SERBIA CONCLUSION “We want our children to be part of the Serbian society and to be respected as human beings.” Parents of Daniel, 13, Serbia DANIEL, 13, SERBIA Daniel is caught in what feels like a never-ending cycle of administrative back and forth. The 13-year-old boy lives with his parents and siblings in the informal Roma settlement in Kraljevo in which he was born. Daniel was born at home, his birth unregistered with the authorities. UNHCR and Serbian partner Praxis have been working with Daniel and his family since 2015, trying to enter Daniel’s birth into registry. The authorities in Kraljevo denied the initial request for late birth registration, citing Daniel’s parents’ permanent address was in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of his birth. For two years, Daniel’s legal identity has been stuck in an administrative limbo. Daniel’s requests have been repeatedly denied by local authorities, which have cited everything from “reasonable doubt” about his birthplace to recent influxes of other Roma to the area and the subsequent “fear” that a favourable outcome in his case would encourage more stateless Roma to come forward. As Daniel’s case remains in processing, UNHCR and Praxis continue to work together to overcome these sorts of discriminatory legal hurdles for stateless persons in Serbia every day. For each story featured, there are thousands more in the region and millions more across the globe. Statelessness is not just a legal concept. Statelessness has left Anila begging in the streets of Tirana to support her children, has kept Lirije from obtaining the education she so desperately wants, and led to Janoš going blind from a preventable disease at 16. While each of these stories has shown the devastating effects of statelessness, they also illustrate that statelessness is not intractable. The national and local authorities in South Eastern Europe have recognized this, showing determination to bring statelessness to an end, by creating the needed legislative and administrative conditions to help the most vulnerable people in the region to step out of the cruel “shadow of legal invisibility” and continue their lives with human dignity. In addition, the region’s ever-stronger civil society sector, as CONCLUSION well as the concerned communities themselves, have been complementing this effort with their invaluable, active engagement in identifying persons at risk of statelessness. UNHCR joined them in this endeavour, working with national partners from all spheres, in line with its core mandate, as well as in support of reaching the global Sustainable Development Goal target to “provide national identity to all, including birth registration.” Through the coordinated efforts of the local authorities, UNHCR and local civil society, Anila, Nuhija, Elmedin, Lirije, Janoš, Biljana, and others, are all on their way to full legal inclusion in their respective societies. As the third year of the #IBelong campaign comes to an end, cases like these add to our confidence that we can and should end statelessness regionally and globally by 2024. Learn more about the #IBelong campaign at UNHCR.org/ibelong. 26 • ENDING STATELESSNESS IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE ENDING STATELESSNESS IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE • 27