Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity in Serbia
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Petar Antić Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity in Serbia Centar za prava manjina Minority Rights Center Karađorđeva 91/6, 11000 Beograd, Srbija i Crna Gora tel/fax: + 381 11 644 206, E-mail: [email protected] Beograd, april 2006. Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity in Serbia Publisher: Minority Rights Center Author: Petar Antic Translated by: Visnja Mincev Computer processing: CORETEC Proof reader: Marija Todorovic Printed by: Tas Circulation: 500 Main donors of MRC are Norwegian Aid, NOVIB, Freedom House, Open Society Institute, Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, European Roma Rights Center. 2 Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity in Serbia PREFACE of Interior, the Ministry of Local Administration and Self-Government, the Ministry of Labor, Employment Publication “Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity” and Social Policy, Republic Geodesy Institute, UN- is the result of the project “Inclusion of Roma in the HCR, OSCE, Praxis, National Council of Roma Na- System”. This project was being implemented in the tional Minority and Minority Rights Center. During the period August 2005-April 2006, supported by the Free- process of creating the Action plan for personal docu- dom House, OSCE and the Ministry of Human and Mi- ments, the working group had consultations with a nority Rights of Serbia and Montenegro. large number of representatives from non-government organizations that deal with Roma issues and with law This project comprised a research of problems in experts. Roma population referring to personal documents. A report was prepared about the project, which served as We expect that the Action plan for personal docu- a basis for regional conference on personal documents, ments of Roma will be adopted by the Government of which was organized by OSCE. An action plan for Serbia and that it will be implemented. solving of this problem was also prepared. Action plan for personal documents was created by the expert work- Implementation of this action plan is a basis and a ing group, which was formed with assistance of the necessary condition for all other measures that refer to Ministry of Human and Minority Rights. Members of the process of the Decade of Roma Inclusion. the working group are representatives of the Ministry 3 Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity in Serbia TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction . .5 2. Problems in accessing personal documents . .5 2.1. Roma displaced from Kosovo 2.2. Roma from Rural and Undeveloped Environments Settled in Slums 2.3. Roma Born in the Republics of the Former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) 2.4. Roma Returnees from West European Countries 3. Analysis of Procedure for Issuing Personal Documents . .8 3.1. First registration 3.2. Identity card 3.3. Health Card 3.4. Work booklet 3.5. Procedure of Subsequent Registration on Birth and Citizenship Registries 3.6. Registration of residence 4. Previous activities in solving problems of personal documents . 11 5. Findings . 12 6. Recommendations . 13 7. Roma holding personal documents - Report prepared by Argument researchers . 15 8. Annex 1 . 34 9. The Action Plan for issuing personal documents. 35 10. Explanation of proposal of Action Plan . 37 4 Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity in Serbia ROMA AND RIGHT TO LEGAL 2. PROBLEMS OF ROMA IN SUBJECTIVITY IN SERBIA ACCESSING PERSONAL DOCUMENTS 1. Introduction According to Article 16 of the International Treaty According to the 2002 census, there are 108,193 on Civil and Political Rights, “everybody has the right registered Roma in Serbia. However, these official sta- to be admitted his legal subjectivity in any place.” tistics should not be taken for granted, due to the so- However, practice shows that in Serbia many socially called ethnic mimicry in the Roma population (they imperilled Roma do not realize this right due to the dis- declared as members of the majority population in the cord of the existing system and their specific status. society they live in). According to secondary sources, Therefore, the most imperilled population in Serbia is there are between 450,000 and 500, 000 Roma in Ser- not covered by the social care system, is not in the evi- bia and Montenegro. dence of the employment bureau and does not have the access to education. These people are invisible to the Roma are economically and socially the most im- system. perilled part of the population in Serbia. Between 1991 and 2001, the general economic crisis and war in the According to the Article 13 of the Constitution of country affected big migrations of Roma. Displaced the Republic of Serbia (Official Gazette, No. 1/90) citi- Roma from Kosovo and Roma from rural environments zens are equal in their rights and duties and have equal and undeveloped