By the direct application of ratified international convention on human rights, City municipality Zemun, has stopped the forced evictions of informal Roma settlement Grmeč until securing a durable housing solution for the inhabitants of this settlement.
Danilo Curcic of the Belgrade-based Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, YUCOM, which brought the case to the Strasbourg-based court, said on Thursday that he wanted the rights body to call a halt to the evictions of around 30 Roma families from an informal settlement in Belgrade.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, YUCOM, is calling for an immediate cesation of the forced eviction of inhabitants living in the informal Roma settlement of Grmeč, in Zemun, Belgrade, a process that began last week, when a decision to demolish the homes was delivered to the inhabitants.
Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, in collaboration with Ombudsman and the Ministry of Interior has succeeded to provide a five-member family originally from Syria to leave Serbia, and therefore guarantee uninterrupted continuance of their journey to their country of refuge.
YUCOM’s 2013 Annual Report is product of comprehensive all-year efforts and concretization of the idea of an overview of YUCOM’s activities, modeled on annual reports being published by regulatory bodies and by international human rights organizations. As one of the most influencing think-thanks in Serbia and the symbol of support to citizens when it comes to protection of their basic human rightsYUCOM is presenting its first annual report with the review of provided legal aid in 2013 and selected case studies, also with overviewof all the contrbutions to improvement of human rights protection as well as with the text about this issue’s specific theme which is the right of adequate housing of marginalized and socially disandvantiged groups in Serbia.
YUCOM conducted research on views of Serbian High School Students about Minority Groups, Violence, and Discrimination. The survey was given to over 800 senior high school students in schools where YUCOM held training sessions about discrimination. Vocational schools and university preparatory schools were equally represented.
On the 26 and 27th of June, YUCOM participated in the Fifth Assembly of the Coalition for REKOM and in the Forum for Transitional Justice in Post-Yugoslav Countries, which were held in hotel Holiday Inn in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Amir Kulaglić and Vesna Teršelič opened the Assembly, noting that the consultation process is completed successfully adopting statute of REKOM at the last session, when new strategy was defined and important decisions were made for routing further course of action. Vesna Teršelič expressed hope that the Assembly would pose as an incentive, since the need for establishing REKOM still exists.
The cardinal points of the adopted agenda were related to the amendments to the statute of Coalition for REKOM and to the reporting on the activities of REKOM. The proposed statute changes are cosmetic and structural, but more importantly also quintessential. The latter is related to former Art. 14, which is Art. 15 in the proposed statute, Art. 26 or Art. 32, Art. 27 or Art. 33 in the proposed new statute, while Art. 22 was removed. Upon completion of the hearing on the amendments and it was concluded that the changes relate to Article 3 of the former statute, Article 9, paragraph 3 and paragraph 5, Art. 23, paragraph 1, paragraph 2, paragraph 10 and paragraph 12.
Our intention with this project was to contribute to creating a constructive dialogue between representatives of public authorities on one side and citizens on the other regarding possible ways of how this constitutional right to petition and recommendation can be realized, in the goal of alleviating some of the confusion which might surround these issues (do the public authorities have special departments and procedures which regulate how petitions and other recommendations are replied to; what are the main obstacles for replying to petitions and recommendations) and to thoroughly investigate the facts so as to be able to make precise recommendations for further handling of the matter.
Ruzica Banda, Human Rights Officer at OSCE Mission to Serbia, reminded that OSCE recognizes protection and respect of human rights as the core issue of security, therefore it acknowledges the need for creating special mechanism for addressing issues of human rights defenders within OSCE, as it was created in 2007, within ODIHR, Warsaw. ODIHR provides support to civil society and to the states – human rights conventions signatories. Recognizing the importance of civil society and human rights defenders, in 2007 OSCE appointed contact person to independent human rights organizations for implementation monitoring by the signatory States, in addition, the contact person is the focal contact point in cases of serious violations of rights of HRDs.
Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Belgrade Center for Human Rights, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Civil Rights Defenders and many other human rights organizations organized an ad hoc network for monitoring of security and police conduct during the parade.
YUCOM’s coordinator received numerous reports of incidents and stone throwing in front of the National Parliament, during which no human rights defender was injured, and a number of smaller incidents in the surroundings, with no injured reported, and maintained an ongoing communication with the Amnesty International which as well had the observers at the parade.
Aleksandar Popovic, vice president of the Democratic Party of Serbia, was spotted in the midst of riots, in which, however, he did not take part, but was observing and was making phone calls, surrounded by the group of hooligans.