in a positive way.

4 The other project’s partners are Center for Peace and Development of Democracy; MOST; CEDEUM, (Center for Art and Drama in Education), Dobro Drvo.

4 Brief overview of the training course “Local leaders on new democratic minority policy”

The training course “Local leaders on new democratic minority policy” carried out by FER in the framework of the project “Promotion of positive interethnic relations towards peace building, development and integration in multiethnic region of the West, Central East and South East Serbia” in ten Serbian municipalities took place in Zaječar, Knjaževac, Kladovo and Bosilegrad during the first year of the project and in Dimitrovgrad, Pirot, Novi Pazar, Prijepolje, Raška and Priboj during the second year. The idea was to inform people about their citizen rights and duties, introduce and inform about their local self- governament system and institutions, educate about the legal framework for protection of their human rights and possibilities for selfhelp. The training course was designed to educate and train these local leaders thus consequently improving and strengthening the position and participation of ethnic minorities and indiginous people in Serbia.

As a follow up of this work, the training course intended to train monitors of minorities’ situation. This activity was planned for the most dedicated trainees. The idea was to provide them with the necessary tools for sucessfull monitoring, ability to identify risks, adress and mediate tensions and report on cultural and ethnic conflict in their communities. This activity was the basis for the work that came about on two nondiscriminatory Regional Reports that cover the regions of Serbia where this project was implemented.5

It could be said that the idea of this project’s activities is twofold, on the one hand it is the training of people competent to face the challenges in combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination in their own communities. This project is providing all essential tools for people who are redy and willing to protect and promote diversity. On the other hand, this project could be described as support to the efforts of an engaged citizenry capable of influencing public policies and contributing towards the creation of accountable and responsive institutions. The main goal was to create space and opportunity for local activists from various municipalities of Serbia to understand the importance of local leadership and participation.

After more than fourteen years of our existance and work we at the Forum continue to take pleasure in working with members of different communities and with diverse ethnic, cultural and religious background. Our work is aimed at assisting them not only to overcome petty prejudices about the others, but also to realize that diversity is our asset. We are gratefull for having the opportunity to meet all of the people who participated in this project during the previous two years. It has been a real encouragement for us to know that there are a number of people willing to make an effort and take a step forward in ordrer to diminish the existing distances among their fellow citizens. We strongly believe that projects such as this one will help us realize the advantages and the opportunities of Serbia as a multiethnic and a multicultural state.

This project was one of the unique possibilities for people who are members of different ethnic and religious groups to work, debate and exchange opinions. It was interesting to follow the way in which behavior of certain groups participating in the project gradually evolved from hostile towards tolerant and cooperative. It is our strong conviction that the dialogue and exchange of opinions through out the entire project helped towards

5 Both of these reports can be downloaded from the website of the Forum for Ethnic Relations at www.fer.org.yu. Reports are available in Serbian and English language.

5 decreasing stereotypes and minimizing certain existing ethnic distances. We are far from claiming that through these training courses we have managed to resolve problems that have “piled up” in the past, but it is fair to say that this micro level experiment results are rather encouraging.

Emphasizing mutual interest instead of mutual differences, this training course offered another key factor for future success, yet it is to be seen how well we managed to embed this concept in the participant’s behavior. The exchange of different cultural, sociological models/interests reinforces the ability of participants to acquire positive reception of sometimes even provocative ideas and concepts, which was most obvious during the lectures and workshops that dealt with gender issues.

During the training, the participants proved to be very tolerant and open for new intellectual experiences, knowledge, skills and information even though certain concepts and ideas might be contrary to their cultural, ethnic, family or religious values and patterns. Therefore, we hope that we succeeded in making significant improvement in promoting tolerance and acceptance of diversity, both personal and collective.

General observations

The idea of the project is to support free and pluralistic democratic society at the local level. The specific focus on local communities has been chosen in order to accommodate local communities in their pursuit of a proactive role in the dominant political and social context. Such an approach represents a great support for the local communities which often feel excluded and gives encouraging messages that they are not left on their own to struggle through these challenging times of transition. According to our experience, this is one of the reasons why the project was so well accepted by the local communities. It must be said that certain communities were very hard to reach and stimulate to take part in the project since there is still a strong negative perception of NGO’s. Without a doubt, such perception of the non-government sector is the inheritance of Milosevic’s rule and certain negative trends persist even today. Thus, citizens are still reluctant to take part in trainings organized by NGO’s. Such views show the level of the civil society underdevelopment and lack of proactive NGO’s in the local community. On the other side, these are the indicators of poor information and democratization of one society. Gradually, as the project progressed, the opinions and attitudes towards the non-governamental sector and civil activism started changing thereby accomplishing the objective of supporting emerging civil society.

