Minority Issues

All the minority issues are closely related to lack of satisfactory level of access to public services and job opportunities provided either by local or central institutions for non-Albanian communities, particularly for the Serbian community. Access to main public services for members of non-majority communities in Kosovo is impeded by tangible barriers arising from lack of security, physical safety, transportation, language and poverty. This is mainly due to difficulties that various communities are facing in terms of their freedom of movement (the Serb community in particular) and also due to lack of willingness to integrate into institutions and lack of their capacities.

Even though there is legislation in place that guarantees rights for communities, it is evident that proper mechanisms and sufficient efforts for its implementation are lacking.

Presence of parallel structures further hampers the integration of the Serbian community into Kosovo institutions, causing mistrust among the majority Albanian population and among other non-Albanian communities.

 Representation                                                                                                 

Unlike in the central level, minority representation in the local level is not guaranteed by the legislation, and therefore minorities will gain seats in municipal assemblies only according to the proportion of votes gained. However, due to the demands from the international community and the pressure coming from the Standard Implementation Plan, there are seats reserved for minorities in almost all municipalities where they are residing. Hence there are senior positions reserved for members of minority communities in municipal assemblies and administrations, (e.g. in Viti, Gjilan) and in some other multiethnic municipalities where even though gaining very low percentage of total votes, members of the Serb community are given positions of the deputy assembly presidents, chair of various assembly committees and director of various directorates in the municipal administration. However despite present efforts and legal mechanisms for involving communities actively in the work of local institutions, it is evident that there are major failures in accomplishing it and therefore there is a great need to enforce the present mechanisms, and also to find additional ways or mechanisms.      

Access to administration

 Access to administration for members of minorities has improved and this is partly due to improvement in the security situation into areas with minorities, and also to the pressure on municipal administrations in efforts for better implementation of the Standards Implementation Plan (better services to be provided to minorities).

 However, municipal administrations are greatly lacking in providing efficient and sufficient services to all citizens. In this context, the situation is even worse for small communities that are basically deprived from receiving qualitative and adequate services. This is mainly because the services are centralized, and civil servants in most cases lack capacities, and procedures are complicated and are not precisely regulated.

 Another major unregulated issue is the right for communities to use their languages in the municipal administration and receive services from the administration in their language. However, with the law on language (with ECMI as a very important contributor) the use of languages in the municipal administration will be properly regulated, further guaranteeing to every member of every community the right to use their own language in dealing with institutions. Nevertheless, even with the legislation in place, its proper implementation will require additional efforts, resources and capacities.       

Access to employment

 Lack of employment is seen as the main factor for the low number of youth from the communities who have returned to Kosovo and also for low numbers of those who have returned staying. However, as with the situation with access to administration, there are improvements in this direction, and this is due to the requirements for public companies to reach a certain quota for minority representation (Standard Implementation Plan), although there is no such guarantee of minority representation for senior positions within such companies. The problem is mainly because the authorities do not make sufficient efforts to deliver proper access to employment for minorities (job vacancies are not properly posted in areas with communities, community languages are not used in job advertisements, there are not programs for any additional professional qualification for members of minority communities, etc). All this is reflected in a low turn out of minority community members for certain positions although the percentage of unemployment among these communities is also very high.

 Access to education

 All Kosovo institutions in charge of education have shown their commitment to provide all communities with the proper opportunity to use their own language in primary schools, thus throughout Kosovo there are many primary schools where communities are taught in the language of minority communities (Serbian, Turkish, Roma, etc). The main problem for this phase of education of communities and also for higher phases (secondary schools and universities) is lack of qualified teachers to teach in some of the minority languages (Roma, Turkish).

 Nevertheless the Serb community is rejecting use of the curriculum provided by the Ministry of Science and Education in Kosovo and instead use the curriculum provided by the Education Ministry in Serbia and teachers receive salaries from Serbia in addition to salaries that receive from the Kosovo budget.

