OPINION

The opinion was issued in the procedure regarding the complaint of A. A., filed on behalf of her minor child B. B., through the attorney V. V, against the City Administration for City Bodies and Civil Status of the City of Niš, for discrimination on the basis of place of birth as a personal characteristic. The complaint states that the complainant submitted a request for registration of the fact of birth of her child born in FR Germany and that the City Administration asked the complainant to submit proof of payment of the republican administrative fee for the application for registration in the register of citizens of Serbia. The complainant considers that in case of registration of the fact of birth of children born outside the territory of the Republic of Serbia, the City Administration imposes the obligation to pay the republic administrative fee for registration in the register of citizens, while the same obligation is not prescribed in cases of children born in the Republic of Serbia. The statement of the City Administration states that this administration, after receiving the opinion of the Ministry of Finance in 2010, collected the republic administrative fee in accordance with the Law on Republic Administrative Fees. It was further stated that the republic administrative fee was not charged for registrations in the birth register, but only when submitting requests to the City Administration as the competent authority for keeping registries, which performs the entrusted task of registration in the records of citizens of the Republic of Serbia (where it was not guided by whether it was a child of the citizens of the Republic of Serbia born abroad or on the territory of the Republic of Serbia), i.e. that the republic administrative fee was not charged for documents and actions in proceedings conducted ex officio. It is further stated that the City Administration is now acting on another opinion of the Ministry of Finance, which it requested after the request of the complainant, according to which it no longer collects the fee in question. Having in mind the topic of the complaint, the Commissioner analyzed only whether there was a violation of the provisions of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, while not dealing with whether there was a violation of other rights that are not within the competence of the Commissioner. During the procedure, it was determined that the City Administration did not differentiate whether the application was submitted for a child born on or outside the territory of the Republic of Serbia, but interpreted the request submitted to the City Administration as a request subject to payment of republican administrative fee. By analyzing the claims from the statement of the City Administration, it was determined that the City Administration treated the applications for registration of children born abroad, submitted through the diplomatic-consular missions of the Republic of Serbia abroad, as requests that are not subject to payment of fees. It was further established that the City Administration asked the complainant to submit proof of paid tax not because of the child’s place of birth, but because the application was not submitted ex officio. Considering that charging a fee in this specific case is not in causal relation with any personal property of the minor B. B, the Commissioner gave the opinion that the City Administration for City Bodies and Civil Status of the City of Niš did not violate the provisions of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, i.e., did not put the child B. B. at a disadvantage based on some of her personal characteristics.

COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY

Brankica Janković