What we could stress as a big accomplishment of the project would be successful promotion of interethnic and inter-religious dialogue among the participants of the project (best examples would be Novi Pazar and Raska as well as Pirot and Dimitrovgrad groups). We saw this issue as a particular challenge due to the experience(s) of the last fifteen turbulent years. We strongly believe that projects like this one encourage individuals to combat root causes of societal and institutional discrimination and build understanding and appreciation of ethnic, religious and all other forms of diversity.

There is great enthusiasm on behalf of the local actors towards learning and promoting protection of human and minority rights, creation of a firm legal environment, enhancing public understanding and support for new institutions such as the Ombudsperson. There is a vast conviction that institution such as the Ombudsperson should become a part of the community foundations, especially at the

6 local level. Participants were especially interested in concrete mechanisms for protection of minority rights at the local level. Furthermore, groups expressed interest to learn about the functioning of relevant institutions in the EU and the possibilities of protection of minority rights provided by the EU legislative framework.

Observations regarding the participants6

Significant interest for the project is shown on behalf of the participants. They proved to be keen on acquiring new professional and personal experiences trough projects like this one.

The idea to promote citizen engagement through training of local leaders capable to take nonpartisan action was very well accepted. We believe that this is a good start for capacity building at the local level.

On the other hand, when asked to think of a way to implement what they have learned they are rather inert and hard to motivate to take action. One of the general observations is that participants tend to be very suspicious and distrustful and rather timid in the first contacts.

6 Number of participants in the project: Dimitrovgrad a group of 17(8 female and 9 male), Novi Pazar a group of 15 (8 female and 7 male), Prijepolje a group of 8 (5 female and 3 male), Pirot a group of 14 (female 13 and 1 male), Raška a group of 11 (5 female and 6 male), Priboj from a group of 9 (5 female and 4 male). Overall calculation is 74 participants.

7 GENDER AND MINORITY OVERVIEW IN SERBIA: From institutional framework towards the implementation

FORWARD

The future of different societies depends upon how human kind decides to interact with multiple environments. Sustainable society can be achieved only to the extent to which it, being a human community commits to the preservation of human rights and dignity. Emphasis on the human rights protection and equality treatment of different communities has been strongly put forward and represents a modern requirement in every democratic society. In that respect, Serbia, as a post conflict society is still struggling to find its own operational mechanisms for protection and improvement of human rights of all of its citizens7. The country is well known to have the largest number of national minorities in the region of South East Europe, which gives evidence about country’s ethnic, religious and cultural diversity, but also speaks about the necessity to actively engage in building trust and increasing knowledge between different communities. Further difficulty lies in the fact that in the past 10 years Serbia has faced with a huge number of IDPs that have additionally changed the ethnic mosaic of the country. Consequently, Serbia continues to host the largest number of IDPs in Europe and this population still remains on the margin facing serious economic, status and existential problems.

Democratic changes that occurred in 2000 brought about shift in dealing with minority issues. Record of progress can be seen both in the institutional level and implementation phase. In the past five years, the country has put efforts in creating operational and institutional framework including laws and procedures passed in the field of minority protection, laws and procedures passed in the area of inclusion of marginalized groups including women, laws and procedures aimed at stimulating greater participation of citizens into social and political life. On the other hand, the civil society has played a unique role in promotion of democratic values and has actively contributed to the process of building an open and sustainable society. In many areas breakthrough was made solely by the efforts of the civil society organizations and they are still main actors in forcing new issues on the agenda. It is evident that the most significant achievements were made in the cases where the state supported and encouraged the initiatives of protecting and empowering people trough various projects in partnerships with the civil society and local NGO’s. Institutions and political decision makers made an important shift from perceiving civil society as opponent to the stage where the two actors often engage in partner cooperation.

However, numerous issues are still open and various vulnerable groups of people still remain on the margin of the society. This is especially true for internally displaced persons (IDPs), Roma community, handicapped people and certain minorities.

Several dilemmas are burdening the process and the big question lies in how to make other, i.e. those who do not belong to the majority feel like at home. According to the dominant trends and modern liberal political tradition accepted in the Europe, the citizen is the subject and object of universal moral values, rights and obligations, therefore

7 Report deals with Serbia without focusing on the provinces of Kosovo and Metohija nor Vojvodina since the project of COOPI was developed only on the territory of East Serbia (Knjaževac, Zaječar, Pirot, Dimitrovgrad, Bosilegrad, Kladovo) and Southwest Serbia (Novi Pazar, Raška, Prijepolje, Priboj) .

8 stripped of any religious, cultural or any other collective inclinations and preferences. The principle of equality is postulated as the most important one in the modern society, which guarantees equal rights to all citizens regardless of their ethnicity, religion, race, sex, etc. However, in diverse societies such as Serbia, this raises the question of protection of the other and developing instruments and mechanisms that will enable different groups to protect their own specificities while being equal citizens of the country. Respect of human identity while respecting the freedom of individuals to have diverse identities and affiliations remains to be a challenge and continue to add to the complexity of the Serbian society, especially in certain areas of Serbia. In that respect, initiatives aimed at raising awareness, knowledge and trust are the most powerful device in this delicate process.

OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

Being aware of the necessity to continue efforts in promoting diversity and building trust, Forum for Ethnic Relations and COOPI (Cooperazione Internazionale), under the auspices of the project “Combating Racism, Xenophobia, Discrimination against Ethnic Minorities and Indigenous People”, have organized a serious of training courses in the past two years throughout Serbia.8 The main aim was to offer participants some new and additional knowledge and skills, both regarding legal framework and practical implementation, which can be further used in their respective communities. The initiative supports efforts to build sustainable and multiethnic communities and offers a venue for deconstructing stereotyped beliefs and images of the other. The active involvement at the local level eventually results in increasing participation in the life of local communities, involvement in local NGOs, development of new actions and ideas, increased interest of other persons to become involved. With changes in the political context it is now even more important to educate people about democratic institutions and the need for coexistence and tolerance. Blunt evidence that speaks of the necessity to continue with such efforts can be found in some of the reactions of participants of the training course. As an example, we quote one Bosniac from Novi Pazar who stated that he “had never met anyone from Raska in his life, or has he visited the town” even though the distance between towns is quite small. In that respect, the training course was an important opportunity for bringing different participants together, this contributed to increasing knowledge and sharing visions.

The two very important aspects of training course were focused at discussing minority and gender issues in Serbia. While the first topic has been the central one in the country in the past years, gender problem is still far from being in the top priorities. Bearing the above mentioned in mind, this chapter aims at giving insights on minority and gender issues, legal and implementation models, good examples and shortcomings, taking the broader picture into account, but specifically focusing on the municipalities where project has been implemented.

8 See PROJECT SUMMARY / FACT SHEET of the Annual Report

9 1) MINORITY RIGHTS

a) Legal framework

The institutional and legal framework for the status of national minorities has been subject of great attention in the past several years and the country has evidently made a noteworthy progress in this respect. The legal structure is made up of the Serbia and Montenegro Charter of Human and Minority Rights and Civic Freedoms, Law on the Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities and other laws and regulations. One of the most important new solutions is introduction of National Minority Councils, which are initiated with an aim of contributing to the effective participation of national minorities in decision making process. On the other hand, Republic of Serbia has adopted several laws that provide special rights to national minorities, including education laws, the law on the Official Use of Languages and Alphabets, The Broadcasting Law, Deputy Election Law, the Textbook and Other Teaching Aids Law, Deputy Election Law, The Identity Card Law, The Criminal Code Law, The Local Self Government Law, etc. All of the above mentioned laws are designed with the aim to encourage greater participation of minorities and to secure their effective protection.

Significant progress has been made to create a legislative framework for the protection of minority rights which reflects European and international standards9. Legal framework has contributed to the enhancing the status of national minorities in Serbia and has already given positive incentives to the stabilization of the country. However, many problems still remain open. Several examples from practice show that additional efforts need to be made. Firstly, the Election Law set the threshold of 5% for entering the parliament, which has resulted in under representation of minorities in the Assembly. This evident flaw has been changed to accommodate needs for political inclusion of minorities. Secondly, Law on National Minorities postulates that 10.000 signatures are needed for organizing National Minority Councils, which discriminates so called small minorities and brings about new division between big and small national minorities. According to the statements of officials from the Ministry for Human and Minorities Rights, this provision will be changed in the near future.

b) Implementation

According to the dominant opinion of the members of national minorities, legal and institutional framework has been significantly improved, even though many issues should be solved through drafting new laws and regulations. However, in many cases implementation of the legislative norms remains as a difficulty and National Minority Councils struggle to resolve different problems in their work. As a tool for overcoming some of the problems, the Law on Local Self-Government envisaged constitution of Councils for Inter Ethnic Relations, but in practice, this institution has still not gained importance. Many of the observed municipalities have established Councils, with the aim of further protection and enhancing national equality of citizens. However, in reality, numerous Councils only exist on paper or their work is still in the early stage and results are yet to be expected. Example for this statement can be seen from Dimitrovgrad case. Namely, official web site of the municipality gives full text of the Statute with the article 92 that specifies the work of Council for Inter Ethnic Relations and gives thorough insight about all relevant information10. In practice, the Council is still not formed and

9 OSCE Annual Report 2005 10 www.dimitrovgrad.org.yu

10 the OSCE is currently organizing training sessions in order to stimulate faster constitution of this body.

Ethnically based conflicts and grievances remain the main issues in the observed municipalities. Thus, the focus of the report is concentrated on the national minorities, since this was perceived as the most urgent problem. Furthermore, according to the experience from the project, the priority lies within the framework of enhancing the status of different national minorities and finding their own path in being present in the society. Dominant perception is still very much linked to the notion of nation and less to the notion of citizenship.

