Towards a New Minority Policy

Serbia needs a new minority policy focusing on integration, inter-ethnic and intercultural communication and cooperation. The existing policy has segregating effects and leads to a parallel life of minorities as opposed to the majority. The responsibility for it is both with the state and the minority elites which, striving to stay in power, influence the minority communities in a way that makes them ever less open. These are some of the observations from the presentation of the Integrating Minority Policy Communication Strategy presented yesterday in Novi Sad by the Ethnic Relationships Forum.

'It is discouraging and worrying that today, fourteen years after the October upheaval, there is still talk about the need to make a step forward in the field of minority policy, instead of the step having been already taken,' pointed out Aniko Muskinja Heinrich, the Provincial Ombudswoman.

In her address she warned that after the elections - and bearing in mind the decision of the Constitutional Court - minority rights have been decreased, as well as that the activities of the ruling coalition concerning the minority policy have been completely negligible. According to her, falling back and even going backwards in this respect is evident in a series of issues. The Serbian Government Decision provided for establishment of the National Minorities Council, but this national body has never met or held a single session, pertaining thus to the simulation policy characteristic of the Council founded by the 2009 Government Decree. Neither the alleged establishment of the Public Policies Secretariat nor the announcements concerning establishment of respective advisory bodies, holds Muskinja Heinrich, have any special significance if there is no Ministry in charge of human rights, while the Human Rights Office of the Serbian Government is not an authority with executive powers.

Establishment of show-off institutions is just one in a series of problems. Formulation and, moreover, implementation of the new minority policy would have to deal with other obstacles as well, starting with the psychological ones. It is necessary, for instance, to diminish and eventually disperse the minorities' fear of integration they perceive as a way towards their assimilation. A special problem is the lack of political will to embark on changing and amending the legislation, such as the National Minority Councils Act. There are other limiting factors as well, such as the ban on employment in the public sector or wrong interpretation of certain constitutional provisions. For instance, the provision that no one is bound to declare his or her ethnicity is interpreted in a way that it is not allowed to ask anybody about their ethnicity. Absurdly enough, this has led to a situation that no one in today's Serbia has precise data on the ethnicity of the employees in the legislative and executive authorities and the judiciary. If there is no such data, how is it possible, wondered Aniko Muskinja Heinrich, to pursue an affirmative measures policy?

The Deputy Ombudswoman in charge of the minority rights protection Eva Vukasinovic reminded the round table organizers of the results of the research study on the operation of the national minority councils. These results could be very useful in formulating an integration strategy. Integration being a process involving both minorities and the majority, there is a need for a continuous education of minorities about their rights, as well as for education of the majority about the minorities' tradition and culture and the significance of affirmative action measures. It is also necessary to instigate national minority councils to be more active and use their authority to its full extent, whereas relevant authorities in the local self-governments should learn their obligations concerning national minority councils in order not to hinder the process of the national councils exercising their authority. The level of reversal or prevention of (self-) segregation of minorities is in direct proportion with the success of minority integration, both as related to the majority and other minority communities.

A special problem, as the Deputy Ombudswoman pointed out, is the legal system not acknowledging the national minority councils. For instance, the Public Property Act does not recognize them as beneficiaries of public property, while the form of the national minority councils (property) ownership is not defined at all. The Antidiscrimination Act does not recognize national minority councils as bodies that can file a suit and initiate proceedings to investigate alleged discrimination, while the Serbian Budgeting System Act does not recognize them as indirect budget beneficiaries. In here address Eva Vukasinovic reflected also on the Serbian Constitutional Court Decision saying that certain provisions of the National Minority Councils Act are not in accordance with the Constitution. The issue with the ruling of the Constitutional Court is that exactly the same problem has been detected both in the field of culture and education, but only the provisions relating to education have been ruled unconstitutional, unlike those pertaining to culture.

According to the Ethnic Relationships Forum, national minorities have not been fully integrated into the society, so the Forum has initiated drafting an Integrating Minority Policy National Strategy. This process is one of the major public policies and its implementation would strengthen both links between and among various ethnic communities and the social cohesion in general.