municipalities from the south of Ser- protection in front of state and other institutions regard- bia inhabited the more developed cities. They created less of race, sex, birth, language, nationality, religion, slums, which usually consist of shacks made of metal political and other belief, education, social origin, and cardboard remains, dilapidated and abandoned wealth or other personal characteristics. However, in warehouses, containers and car wrecks abandoned in practice this equality depends on meeting administra- the dumps or their vicinity, under bridges or in open tive requirements. fields. Due to inability to register their residence in settlements without legal ground for housing, they can- Aiming to solve this problem, the Ministry for Hu- not exercise their rights to health, social care, education man and Minority Rights of Serbia and Montenegro and employment, unless they are registered at some- decided to support the Centre for Minority Rights’ ef- body’s address. They do not even have the right to vote forts in organizing a workgroup to elaborate an Action in elections. Plan for personal documents issues. Following the Re- gional Conference on the Civil Registration of Roma It often happens that pregnant women and children (held on 28 November 2005 in Belgrade), the work- do not receive health care because they do not have group will submit a draft Action Plan to the Govern- health cards. There were cases in which pregnant wom- ment of Serbia for adoption. It will include a set of ac- en used other women’s health cards, which later led to tions and responsible institutions, indicators and entities wrong information in some documents. The Minority in charge of monitoring the implementation. Rights Center recorded several cases of hospitals refus- ing to admit pregnant women or asking them to pay for The report Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity in childbirth1. If parents who themselves do not have doc- Serbia was written with the aim of presenting the prob- uments attempt to register their child in the birth and lems faced by this minority in the application for per- citizenship registries, they are told that they first must sonal documents and helping the state institutions to solve the problems of their own documents and then begin solving this problem. register the child. Thus the problem deepens, the child is not registered in the birth and citizenship registries and later, when he/she grows up and has his/her own family, a new generation without documents is being created. Consequently, a parallel world of people out- side the system is being created, a world of people with- out access to health care, education and employment. 1 Cases described in MRC report Roma and Right to Health Care, 2005 5 Roma and Right to Legal Subjectivity in Serbia There is a wrong opinion that the basic problem of on internal policy of state institutions. When the prob- Roma is that they do not realize the importance of doc- lem of displaced persons appeared in 1999, the Refu- uments and health cards. Due to the impossibility to gee Commission began to issue displaced person cards, register residence and other administrative obstacles, which were used for receiving social aid and as an they cannot obtain documents. They do not receive ad- identification document (in combination with the iden- equate advice in relevant institutions, and even when tity card). Displaced persons needed their identity cards they do, they face insurmountable obstacles concerning and the identity cards of the persons they reside with in the registration of residence. order to obtain this document. The same rule applied for the aid cards issued by the Red Cross. Displaced The socially imperilled Roma who encounter prob- Roma who settled in slums did not have possibility to lems in accessing personal documents can be divided get the Red Cross and displaced person cards, unless in four categories: they found a relative or a friend who accepted to regis- ter them as if they lived in their homes. Some of them - Displaced Roma from Kosovo even paid for people to register them at their address so - Roma from rural environments and undeveloped that they could exercise their rights as displaced per- parts of Serbia, who live in illegal settlements sons. - Roma who were born in the republics of the former Socialist Federative Displaced person cards began to be issued on 1 Republic of Yugoslavia March 2000 as a type of identity document, valid with - Roma returnees from West European countries a regular identity card. Displaced persons who did not have an identity card because it was destroyed or for- gotten during the escape had to obtain a new one. The Refugee Commission gave instructions to municipali- 2.1. Roma displaced from Kosovo ties, which resulted in a variety of procedures, but the registration of temporary residence and identity card There are 19,551 Roma displaced from Kosovo who was always required. Sometimes it was necessary to are registered in Serbia2.