Several key aspects can be noticed in relation to the minority issues in the observed municipalities:

• In most cases, national minorities are active on the local level; • There is no evident consensus between national minorities on the joint strategy; • Differences between “small” and “big” minorities; • Divisions within national minorities; • Political struggles within National Minority Councils; • Dissatisfaction with the level of legal implementation and status of national minorities.

As stated above, representatives of national minorities tend to be more active in the local level, which is also true for the ten municipalities covered by the project. Their main interest lies in increasing their presence and strengthening their position in the communities they live in. Furthermore, so far national minorities rarely “perform” together in conceptualizing their needs and interests, even though their problems are often very similar. In that respect, we have noticed twofold division – majority & minority and minority & minority one. On one hand, representatives of all minorities from the municipalities observed are dissatisfied with their status in relation to the majority, but they have also expressed frustration with the fact that they feel additional discrimination. During the workshop in Pirot, representatives of Bulgarian minority stated that they are often perceived as small minority, which makes their problems harder to solve. Divisions, different strategies and visions often characterize relations in the national communities themselves. This can be especially seen in the example of National Minority Councils, which are often ground for expressing political demands and will of the local leadership, rather than putting more efforts to inclusion of their communities into the mainstream political and social processes both in local and central level. In that respect, National Minority Councils represent more struggle for political dominance of certain party in certain municipality rather than united struggle for the rights and freedoms of their own community.

Ten municipalities included in the project have significant differences, both in terms of economic and social development and in level of engagement and standards implementation in the field of minority protection. However, the main feature in all of them is strong strife to improve minority rights and standards. Hot issues most often raised during the workshops can be summarized as follows:

• Education in the mother tongue; • Official use of language of national minorities;

11 • Political representation and equal employment opportunity; • Providing information in the mother tongue and media representation;

Even though Law on National Minorities guaranties right to education in the mother tongue to all national minorities in Serbia, there is still dissatisfaction with the level of implementation amongst representatives of different minorities and the situation differs from one minority to another and from one region to another. Taking into account ten selected municipalities, situation regarding education is similar to the overall picture in Serbia. After a long debate, Bosniac language with elements of national culture and tradition has been introduced as optional course in municipalities of Novi Pazar, Sjenica and Tutin as of the 2004/2005 school year. As regards to Bulgarian minority, teaching in their mother tongue in Bosilegrad and Dimitrovgrad has been done up to four hours a week and the rest is done in Serbian. The Survey on Serbia and Montenegro states that “elementary School Board in Dimitrovgrad made a motion for the teaching to be done in the native, Bulgarian language, but the Ministry of Education has still not taken a decision on that matter and the textbooks have not been provided for the 2004/2005 school year”11.

Official use of language also represents problem in the observed municipalities and has been stressed as an important tool for stabilization of ethnic relations at the local level. According to the Report of Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia done by Youth Initiative for Human Rights, some municipalities do not respect the provision on official use of language for national minorities. Languages of minorities have not been in official use in the municipalities where Bosniacs comprise more than 15% of population (Prijepolje and Priboj), and in Dimitrovgrad there has been an evidence of incorrect translation into Bulgarian language in the municiaplity stamp.

As far as political representation is concerned, the main findings in all examined municipalities show dual approach to this issue, which can be seen from the majority – minority perspective. Whilst majority population in the selected places portrays the situation in this field positively, the minority population speaks about the necessity to work on further inclusion of different communities into the mainstream political and social processes, but some differences can be noted also in this particular area. According to the Survey on Serbia and Montenegro Member of Bosniac and Muslim national minority are more active in social and political life of the country, but also actively engage in the local level.12 However, in spite of efforts done so far, there is a record of problems that should be solved in the future. For example, in Priboj, Bosniacs are not amongst the representatives of the Municipal Council nor are they holding positions of directors of public enterprises. Somewhat different situation is in Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad where representatives of Bulgarian nationality have better representation. Evidence presented in different reports quote that almost all sitting judges on the municipal courts are of the Bulgarian nationality and the same situation is in the local parliament.

