Enhance and Integrate Community Concerns within the Work of the Government

Background
In December 2009, ECMI Kosovo launched the project “Enhance and Integrate Community Concerns within the Work of the Government” supported by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland. It builds on the previous projects of support to the Office of the Prime Minister with the aim to provide strategic assistance to representatives of the Kosovo Government in strengthening their capacities to implement community-related legislation and to facilitate the participation of community-based civil society organisations in the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of relevant legislation and policies.

The project consisted of four activities: a) a capacity-assessment of the OCA/OPM aimed at collecting and analysing information about the new Officers’ expertise and experience acquired in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and to assess Kosovo institutional capacities b) capacity building for staff members of the OCA/OPM training programme, delivered with the aim to enhance both professional and technical skills of the OCA/OPM staff. In particular, ECMI Kosovo Project manager has provided a training programme on OCA/OPM Terms of Reference, Operational Strategy 2009-2011 and Task-management System. All training materials and the outcomes of the capacity assessment have been compiled into a best-practice manual; c) Support the OCA/OPM Governmental Coordination and Policy Activities. ECMI Kosovo has planned a series of activities in order to support the governmental coordination and to define the weaknesses in the implementation of the legislation on minorities and to elaborate specific solutions to improve the level of the implementation itself. At this purpose, it has been developed a legislation and policy database, the creation and the continuous update of an EtnoPolitical Map, a policy study on the use of languages and so on. On the other hand, ECMI Kosovo has provided policy recommendations to support the OCA/OPM in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the Strategy on the Integration of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities by providing policy recommendations. Moreover, it has been published ‘Legislative process in Kosovo – a handbook for community political participation mechanisms’ with the aim to assist both CRIC and the CCC on the legislative drafting process.

The handbook includes a background to the legislative process, including explanation on the types and hierarchy of norms in Kosovo’s domestic legal order and the role of the various institutions involved in the process; a description of the legislative process, from the initiative phase to the promulgation of a new act; the explanation of the special legislative tools provided to ensure and protect the participation of the communities to the decision-making process, outlining the competences and the roles of the CCC, CRIC and OCA and suggesting ways for improved cooperation. Finally, ECMI Kosovo has organized trainings and workshops to present the findings of the research and to provide assistance on legislative drafting; d) Rights Awareness-Raising of Communities and their Members. The project consisted of a last phase targeted towards civil society community-based organizations in order to bring community issues closer to institutions and raise the OCA and Commission’s profiles. At this purpose, ECMI has organized 5 regional workshops conducted in collaboration with OCA and with the Language Commission and addressing the legal and institutional framework for community rights protection, as well as mechanisms available to address violations.

Support to Minority Communities during the Kosovo Status Transition Period
The project Support to Minority Communities during the Kosovo Status Transition Period funded by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, aimed at supporting the establishment and the operationlisation of the Office for Community Affairs (OCA) created within the Office of the Prime Minister in order to coordinate and oversee the implementation of legislative provisions pertaining to minority communities by governmental institutions, contribute to the resolution of high-level cases and address the needs of communities through small-scale targeted projects.

In particular, ECMI Kosovo supported the activities of the OCA publishing an analysis of the central-level institutional system for communities Strengthening the Institutional System for Communities in Post-Independence Kosovo, which identified the overlaps between mandates and helped the OCA in establishing cooperation with other institutions. Furthermore, an EthnoPolitical Map of Kosovo (www.ecmi-map.com) has been created. It was the first comprehensive database on Kosovo communities, providing information on the national and municipal level, including geographical spread, main concerns faced and contact details of relevant institutions and organisations, which served as a crucial tool for the OCA to pursue policy and provide information to a wide audience. Then, ECMI has assisted the OCA in drafting its strategy for 2009-2011, defining its vision, mission, strategic objectives and the means to accomplish them, and supporting the implementation of this strategy. Finally, expert support has been provided in the conduct of a study on the employment of minority communities’ members within Kosovo public institutions and publicly owned enterprises, so enabling the OCA to ensure the implementation of the legislative provisions pertaining to this issue.

Improving Service Delivery and Minority Rights Awareness at the Municipal and Civil Society Level
In 2009, ECMI Kosovo expanded its activities into the field of minority education through the launch of the pilot project “Improving service delivery and Minority Rights Awareness at the Municipal and Civil Society Levels”, that covered three municipalities (Ferizaj/Urosevac, Peja/Pec and Prizren/Prizren). The project was financed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with the aim to enhance the capacity of municipal officials and civil society actors to address challenges in minority education in their municipalities.

