Serbia Handbook for Legal Aid Providers Final

This includes various miscellaneous types of property problems; including KFOR occupation
of property, temporary representative cases, property cases of significant value to judicial
precedent.
Client is an IDP living in Merdere. From 1999 until 2003 KFOR had occupied his
farmland in Podujevo on the Kosovo boundary.
He wishes to file a claim against KFOR for using the land and preventing him from
using it.
The approach to use in each case will depend on the type of problem the client is facing.
The examples given in the breakdowns above should be a good guide on how to proceed
with other types of cases.
Section 5 – Making a complaint under the Anti-discrimination law
During the intake of an application for legal aid the legal officer may become aware of an
instance of discrimination directed against the claimant. It is important first to determine
whether evidence exists to prove a claim of discrimination from a legal perspective. This
requires documenting the information provided by a complainant or complainants and their
application of the legal test for discrimination.
While Kosovo and Metohija does have an Anti-Discrimination Law (ADL) on paper and it
was promulgated years ago, to date there has been little or no reference to actual
implementation of this law. While the anti-discrimination law is broad and covers many areas
the focus here will be housing and property related.
Types of Complaints
It’s important to note that there is often a detrimental effect tied to a discrimination claim. An
access to justice complaint arises when a person or group of persons complain that they
have encountered barriers in gaining access to courts. The complainant may face Tangible
barriers (like lack of transportation, threats to safety or security or security, language or
physical obstacles). The may also complain of intangible barrier (such as delay,
uncertainty in the law, lack if confidence in the fair application of law, or limited information
on the law and their legal rights).
A civil rights complaint is a claim that a person has been discriminated against on a
prohibited ground by infringement of a protected activity.
The test summarised below is the test for discrimination under the European Convention on
Human Rights, art. 14, but its elements are common to discrimination tests under most
international human rights instruments as well as European Union law. It is important for the
legal officer to understand and apply this test to field issues to identify potential
discrimination issues.
The Penultimate Question a legal officer should themselves ask is whether conduct on the
part of governmental authorities could amount to arbitrary discrimination (versus permissible
differentiation) on their part where both parties are in a comparable situation?
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