ISUFI v. SERBIA DECISION
emphasised the consequences of non-registration and of the lack of timely
registration for the enjoyment of rights and the prevention of statelessness.
They also referred to relevant international standards and highlighted alleged
discriminatory barriers faced by Romani communities in this context in
Serbia, as well as in the Western Balkans more generally.
13. The applicant complained under Article 8 of the Convention that she
had suffered a violation of her right to respect for her private and/or family
life as a consequence of the “refusal to enter her name into the birth register”.
This had allegedly created problems regarding her identity in her relations
with her family members and wider society and had deprived her of any legal
capacity. The deprivation of her legal capacity had also made it impossible
for her to benefit from health insurance or social security schemes, have any
property rights, or be recognised as a Serbian national. The applicant also
complained under Article 8 of the Convention that the respondent State had
had a positive obligation to provide for a legal and practical framework which
would have allowed for children to be registered “immediately after birth”,
in accordance with the relevant international standards (the applicant referred
to Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,
Article 24 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the
Child). The applicant emphasised that “immediately after birth” implied “a
defined period of days rather than months” (she referred to UNICEF’s
Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
3rd edn, September 2007, p. 100) or a period of a “few days or weeks after
birth and not months or years later” (she referred to ACERWC’s “General
Comment on Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of
the Child”, April 2014, paragraph 79).
14. Under Article 14 of the Convention, read in conjunction with
Article 8, the applicant complained that she had been discriminated against
in the enjoyment of her private and/or family life as a result of the alleged
refusal of the Serbian authorities to enter her name into the birth register. She
compared her situation to that of other children whose parents, unlike her
mother, had been in possession of valid Serbian identity documents.
Moreover, the applicant maintained that she had suffered discrimination on
the basis of her Romani origin, an ethnic minority group that had been
“almost exclusively” affected by the situation in question.
THE COURT’S ASSESSMENT
15. The Government argued that, given the relevant developments in the
present case, the applicant could no longer claim to be a victim within the
meaning of Article 34 of the Convention. The applicant’s mother had also
initially failed to properly make use of the relevant domestic judicial
remedies, which had contributed to the time needed for the applicant’s birth
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