Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government | JOINT ACTIVITIES OF MDULS, PROTECTOR OF CITIZENS AND UNHCR TO COMPLETELY END STATELESSNESS IN SERBIA

“Institutions in Serbia have seriously dealt with the issue of ‘legally invisible persons’. We have improved the legal framework which created mechanisms for unhindered registration into the Register of Births, especially of children whose parents do not possess personal documents, which provides legal security for such children, but also for the system as a whole, while other rights concerning the personal status have been improved as well. Intensifying cooperation through this Memorandum gives us the opportunity to completely end statelessness in Serbia by the end of 2024,” the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Marija Obradović, has said today after the signing of the third Memorandum of Understanding between MDULS, Protector of Citizens and UNHCR Representation in Serbia.

She has added that in order to resolve this issue, personnel had underwent training and a media campaign has been conducted in previous years, and that a particularly important aspect of cooperation was solving the problems of one of the most vulnerable groups in Serbia – the Roma population.

“I am glad that the data from the UNHCR Survey from 2020 on the prevalence of statelessness among Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians living in informal settlements in Serbia show that cases where someone is not registered in the Register of Births now appear only as an exception,” Obradović has said.

According to her, the Ministry is trying to continue good cooperation with the Protector of Citizens and the UNHCR Representation in Serbia, with the aim of resolving the remaining cases of ‘legally invisible persons’, but also to prevent the occurrence of new cases.

“Our future joint activities will go in such a direction that they will coincide with the conclusion of the UNHCR global ten-year campaign titled ‘IBelong’, which aims to completely end statelessness as a phenomenon worldwide,” the minister has concluded.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed today by Minister Marija Obradović on behalf of MDULS, Jelena Stojanović on behalf of the Protector of Citizens, and by Francesca Bonelli, Head of the Representation on behalf of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Serbia.

Photo and video gallery – source: MDULS and Tanjug