Since 2017, progress has been made in Serbia and good practices have been developed in a number of fields, but some issues still give rise to concern and should be addressed, says the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in the new report published today.
On a positive side, ECRI notes, discriminatory content was removed from textbooks and teaching material. Initiatives aiming at promoting LGBTI equality at the workplace have been taken. On several occasions, political leaders and public institutions representatives condemned hate speech. In December 2020, the National Assembly introduced a Code of Conduct for Members of the Parliament. Hate crime training programme for prosecution services has been developed. Special measures have been taken to diversify the police force by employing persons belonging to minority populations.
As regards Roma inclusion, the 2021 amendments to the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination referred to segregation as a severe form of discrimination. Progress has overall been made in securing better preschool and school attendance of Roma pupils. The authorities have also introduced the Unique Educational Number for each pupil, and supported the enrolment of Roma students in secondary schools through special measures and scholarships. Significant progress has been achieved towards resolving the problem of lack of personal identity documents for Roma.
At the same time, prejudice against LGBTI persons remains widespread. ECRI says that the authorities should submit a draft law on same-sex unions to the National Assembly without undue delay. The authorities should also ensure that the curricula and textbooks address LGBTI issues in a sensitive manner.
Hate speech against Roma and other ethnic minorities, LGBTI communities and refugees/migrants is persisting in political and other public discourse. Authorities should step up their efforts in encouraging public figures to refrain from hate speech themselves and to condemn its use by others.
Moreover, there is no comprehensive data on hate speech, and the actual number of hate speech cases is considered to be much higher than what is reflected in existing statistics. ECRI recommends commissioning a study with the aim of developing and implementing measures to prevent and eliminate these phenomena.
Important problems continue arising in respect of identification documents available for refugees and asylum-seekers. ECRI recommends that authorities should take further action to ensure that these people are provided with appropriate documents.
De facto segregation of Roma in education is relatively increasing and the school attendance and completion rates remain far lower for Roma children than for the general population. The authorities should take determined action to end all forms of such segregation.
The housing situation of Roma remains very tense due to serious gaps in the implementation of an otherwise robust legal and policy framework. Authorities should also take the necessary measures to ensure strict adherence to the legal provisions regulating forced evictions of Roma persons and to make sure that these are not carried out without proper safeguards.
The Social Card Law, adopted in 2021, and its implementation have raised serious questions over its impact on the most vulnerable, in particular Roma, who were most impacted by the withdrawal of social assistance. The authorities should fundamentally review the decision-making process involving algorithmic systems in the provision of social assistance with a view to ensuring that Roma and other groups of concern to ECRI have equal opportunities in benefiting from social assistance and are not subjected to discrimination. Particular emphasis should be placed on addressing potential bias in the production of training data and ensuring transparency in the operation of algorithmic systems and in the decision-making.
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The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a unique human rights monitoring body which specialises in questions relating to the fight against racism, discrimination (on grounds of “race”, ethnic/national origin, colour, citizenship, religion, language, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics), xenophobia, antisemitism, and intolerance in Europe; it prepares reports and issues recommendations to member States.