On the basis of research and needs assessment with stakeholders in each municipalities, two reports were delivered, namely “Education for Minority Communities Municipal Staff Capacity and Knowledge Gaps” and “Education for Minority Communities: The Role of Community NGOs in Municipalities”. Both these reports contain policy recommendations which were used to produce practice-oriented materials for municipal officials and civil society representatives. After being presented to municipal officials and civil society representatives, a final report was drafted, translated and published in the early months of 2010.

Moreover, ECMI Kosovo carried out a series of activities aimed at supporting the Independent Commission for Serb Curriculum Review (ICSCR). The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology requested ECMI Kosovo to provide technical and administrative support to the ICSCR, which is charged with the establishment of a single educational school system, including an inclusive expert-led review of Serbian curriculum and the subsequent development of relevant teaching materials. ECMI Kosovo has played an import role in ensuring full inclusivity of all minority communities throughout the review and development processes, notably the Serb community’s participation in the sub-committees of the ICSCR.

Consultative Council for Communities Programme

One of ECMI Kosovo’s programmatic priorities is to ensure that the needs and interests of minority communities are represented at the highest levels of government. Through its work with the Consultative Council for Communities (CCC), located in the Office of the President of Kosovo, the organisation has supported the creation of a forum through which representatives of minority civil society can gain access to key ministries, and have the opportunity to lobby for the inclusion of minority community interests within government legislation and policy. During the status process, ECMI Kosovo worked to secure a permanent legal basis for the Council, and has since undertaken projects to support its development into a sustainable, operational and effective consultative mechanism for communities.

Background
The CCC began in 2005 as an informal body attached to the Kosovo Delegation to the status negotiations, made up of representatives from minority communities. The Council developed a ‘Framework for the Protection of Rights of Communities in Kosovo’, which provided a multi-layered and interlocking system of constitutional and legal measures to ensure the full protection and enjoyment of individual and community rights for members of the minority communities in Kosovo. The Framework was presented at the status negotiations, and later served as the foundation for the Law on the Promotion and Protection on the Rights of Communities and their Members 2008 (Law on Communities).
The CCC was legally established in Article 60 of the 2008 Kosovo Constitution, with the details of its mandate fleshed out in Article 12 of the Law on Communities. The Council was formally established by Presidential Decree on 15 September 2008, and held its inaugural session on 23 December 2008.
Thus the CCC is now a constitutionally-mandated institution, comprising community representatives from both civil society and political parties, and key government officials. Through its mixed memberships, and its strategic location within the Office of the President, it provides members of communities with a forum from which to monitor and influence the legislative process, and to advance their needs and interests within government programmes and policies.

ECMI Kosovo Activities
Projects within the ECMI Kosovo CCC Programme have been built around three core areas: legal entrenchment and institutionalisation, capacity building of the Council Secretariat and its members, and enhancing dialogue between communities and their representatives on the CCC.
As noted above, attention was initially directed towards securing a legal mandate for the Council and developing a sound institutional framework within which it could operate. Once this was achieved and the CCC was fully operational, ECMI Kosovo worked to enhance its effectiveness by building up the capacity of the Secretariat through ongoing legal and technical support, and of its members through targeting trainings and workshops. Concurrently, ECMI Kosovo has also developed project to reach out to members of communities, raising awareness of the work of the CCC and supporting community representative organisations in nominating Council members

Impact
Through its CCC Programme, ECMI Kosovo has helped to secure the legal entrenchment of the Council and supported its full institutionalisation. Over the years, the organisation has provided sustained and intensive support to the Secretariat and Council members, and has facilitated its transition from a nascent and fragile institution into a fully operational consultative mechanism for minority communities, staffed by a permanent Secretariat.
In addition to its regular Plenary Session, the Council has established a series of working groups on issues of particular importance to communities. Through the CCC, representatives of the Montenegrin community in Kosovo lobbied successfully to secure official recognition of their community by Kosovo authorities, and a permanent seat on the Council. The Working Group on Education has been active in ensuring that the particular needs of minority communities are taken into account in the drafting of the new Kosovo Curriculum Framework. The Working Group on Legislative Strategy is also fully operational, and is in the process of reviewing the 2010 Legislative Strategy of the Government of Kosovo, to monitor whether communities’ rights and interests are being fully respected in all areas of legislation. A Working Group on Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities is also in the process of being established, with the aim of monitoring implementation of the government Strategy for the Integration of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities.

The Programme has also led to enhanced awareness of the CCC within the Kosovo political landscape and increased commitment on the part of political institutions to engage with the Council in a constructive manner, for the benefit of Kosovo’s communities.

Funding
The CCC project was launched in March 2005 and was initially funded by the Danish Neighbourhood Programme of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In June 2005, the project received its first one-year funding from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In August 2006, the Norwegian Ministry also funded the second one-year funding for the project. Significant funding support was also provided by Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, who specifically contribute to sponsoring workshops in the region.

