Assistant Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Marina Drazic met today with the President of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad, Milan Jan Pilip, with whom she discussed the issuance of birth certificates with data in the language and script of national minorities.
It was emphasized at the meeting that the regulations on civil registers enable members of national minorities to enter data on national affiliation in the birth register, as well as that excerpts and certificates on the data contained in the registers can be issued, which have the probative value of a public document. Also, according to the provisions of the bilateral agreement between Serbia and Slovakia, certificates and excerpts from the registry books issued in the Republic of Serbia have the probative force of a public document on the territory of Slovakia and vice versa.
Also, if the question of the authenticity of these documents arise, it can always be resolved through the procedure of providing legal assistance.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, in cooperation with The Public Policy Secretariat, in the context of the application of the Law on Official Use of Languages and Scripts issued instructions to all local self-government units where the language and script of national minorities are in official use, that on request of a national minority, they are obliged to issue a birth certificate on a bilingual form, with all data in the language and script of the national minority.
The interlocutors expressed satisfaction with the cooperation so far, emphasizing being open to it’s further improvement.