[legal-professionals] UNHCR mobilizes lawyers to combat statelessness in Montenegro

PODGORICA, Montenegro, May 31 (UNHCR) -- Bursting with energy, Hadzi and
Maksum Miftari grin at visitors from the family living-room sofa before
rushing outside to play with their friends. They seem full of life, but in
legal terms the boys practically did not exist in their birthplace
Montenegro or anywhere else until recently.

It seems inconceivable that bureaucratic red tape could have derailed the
hopes and potential of Hadzi, aged six, and his four-year-old brother,
Maksum, whose parents fled to Montenegro from Kosovo in 1999 to escape
persecution based on their Roma ethnicity.

But that almost happened until UNHCR brought in lawyers to register their
births and obtain proof of nationality -- essential for getting access to
basic rights such as education, health, employment and even marriage.
Hundreds of other members of the minority Roma, Ashkaelia, and Egyptian
people in Montenegro have not been so lucky.

The two boys were entitled to Serbian nationality through their parents,
who were born and bred in the province of Kosovo. They failed to register
their sons immediately after birth and later found themselves caught in a
bureaucratic maze.

"I tried to register Hadzi about two months after he was born, but asked
to see my marriage certificate," said the boy's father, Idrizi Miftari.
Municipal registry offices throughout the former Yugoslav Federation kept
marriage records and regularly issued copies of marriage certificates, but
Idrizi was married in the western Kosovo town of Djakova and was told that
his records had been lost during the conflict of 1999.

He travelled to Serbia in the hope that the records had been transferred
there by Serbian civil servants fleeing Kosovo after NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization) forces entered the territory in June 1999 and placed
it under United Nations administration. Idrizi had no luck there either
and returned to his family in Podgorica's impoverished Konik
neighbourhood.

The Miftaris had almost given up hope of registering their sons when UNHCR
stepped in last year by focusing a US State Department-funded legal aid
programme on Roma, Ashkaelia, and Egyptian families in Konik who were
missing important documentation.

UNHCR's implementing partner, Catholic Relief Services, hired an outreach
assistant from the community and he informed locals of their rights and
offered free legal assistance. The assistant was soon approached by the
Miftaris.

The lawyers got round the problem of the missing marriage documents by
using hospital records as proof of birth. The registry office accepted
this and issued them with birth certificates that they used to certify the
boys' Serbian nationality.

The case of Hadzi and Maksum is one of many success stories registered by
UNHCR's legal aid programmes in the Balkans region, but there is still
much more to be done to help people left at risk of statelessness due to
problems over civil registration or a lack of documentation.

These cases are time consuming and can involve complicated representation
in administrative and judicial proceedings. They also require close
coordination between legal aid providers throughout the region. Yet this
work is vital for both stateless people and the countries in which they
live.

"Without proof of citizenship, people slip through the cracks in society
and they are cut off from important rights," said Maja Lazic, coordinator
for UNHCR's regional legal aid project. "Conversely, without registered,
documented inhabitants, states are unable to effectively govern their
populations."

UNHCR's legal aid implementing partners have assisted thousands of
displaced persons in Montenegro since 1998. They are focusing increasingly
on the issue of statelessness and, since November last year, have helped
146 people in Montenegro obtain proof of birth and/or nationality.

The refugee agency is trying to better assess the number of people at risk
of statelessness in Montenegro in order to develop a comprehensive and
lasting solution to the problem. By some estimates, up to 6,500 members of
the Roma, Ashkaelia, and Egyptian population may be at risk due to lack of
documents.

Solutions will lie in continued legal assistance and outreach campaigns,
as well as advocacy for a more active, open and transparent approach by
the state bodies responsible for birth registration. They will also lie in
improved access for displaced persons to documentation in Serbia. UNHCR
hopes this will be achieved through legal aid providers and digitalization
of documents held by municipal registries in Serbia.

Hadzi and Maksum, meanwhile, seemed delighted with their newly acquired
proof of nationality, which they will need to access civil, economic,
social, and political rights. Once they realized that UNHCR visitors were
not doctors come to vaccinate them, the boys proudly showed off their
birth certificates.

By Gordana Popovic and John Palmer 
in Podgorica, Montenegro