From January to December 2008, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) funded the project that transformed the CCC into a permanent institution within the Office of the President, leading to its inauguration at the end of that year. The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) also funded a subsequent four-month project to support the start-up operations of the CCC. The FCO have continued to fund the CCC in 2010, with a project to provide ongoing support to the Secretariat and a series of training sessions to Council members.
In 2009, ECMI Kosovo received funding from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs (GMFA) to support the full institutionalisation of the Council. The GMFA extended its support into 2010, expanded the project through additional activities aimed at enhancing communication between Council members and their communities.
ECMI Kosovo is hugely grateful to all its donors for their generosity and support.

Support to the Legislative and Constitutional Drafting Processes
During the status negotiation process, ECMI held that commitments made regarding the rights of minority communities needed to be entrenched into constitutional law.  ECMI worked to ensure this was accomplished through its support to the Kosovo Delegation, through the ad hoc Consultative Councils for Communities. ECMI also supported the inclusion of community rights in the drafting of the Kosovo Constitution, specifically the “Rights of Communities and their Members” chapter and the Draft Law on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Communities and their Members. Through its involvement, ECMI’s priority was to ensure the inclusion of communities into the legislative drafting process to establish laws that were reflective of real community needs and to build communities engagement with the Kosovo Government.

Standing Technical Working Group
ECMI began providing support to the Kosovo Standing Technical Working Group (STWG) in 2001, funded by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), The STWG enabled civil society actors to gain influence in policy-making and the delivery of good governance in Kosovo. The ethnically inclusive STWG formed six expert committees to address key areas of policy:

• Human Rights
• Municipalities and Decentralisation
• Health
• Economic Development
• Education
• Returns and Integration

These committees formulated detailed recommendations for legislative and policy actions and engaged the Provisional Institutions of Self-Governance in Kosovo to guide the concrete implementation of these recommendations. ECMI provided trainings and technical assistance to STWG members to formulate and advocate for thee recommendations. The final of the series of training seminars for this project was held in March 2005 in Brussels, Belgium, focusing on advocacy methods, networking and providing information on EU institutions. During 2006 ECMI began phasing out its support to allow the STWG to increasingly administer its own affairs and supported the transformation of components of the STWG to become the CCC. 

Accelerated Good Governance Initiative
The Accelerated Good Governance Initiative (AGGI) produced high quality legislation and accelerated the drafting and processing of laws into government procedure from an average of one year to five months. This was carried out with five ministries, each led by a different party, including ethnic Serbian and Turkish parties. After the 2004 elections and the constitution of the new commissions and other bodies, the Kosovo Assembly resumed its normal legislative function by late-February 2005. After that all five laws of the AGGI were either passed or reached the assembly readings procedures. After adoption by the Assembly, the laws should were then promulgated by UNMIK’s SRSG (the procedure that all laws then underwent after being passed in the Kosovo Assembly in order to enter into force).

Prime Minister’s High Level Initiative
At the beginning of 2004, ECMI was approached by the then Prime Minister, Mr. Bajram Rexhepi, to support the implementation of the ‘Standards for Kosovo’. The Prime Minister Initiative was subsequently developed with the aim of supporting the Kosovo Government, through the Prime Minister’s Office, with the process. The Kosovo Standards Implementation Plan (KSIP,) a general UNMIK document, underwent a process of ‘fine-tuning’ and in December 2004 a more shortened and straightforward document focusing on areas of human and minority rights was presented. Following the elections of 2004 and the formation of Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj’s Government, ECMI established relations with the new government swiftly. In December 2004 ECMI Director Dr. Marc Weller met with PM Haradinaj to confirm the commitment of the Prime Minister to the “High Level Initiative”, to identify further needs and to discuss the strategic approach to Standards implementation. The PM endorsed a Memorandum of Understanding signed earlier between his office and ECMI and signed another invitation letter to ECMI to continue supporting his office and the Government in human and minority rights aspects of the KSIP. After PM Haradinaj’s indictment and subsequent resignation, ECMI Director met with the next PM Bajram Kosumi, during which the PM showed appreciation for the past work of ECMI and further invited ECMI to support his office and the government in providing strategic and expert level support in areas of human and community rights.

Government Assistance to Returns
The Government Assistance to Returns (GAR) project aimed to support the process of sustainable return of displaced minority members to their place of origin in Kosovo. The project was financed by the Kosovo Government and guided by United Nations Development Programme. Central to the project was close partnership and cooperation. Partnerships with key Kosovo bodies were formed, as well as with local and international agencies, such as the Danish Refugee Council and other NGOs. ECMI was  engaged with this project at two levels: at the strategic level, ensuring the development of sound structures addressing returns issues, and at the practical local level, in the capacity-building of key local structures involved in the returns process.

