The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 134134 THE SCARS OF THE ERASUREHowever, studies suggest that these rules were not consistently followed,and the right of children to be registered immediately after birth was frequentlyviolated. Such was the case of Ismeta’s daughter, who was leftwithout legal status for two years after her birth, because the entry ofher birth in the register of births in Slovenia was refused, and she receivedno help from the Embassy of Bosnia Herzegovina either, becauseshe was born in Slovenia and her parents were not recognized as Bosniancitizens.• In such cases it is also possible to conclude that the child’s right to identitywas violated, as in accordance with Article 8 of the Convention, identityincludes “nationality, name and family relations as recognized by lawwithout unlawful interference.”• Another right that is important for erased children is the right not to beseparated from their parents, as stated in Article 9 of the Convention.This right was violated when one of the parents was expelled becauseof illegal residence in Slovenia as a result of the erasure. The Conventionfurther states that if the separation is the consequence of an actiontaken by the state, including exile, the state must provide the child withinformation on the whereabouts of his/her parents. It should be notedthat, given that erased people were “taken to the state border” as instructedby the dispatch mentioned earlier in the text, and given thattheir last permanent address was in Slovenia, the Slovenian state bodiesdid not know the whereabouts of the expelled parent. That this is true iscorroborated by information found in the archive copies of permanentaddress records specifying the erased parent’s home republic or at besta district in that republic as his/her address after expulsion – regardlessof whether this was true. As far as we are aware, no permanent residencerecord contains the full address of an erased parent in another republic.• Knowing the facts above and knowing the attitude of the authorities towardsthe erased people, it is not possible to expect that the right of thechild contained in Article 10 of the Convention would be respected, i.e.,the right to maintain contact with the parents and the right to enter andleave a country for this purpose.The statement of a Roma man, today 23 years old, who was still a childat the time of the erasure reveals how severe a blow the erasure was for somechildren:I’ve been here for 23 years. I was born in 1985 in Ljubljana. I’m erased, theyerased me. I grew up here without parents. My parents are divorced. I never wentto school. Nobody helped me to enroll in school. I didn’t have even one document.A short while ago I applied for permanent residence. I’d like to learn the language.I spend all the time here in the neighborhood, we speak Yugoslav or Romany –that is our language. I speak only a little Slovenian. Could you help me to enroll