The situation in the field of media and providing information in the mother tongue is rather complex and hard to grasp and in that sense represents one of the most challenging issues. Law on National Minorities stipulates the right to information in the mother tongue, but in practice this right is not fully implemented. There is no record

11 Survey, Serbia and Montenegro, A Record of Facts and Information, Yugoslav Survey, Belgrade, 2005, p 31 12 Survey, Serbia and Montenegro, A Record of Facts and Information, Yugoslav Survey, Belgrade, 2005, p 26

12 about print media in Bosnian, Albanian, Roma or Vlachs language.13 The main problem in this field is seen in lack of willingness to support national minority media by funding them, which is the main problem and obstacle in the selected municipalities. Media already existing are struggling to survive and many of them face difficulties in providing funds. No apparent progress has been made in the field of media and culture and this remains one of the most urgent problems.

c) Conclusions

Contemporary notion of minorities has adopted a new approach that shifts focus from ethnic, religious or national minorities to broader one that includes great many different minorities (disabled persons, women, indigenous people, sexual minorities etc). Many initiatives and programs have followed this change with an aim to broaden the minority debates. However, after two years of the training course in ten municipalities in Serbia, the experience shows that national minority issues are still the most important aspect of minority set. Some of the reasons for such situation can be found in the recent history that has been burdened by different ethnic conflicts. Building trust in societies that have undergone ethnic conflicts is a long lasting process and requires grand efforts and willingness from all sides, including civil society actors that may be crucial in this aspect. Other reasons can be seen in low economic and living standards, which narrow access to education and tend to discourage social and political participation of citizens. While there has been a significant progress in the promotion of national minority rights, there is a great need of focusing attention to other minority issues that are of importance for democratization of the society as a whole.

2) GENDER RIGHTS

a) Legal framework

Despite the significant efforts ensuring the gender equality in Serbia persists to be a challenge. Gender discrimination in a rather „silent“ form resists since it is deeply rooted in the social structures or better yet, it persists to be a feature of the overall cultural inheritance. The main problem lies within the fact that gender discrimination is often part of the collective perception and represents socially biased construct which pay law attention to the gender issues.

Gender rights never became center of social and political attention in the country. The most often aspect of gender rights and its protection is linked to the women rights, thus this report concentrates mainly on revealing some of the key developments in this field. The overall conclusion is that women are recognized as an important group only during election cycles when they become focus of the attention of politicians. However, after the end of the election campaigns gender issues including role of women are no longer priority topic. Thus, dominant approach is very much based on traditional perception of women’s role in the society, which is rather difficult to change.

Not much has been done in legislation concerning gender issues. However, the positive incentive is preparation of Gender Equality Law that should be adopted in the fall 2006. Broad public is engaged in this process including government members, MPs, representatives of local governments, experts and civil society actors. The law strives at

13 Youth Initiatives for Human Rights Report

13 institutionalizing gender issues and making a clear framework for gender rights protection. Evidently, without legal structure it is impossible to make significant progress in this area.

In addition to the efforts of promoting gender rights, Government of Serbia has formed a Council for Gender Equality, with the aim of educating representatives of state institutions and wide public about necessity to create proactive gender policy. Furthermore, Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina has appointed a Minister for gender equality and has stipulated that one of the deputies to the Ombudsperson will be specifically in charge of dealing with gender rights and protection.

Besides the most important law on Gender equality that needs to be passed, several additional legal institutes must be introduced for improving gender rights, i.e. institutes such as sexual harassment, equal job opportunity chances, etc.

b) Implementation

As stated above, not much has been done in the field of legal framework, and, accordingly, there is no significant progress in practice. However, especially in the last year many initiatives have been launched to postulate gender issues as priority and to meet the standards of European Union in this field. Recommendation for acting in the field of gender issues can be summarized in words of the High Commissioner for Human Rights who “recalled that women’s rights are human rights and that during this period of transformation and renewed commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, women’s rights must be prioritized.“ 14

In the past few years there has been an increase of the interest for discussing gender issues. This raise can lead us to the conclusion that there has been serious raise of awareness in this particular area. According to the evidences and practice this would be a misleading conclusion, since almost all activities have been initiated by international organizations or small number of women NGOs. Experience from the training course in ten municipalities shows that there is twofold dimension – on one hand there is an interest to learn more about gender issues but on the other there is a confusion about what this concept represents or how and why to make distinction between human rights in general (which include women’s rights) and gender rights. Educational level in the field of gender rights is on a very low level everywhere in the country including ten observed municipalities. According to the training course gender rights are usually seen from the following perspective:

• Employment policy; • Political representation – equal distribution of political powers; • Economic representation – equal distribution in managerial positions; • Preventing domestic violence; • Social policy; • Health care system;

14 High Commissioner For Human Rights Points To Challenges And Opportunities In Promoting Women’s Rights 8th March 2006, available at: www.un.org.yu

14 When thinking about employment policy, there is a record of so called invisible discrimination, which gives examples of difficulties in finding jobs when women are concerned. Many cases show that man have more chances of getting the job then women, even if they hold the same educational background and are equally capable of performing in the best interest of the particular position. Women are seen from the traditional perspective which positions their main role in family field. Thus, they are portrayed as primarily wives and mothers and less as pursuers of the career. Economic representation is probably the hottest issue, since only few women in the whole country hold important and responsible managerial positions. These positions are traditionally given to men and dominant perception is hard to change. Advocacy and lobbying for equal opportunities cover not only employment issues, but also need for education and combating any form of harassment or humiliation that still characterizes field of gender protection. Nevertheless, these principles also refer to the status of all other indigenous groups such as members of various national communities, disabled persons, refugees, IDP’s, youth population, senior citizens and others. Increased unemployment rate, insufficiently strong health and pension system, overall poverty have significantly contributed to rise in gender inequality in Serbia. Many of transitional laws have been passed without public debate, which led to the nonexistence of developed programs for poor, unemployed, single mothers, Roma’s and other vulnerable, marginalized groups.

