THE COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD 74th Pre-Sessional Working Group (06 Jun 2016 - 10 Jun 2016) SERBIA Civil Society Submission on the right of every child to acquire a nationality under Article 7 CRC 1 March 2016 Introduction 1. Praxis,1 the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (Institute)2 and the European Network on Statelessness (ENS)3 welcome the opportunity to make this submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding Serbia’s compliance with Article 7 of the CRC, which states that every child has the right to acquire a nationality. This submission highlights challenges in the realisation of the right of every child to acquire a nationality and the avoidance of childhood statelessness in Serbia as a result of discrimination, poor implementation of the law and challenges related to birth registration, faced in particular by the Roma community. In light of the Committee’s previous recommendations to Serbia on the issue,4 state recommendations issued to Serbia during the second UPR cycle,5 the importance of the eradication of statelessness as expressed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees #IBelong campaign,6 and the relevance of Goal 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to “by 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration”,7 the submitting organisations hope the Committee will raise the issue of realising the right of every child to acquire a nationality in its List of 1 Praxis is a national non-governmental organization established in 2004 in Belgrade that protects human rights by providing legal protection and advocating for elimination of systemic obstacles in access to rights. Praxis acts in the area of status and socioeconomic rights, antidiscrimination, gender equality, migration and child rights. Praxis has spent ten years working to solve and prevent the issue of statelessness. (http://www.praxis.org.rs/index.php/en/) 2 The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion is an independent non-profit organization committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and fostering inclusion to ultimately end statelessness. Addressing childhood statelessness is one of the core thematic priorities of the Institute. See further: http://www.institutesi.org/ourwork/children.php. 3 The European Network on Statelessness is a civil society alliance of NGOs, academic initiatives and individual experts committed to addressing statelessness. With 103 members in 39 European countries, the Network’s current thematic priority is ending childhood statelessness in Europe, including through its #StatelessKids campaign. See further www.statelessness.eu. 4 The Committee previously recommended that Serbia “Take all necessary measures to systematically register Roma children so as to provide equal access to health services and to avoid statelessness”. CRC/C/SRB/CO/1, 20 June 2008, para. 76 C. 5 In January 2013, Serbia accepted the recommendation made by Brazil, during the second UPR cycle, to “Take appropriate measure to ensure that the basic civil and political rights of Roma are being assured and that birth registration is available and accessible for all children without discrimination”. 6 The UNHCR #IBelong campaign aims to eradicate statelessness by the year 2024, see further: http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/. 7 A/RES/70/1. 1