Praxis, Institute on Statelessness, European Network on Statelessness and European Roma Rights Centre Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 29th Session of the Universal Periodic Review Serbia Introduction 1. Praxis, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, the European Network on Statelessness and the European Roma Rights Centre make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in relation to statelessness, access to nationality and human rights in Serbia. 2. Praxis1 is a national non-governmental organisation 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, anti-discrimination, gender equality, migration and child rights. Praxis has spent ten years working to solve and prevent the issue of statelessness in Serbia. 3. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI)2 is an independent non-profit organisation committed to an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion through a combination of research, education, partnership, and advocacy. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. Over the past two years, the Institute has made over 15 country-specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, and also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under the 23rd to the 28th UPR Sessions.3 4. The European Network on Statelessness (ENS)4 is a civil society alliance of NGOs, lawyers, academics, and other independent experts committed to addressing statelessness in Europe. Based in London, it currently has over 100 members (including 55 organisations) in 40 European countries. ENS organises its work around three pillars – law and policy, communications and capacity-building. The Network provides expert advice and support to a range of stakeholders, including governments. 5. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC)5 is a Roma-led international public interest law organisation, which monitors the human rights of Roma in Europe and provides legal defence in cases of human rights violations. 6. This joint submission focuses on children’s right to a nationality and birth registration; the problem of destroyed, missing or unavailable registry books; and, the identification and protection of stateless persons from arbitrary detention in Serbia. It draws on the combined expertise of the submitting organisations both in Serbia and internationally. 1 For more information about Praxis, please see the website http://www.praxis.org.rs. For more information about ISI, please see the website http://www.institutesi.org/. 3 For more on the Institute’s UPR advocacy, see http://www.institutesi.org/ourwork/humanrights.php. 4 For more information about ENS, please see the website http://www.statelessness.eu/. 5 For more information about ERRC, please see the website http://www.errc.org/. 2 2