Political representation on both national and local level continues to be one of the most serious problems. Only few women are MPs in Republic Parliament and this is especially true for local assemblies. For example, in Novi Pazar local parliament out of 47 MPs only 10 are women. Women are less represented in all other observed municipalities even though there has been a slight change in dominant trends. Political parties’ quota’s that set threshold of one third of women candidates have proven to be inadequate, since it did not lead to greater representation of women in the local parliaments. The problem lies in the fact that it is not enough to set the threshold only for party lists but also for distribution of mandates when forming local assemblies.

Job opportunities at the senior management positions proved to be rather inaccessible for majority of women. These problems persist and tend to be looked upon mainly trough the ethnic or minority prism rather then gender. Women are rarely appointed at more responsible positions, such as principles of schools, health care institutions, kindergartens, and other institutions, in spite of the fact that majority of employees are women. The example of Novi Pazar clearly supports this claim – out of a total of 1205 employees in primary and secondary schools, majority were women, but they hold the principle’s position only in four schools15.

One of the obstacles noticed during the training course is the fact that domestic violence is rarely discussed. Reasons for such a behavior lie in traditional matrix, which puts this issue only in the framework of the family. On one hand, women are often ashamed to publicly speak about violence they are facing with, but in many cases they adopt to patriarchal standards learned in their families, which are constructed around submitted role of wife in comparison to husband. A lot remains to be done, including education of the local communities, relevant authorities (police and courts), about the issues such as domestic violence and physical abuse of women. We strongly believe that NGO`s specialized in women’s rights are of a tremendous help not only to the victims

15 Further information can be obtained in Substantive Report for South West Serbia / Sandzak, Forum on Ethnic Relations and COOPI, p 17, 2005

15 but also to the relevant authorities in preventing, combating and assisting in prosecuting the cases of abuse, harassment and humiliation16.

Social policy and healthcare system also remain to be a problematic issue. The biggest obstacle is found in the lack of awareness for the need to improve this particular aspect. Basic needs of women are not satisfied in observed municipalities and this issue is often burdened by politics and power struggles. The most quoted example is dispute between Pirot and Dimitrovgrad regarding the opening of a nursery hospital, which was presented solely as an inter municipal or better yet interethnic dispute, rather than taking a perspective of enhancing social welfare and better healthcare system for the benefit of all citizens. Additionally, no one looked at this problem from the gender point, which clearly speaks about lack of awareness and supports frequently stated fact that ethnicity and nationality still represent dominant approach to all relevant problems.

d) Positive examples

Bearing in mind that gender issues have only lately become important topics, we believe that it is necessary to give some of the positive illustrations of the initiatives implemented so far. As stated in the first section, Council for Gender Equality has been introduced in Republic Parliament and Minister for Gender Equality has been appointed in Vojvodina Assembly. In addition to that, an annual award for special contribution to gender equality and women’s emancipation has been introduced in Vojvodina, with an aim to emphasize impact and importance of women in social and political life.

Several high level conferences have been organized in the recent past with an aim of reaching broad consensus on gender issues. Conference entitled “Heading towards Law on Gender Equality – European Future of Serbia” organized in Belgrade gathered relevant government members, MPs, members of Vojvodina Assembly and Executive Council, representatives of local self governments, experts in gender issues, representatives of women groups and NGOs. The overall aim was to raise awareness and knowledge of MPs, political decision makers and broad public on the necessity to adopt law and the necessity to develop functional implementation mechanisms. This model will become successful only when it spreads through out the rest of Serbia’s regions.

Many initiatives have been implemented on the local level. One of the most visible ones has been organized by OSCE Democratization Department and included serious of training courses about the most important issues concerning gender. This initiative entitled “Gender equality program” has formed a network of 53 municipalities and has already given positive effects. Many of municipalities have formed local bodies for gender equality or have appointed focal points for dealing with gender issues, including towns of Knjazevac, Pirot, Priboj, Novi Pazar, Prijepolje, Zajecar, Kladovo, etc. The overall conclusion of the OSCE efforts shows that focus on gender equality issues is easier done in municipalities with so called democratic governments, which are already familiar with democratic practices, procedures and standards.