 Access to health care and to other services

 The majority of communities (especially Serbs) have small clinics where they receive basic medical treatment in their areas of living, thus avoiding the need for medical treatment in clinics in areas with an Albanian majority. However, for more delicate treatments Serbs mainly use the hospital in Mitrovica north while other communities use the same hospitals as Albanians. As with education, the Serb community is using parallel health structures founded and maintained by the Serbian government, where doctors and other health personnel, in addition to salaries received by Kosovo budget, also receive salaries from the Serbian government.

 Access to other services (electricity, water, phone line, etc) is the same as for the majority population; minorities have full and equal access to all these services. However, the continuity of access to these services is followed with great problems due to Serbs refusing to pay for services. Allegedly, due to lack of employment Serbs are refusing to pay electricity, phone and water bills which causes difficulties for companies to continue to provide them with services. These privileges for the Serb community by public companies are causing great dissatisfaction among Albanians and other communities.

 Access to justice

 One of the greatest problems of public access to justice remains physical access to the courts due to restrictions in freedom of movement. The situation has been improving, but still varies significantly from region to region. However, several courts have recently opened in minority communities, and a substantial number of judges and prosecutors from minority communities have been hired by the UNMIK judicial system.

 Access to justice for members of non-majority communities in Kosovo is impeded by tangible barriers arising from lack of security, physical safety, transportation, language, poverty and court fees. It is also obstructed by delays, uncertainty in the law, lack of confidence in the fairness of the judicial system, and limited knowledge of legal rights. Equal protection by the law of minorities requires more financial dedication and political will than is presently evident. There is also the problem of a lack of legal representation: most members of minority groups are unable to afford legal representation, and there are insufficient numbers of skilled professionals in minority communities, and many lawyers are reluctant to represent minority claimants. Legal rights to effective representation are not being met under the present system.

 Ethnic minorities in general face structural obstacles in conducting political campaign activities. The profile of the political campaigns and attitudes of voters from non-majority communities were determined by limited financial resources, restricted freedom of movement of small local entities and the inability to mobilize the out of Kosovo electorate.

 Much of the difficulties in return have to do with access to services such as water and electricity, and also with community integration. However, sustainable returns have been documented in the southeast regions of Kosovo (Gjilan, Kamenica and Viti), and to some extent in the central regions as well.

 The solution to these difficulties in relation to enhancing the government’s effectiveness in meeting needs of communities is sought through the decentralization process at the central and local level. The decentralization also springs out of the Standard Implementation Plan, thus in 2005 five new pilot municipalities have been established. Two new municipalities will have a majority Serb population, one will have a Turkish majority population and two will have a largely Albanian population. Apart from those with majority Serb populations, others have started with the implementation of decentralization while the first two are still waiting for the green light from Belgrade thus rejecting the Kosovo government plan on decentralization.

 Institutions for the legal protection of minorities

The Committee on Rights and Interests of Communities is composed of two members from each of Kosovo’s communities elected to the Assembly, and those represented by only one member are represented by that person in the committee. At the request of any member of the Presidency of the Assembly, any proposed law must be submitted to the Committee.  The Committee, by a majority vote of its members, decides whether to make recommendations regarding the proposed law to ensure that community rights and interests are adequately addressed.

Also at the municipality level there are bodies established which are supposed to coordinate efforts for the protection of non majority communities both within municipal assemblies (Committee for Communities) and municipal administration (Office for Communities, Municipal Return Officers) and also to increase municipal efforts, efficiency and resources to intensify the return process and accommodate those already returned.  However municipalities, as with the structures at the central level, lack experience in dealing with returnees and also it lacks the proper resources for greater efficiency.  

Ombudsperson Institution

The Ombudsperson Institution is an independent institution which has the role of addressing disputes concerning alleged human rights violations or abuse of authority between the individual/group of individuals/legal entities and the Interim Civil Administration or any emerging central or local institution in Kosovo. He/she accepts complaints, initiates investigations and monitors the policies and laws adopted by the authorities to ensure that they respect human rights standards and the requirements of good governance.

The Constitutional Framework of the PISG states that the Ombudsperson shall give particular priority to allegations of especially severe or systematic violations, allegations founded on discrimination, including discrimination against Communities and their members, and allegations of violations of rights of Communities and their members.