Since the end of conflict in Kosovo, establishing a secure environment for the return of refugees and displaced persons remained a priority. The GAR project was intended to provide the necessary resources to bridge the gaps in the returns strategy, ensure coordination and cooperation between the different initiatives, provide beneficiary families with housing and socio-economic assistance as required, promote community development and reconciliation and enhance the credibility of all partners, so that the number of returns would continue to grow. Specifically, the project aimed to address needs for reconciliation and dialogue facilitation, housing requirements of returnees, socio-economic assistance of returnees, community projects accompanying the returns process and capacity-building, both of returnees and of the different actors within the returns process. The initial strategy on returns was developed in Kosovo in 2003. The process that lead to its development was internationally led in accordance with the changing political landscape. As the 2003 strategy became no longer relevant given massive political changes, ECMI was later asked by the UNMIK Office of Returns and Communities and PISG Government Coordinator on Returns to support the process of updating the strategy. Consequently, ECMI developed a project to update the return strategy in two stages: consultations with local and international stakeholders, followed by the revision of the strategy in accordance with the findings of the consultation process. Through this, ECMI continued to ensure that inter-ethnic dialogue and inclusion occurred at every level – particularly in relation to the difficult area of returns. In addition to this high-level policy project, ECMI also engaged in a capacity-building project targeted at returns officers at the municipal level.

Support to Minority Communities during the Kosovo Status Transition Period

Background
While Kosovo has adopted extensive legislation protecting the rights and interests of minority communities, implementation has been impeded by lack of coordination in the governmental approach to communities. The creation of the Office for Community Affairs (OCA) within the Office of the Prime Minister in July 2008 has been advanced as a solution to resolve this issue. The mandate of the OCA includes responsibilities to coordinate and oversee the implementation of legislative provisions pertaining to minority communities by governmental institutions, contribute to the resolution of high-level cases and address the needs of communities through small-scale targeted projects.

ECMI Kosovo Activities
The project’s activities focus on supporting the establishment and operationlisation of the OCA, including:

• Publishing an analysis of the central-level institutional system for communities Strengthening the Institutional System for Communities in Post-Independence Kosovo, which identifies the overlaps between mandates and will helps the OCA in establishing cooperation with other institutions.
• Creating the EthnoPolitical Map of Kosovo (www.ecmi-map.com) the first comprehensive database on Kosovo communities, providing information on the national and municipal level, including geographical spread, main concerns faced and contact details of relevant institutions and organisations, which will serve as a crucial tool for the OCA to pursue policy and provide information to a wide audience.
• Assisting the OCA in drafting its strategy for 2009-2011, including defining its vision, mission, strategic objectives and the means to accomplish them, and supporting the implementation of this strategy.
• Providing expert support in the conduct of a study on the employment of minority communities’ members within Kosovo public institutions and publicly owned enterprises, which will enable the OCA to ensure the implementation of the legislative provisions pertaining to this issue.

Funding

ECMI Kosovo would like to thank the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland for its support in the implementation of the project Support to Minority Communities during the Kosovo Status Transition Period.

 

Contact
Gaëlle Cornuz, Project Manager
cornuz@ecmikosovo.org
Tel. +381 (0)38 224 161
Mob. +377 (0)44 919 012

Since the end of conflict in Kosovo, establishing a secure environment for the return of refugees and displaced persons remained a priority. The GAR project was intended to provide the necessary resources to bridge the gaps in the returns strategy, ensure coordination and cooperation between the different initiatives, provide beneficiary families with housing and socio-economic assistance as required, promote community development and reconciliation and enhance the credibility of all partners, so that the number of returns would continue to grow. Specifically, the project aimed to address needs for reconciliation and dialogue facilitation, housing requirements of returnees, socio-economic assistance of returnees, community projects accompanying the returns process and capacity-building, both of returnees and of the different actors within the returns process. The initial strategy on returns was developed in Kosovo in 2003. The process that lead to its development was internationally led in accordance with the changing political landscape. As the 2003 strategy became no longer relevant given massive political changes, ECMI was later asked by the UNMIK Office of Returns and Communities and PISG Government Coordinator on Returns to support the process of updating the strategy. Consequently, ECMI developed a project to update the return strategy in two stages: consultations with local and international stakeholders, followed by the revision of the strategy in accordance with the findings of the consultation process. Through this, ECMI continued to ensure that inter-ethnic dialogue and inclusion occurred at every level – particularly in relation to the difficult area of returns. In addition to this high-level policy project, ECMI also engaged in a capacity-building project targeted at returns officers at the municipal level.