Several examples from the observed municipalities serve as a basis for future initiatives and programs. It seems that Prijepolje has been very active in this respect. During the fall of 2005 two women NGOs, in cooperation with Primary Health Care Centers organized public lectures about necessity to raise awareness of women in the

16 We have noticed that the most influential organizations dealing with domestic violence and abuse of women are mainly operating in Belgrade, rather than on the local level

16 field of health care. The local body for gender equality has launched initiative for providing funds for local radiological service, especially for the work of mammogram that reveals early stage of breast cancer. This initiative has been done in cooperation with neighboring municipalities, since women from this region face similar problems. A meeting has been organized on the topic of domestic violence with very good turn out of local politicians, Social Service Center, municipal Prosecutors office, police and health care workers. As one of the most important initiatives, we briefly present the idea to change the municipal Statute concerning election of representatives to the Local Neighboring Communities, with the article that should introduce quota for less represented gender. The reason for launching such an initiative lies in the fact that in 30 Local Neighboring Communities in Prijepolje, only one woman has been elected for this position. At the end, an important element for raising awareness in local communities is media. In that respect, a radio show dedicated to women’s rights has been done in past two years and broadcasted in more than 10 towns in Serbia. Other municipalities have also been active. In Knjazevac and Novi Pazar, several meetings and round tables have been organized on the topic of gender equality and with an aim to have fruitful debate about law on gender equality. All local experiences show that there is a great need for better inclusion of women in local political and social life.

e) Conclusions

There is an evident lack of information and knowledge about gender issues and this is true for all important aspects, including political and economical equality. Certain improvements have been realized, but so far the carriers of the process were mostly autonomous women NGOs, which have achieved a significant break through in this field. Only recently, government has also started taking serious steps and creating a strong legal framework remains the most important aspect. On the other hand, there is an increased urge for educational campaigns and programs, especially targeting women and other marginalized groups.

3) INDIGIONOUS GROUPS

Roma

According to all the researches conducted so far the Roma community is still facing the biggest difficulties to participate at most levels of the society. This is not due only because of their low economic status but rather to their low inclusion in the educational system. Illiteracy persists to be very high and participation of the Roma population in the primary and secondary educational system is still a big difficulty. Roma population still lives on the margin of the society in spite of formal dedication of Serbian authorities in field of Roma rights. Some improvements have been made and the Roma decade will certainly contribute to those efforts. However, formal dedication is not enough if not followed with concrete actions and legal enforcement regarding better living conditions and inclusion of Roma population.

The most urgent problems of Roma’s are in the field of health protection, education, poverty reduction and overall social inclusion. In majority of cases providing basic healthcare for the Roma population, especially the Roma IDP`s living in Serbia, remained to be in the domain of the humanitarian and relief agencies. Project of Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development entitled “Open kindergarten for Roma kids” has been implemented in many Serbian municipalities including Knjazevac, Raska and Novi Pazar. Also, Danish Refugee Council has introduced a similar project that has been

17 implemented in Zajecar. Activities have encompassed health training, conflict resolution in the family and raising awareness about importance of including Roma children in regular education system. In certain municipalities, like Zajecar17 and Pirot18, representatives of the Roma community decided to pursue their interests through NGO`s. Unfortunately, the withdrawal of the donor community from Serbia affects all NGO`s, especially the local Roma organizations who are struggling to survive and make a change in their community. Unfortunately, Roma issues are not in the top priority of the ten selected municipalities and thus there are not many initiatives launched at municipal level.

Children

According to the data of UNICEF over 600,000 children live in poverty. Thousands of childhoods are damaged by deprivation of right to education, discrimination, ill health or death from preventable diseases. In the last three years UNICEF and partners recorded over 42,000 children who had been deprived of immunisation, access to health and other social services in Serbia. These children were mainly from marginalised groups. Another participatory research on child poverty in Serbia found that the poorest children are put in a disadvantaged position19. What adds to the complexity of this issue is the protection of rights and needs of children who are underprivileged due to their disability, ethnicity and even gender. It is recommended that special emphasis should be given to the protection of children with disability (physically and/or mentally handicapped) who are often absolutely left to be taken care by their families or even abandoned to the specialized institutions such as the one in Veternik – Vojvodina , Pančevo, Belgrade, Sremcica, Aleksinac or others. These children and young people usually live in inadequate conditions. Save the children, office in Serbia, remains to be dedicated towards the improvement of the children status in the society as well as promotion, integration and inclusion “of disadvantaged children – disabled children, those from the Roma minority ethnic community, and those living as refugees or internally displaced people – into mainstream society”20.

IGO’S such as UNICEF in collaboration with relevant health institutions and centers, on the central and local level, are investing serious efforts for improvement of child healthcare conditions. Unfortunately, there is a lot to be done in order to improve the current situation. Trough close cooperation and constructive help of UNICEF experts a new Mother and Child Health Care policy was adopted in the Parliament. Even though there are not many examples from ten observed municipalities

Youth

A great concern has been expressed regarding the status and the future of the youth population in Serbia. The past turmoil in the country and the surrounding region neglected the importance of youth population. Surrounding conflicts, decreasing living standard, institutional disorders and other problems shifted the attention towards other issues. Youth population is left on its own and in numerous cases misused for political, ideological or criminal activities.

