The Problem of Legally Invisible Persons Must Be Solved

Together with our partners in Serbia we are appealing to the ruling coalition in the Serbian National Assembly to adopt the drafted Law on Amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Proceedings. Any further delay on this issue would be unfair to legally invisible persons.

On 30 January, the Government of the Republic of Serbia sent the Draft Law on Amendments to the National Assembly for adoption. The aim was to enable persons, who due to objective reasons cannot fulfill conditions for birth registration in the administrative procedure under the Law on Registry Books, to regulate their status in non-contentious proceedings before the court, and thus cease being legally invisible persons.

The European Union, the Council of Europe, UNHCR, and other international organisations have been advocating for a systemic solution of this problem for years. Together with the Coalition against Discrimination, the Coalition for Access to Justice and other partner organisations, we are calling on the deputies of the National Assembly in Serbia to adopt the Law on Amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Proceedings during its current session.