E/C.12/SRB/CO/2
Personal documentation
13.
While noting the recent amendments to facilitate birth and residence registration, the
Committee is concerned that a number of refugees, returnees and internally displaced
persons remain without personal identity documents, which limits their enjoyment of
economic, social and cultural rights. The Committee is also concerned that many internally
displaced Roma living in informal settlements without a registered residence did not have
their permanent address re-registered from their last place of permanent residence (arts. 2,
9, 11, 12, 13 and 14).
The Committee recommends that the State party ensure effective access by refugees,
returnees and internally displaced persons, in particular Roma without a registered
residence who live in informal settlements, to procedures for birth and residence
registration in order to facilitate access to personal documents, including birth
certificates, identity cards and work booklets. In the meantime, those affected should
have access to economic, social and cultural rights.
Asylum seekers, refugees and internally displaced persons
14.
While noting the functioning of the Asylum Office, the Committee is concerned at
the lack of a fair and efficient asylum procedure, as only a very few asylum seekers in
Serbia have been recognized as refugees even though the majority of them come from
refugee producing countries. Noting further the functioning of the Serbian Commissioner
for Refugees and Migration, the Committee is concerned that refugees and internally
displaced persons do not have access to comprehensive integration programmes. The
Committee is also concerned at the limited capacities of social welfare services in places
where asylum centres are located and the insufficient reception capacities for asylum
seekers (arts. 2, 9 and 11).
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a)
Enact necessary by-laws and adopt other measures, including training
for migration officers, as well as safeguards for the independence of the Asylum
Office, to ensure the full implementation of the Law on Asylum of 2007 and to
guarantee a fair and efficient asylum procedure, in particular protection against
refoulement;
(b)
Establish a functional local integration mechanism for refugees
recognized under the Law on Asylum, as well as for internally displaced persons, in
areas such as education, social assistance, language and vocational trainings and
housing, and adopt and implement in that regard a national strategy for resolving
problems of refugees and internally displaced persons beyond 2014, together with an
action plan which should include clear time frames, as well as an adequate budget;
(c)
Increase the capacities of social welfare services in places where asylum
centres are located, in order to better respond to the needs of asylum seekers and
recognized refugees;
(d)
Improve the existing reception capacities for asylum seekers in order to
be able to respond to fluctuations in the number of asylum applications and the actual
length of the asylum procedure.
National machinery for gender equality
15.
The Committee is concerned about the limited effectiveness and the lack of
sufficient human and financial resources of the Gender Equality Directorate and the Gender
Equality Council, which has an impact on the implementation of the Law on Gender
Equality and the National Strategy for the Improvement of the Status of Women and the
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