17 Drustvo Roma Zajecar and Timocki centar Roma 18 NGO Pralipe from Pirot 19 United Nations Children’s Fund in Serbia and Montenegro - UNICEF for healthy mothers and children, press release available at: http://www.unicef.org/scg/WHD2pager-final2.doc For more information visit: www.unicef.org/scg 20 See Serbia country brief available at: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk

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It is indicative to mention the recently conducted research about the socio- economic status of the youth population (High School population in Belgrade) according to which it is possible to see the overview of the youth situation in Serbia.21 After reviewing the results of the research one could conclude that majority of the examinees are uninformed, socially disoriented, unmotivated for improvement and thus could be easily subject to stereotypes.

Political and ideological manipulation of young people, inappropriate education, lack of information and unconditional acceptance of the existing stereotypes create a good foundation for a conflict. Furthermore, past conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia thought us that with all of the above mentioned preconditions ethnic and political differences soon transform into hatred. During the workshop “The Role of Local Communities and Minority Leadership in Development of Multi Ethnic Cooperation” organized by Forum and COOPI that took place in Vrnjacka Banja 17-18 September 2005 Minister Rasim Ljajic, one of the introductory speakers, emphasized the fact that the greatest existing ethnic distance in Serbia continues to be between young people, from 19 to 35 years of age. According to his recommendation it is of utmost importance to act on this matter.

Furthermore, the above mentioned research also indicates to one of the reasons why the “European values” are not so generally accepted among the young people. Lack of possibilities to travel, meet new people and learn about new cultures leads not only towards misunderstanding of other people and cultures but also towards inability to understand what those “European values” are. In that way barriers do not only persist but as we can see, they tend to grow and multiply. This specific form of isolation which young people in Serbia are experiencing might backfire against all of the current efforts for democratic reforms or even create strong anti-European sentiments.

Disabled persons

This category of citizens still persists to live in rather difficult conditions. They are marginalized on everyday basis. The problem of the freedom of movement and accessibility for the disabled persons remains to be the greatest obstacle for their integration in the society. This group of people remains to struggle for their rights trough their Associations and without significant institutional support, except in the case of Belgrade municipality that is taking specific care about disabled persons and their needs. Furthermore, in the rest of Serbia situation is rather grim, with nonexistent equal treatment for education and job opportunity.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

IDPs create a very big group that is still facing with great many problems in the society and is often out of mainstream social and political processes. Besides the fact that they have lost everything, this group often faces with different types of discrimination in their host communities and in the overall society. Furthermore, this population frequently faces with discrimination in economic field, since they are perceived as a potential treat for local job opportunity market. According to the research done by

21 This research was carried out by the Union of Serbian High School population with the support of the European Movement in Serbia and funded by the EU - European Agency for Reconstruction. Results of the research available at: http://ssla.oneworld.net/article/frontpage/683/7896

19 Association of Citizens for Providing Support to Displaced from Kosovo and Metohija, “one of the main tasks should also be cultural and social emancipation and social integration of Roma as the most vulnerable category of the displaced”22. Currently, the major problem of IDPs is low economic standard which in turn leads to problems of satisfying basic needs for their families. According estimated of UNHCR from Feburary 2005 there is 208.135 IDPs living in Serbia, out of which 60.000 are non-Serbs, mostly Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians. Majority of IDP population lives in central Serbia, whereas more than 15% lives in the Raska County (Kraljevo)23. One of the most recent projects initiated by EU is support to the institutional strengthening of the organizations in charge of refugees and IDPs in Serbia and Montenegro, including the Commissariat for Refugees of Serbia and Coordination Centre of Serbia and Montenegro and Republic of Serbia for Kosovo and with the aim of more efficient public advocacy for improvement of the rights of refugees and IDPs.

Conclusion

Despite the efforts Serbian government invested in providing the legal framework in protection of all minority and indigenous groups that we touched upon in this report it can be said that the situation continues to be characterized by the lack of confidence in the state mechanisms of protection. It has been proven in numerous cases that the organs of state prosecution and judicial inefficiency became the weakest link in the system rights and liberties protection. Organizations such as OSCE, Council of Europe and others recognized this problem thus starting to pressure judiciary reform and intensifying their support in training and professional improvement. Furthermore, intensive involvement of civic organizations, especially in forcing new issues on official agenda is of the greatest importance for creating open and just society.

This Report represents the summary of the experiences and efforts of Forum for Ethnic Relations and COOPI invested during the implementation of the training activities during 2004 - 2005.

22 For further information see: Thoughts About Economic Sustainability from the Perspective of Internally Displaced Persons 23 Global IDP data base available at www.idpproject.org

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