Minority Rights Protection and Human Rights Policies in ... - IFSH

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minorities. Ten of these reserved seats are reserved for Serbs, the other 10 for other minorities. Presently 22 seats in the assembly are held by Serbs, as they won 12 in the elections and retain the 10 reserved seats. However, all elected Serbian deputies have boycotted the assembly since 2003, which is, according to Maloku, a very unfortunate situation as Kosovo’s position would be clearly better if they would attend the assembly. The Commission on Minority Human Rights is another arrangement to investigate whether laws interfere with the interests of a minority in a certain community. The head of this commission must be a Serb. One initiative of the Commission was an arrangement on the official languages in the province of Manisevo, currently a part of the province of Prizren but about to separate and become an independent district. In Manisevo, the percentage of Turks is very high. According to the Constitution, a language can be added to the three official languages if the percentage of that language group living in the district is higher than 5%. This would be the case in an independent district of Manisevo. Following the initiative of the Commission, Turkish was established as the fourth official language in that region. Maloku concluded that, in his opinion, the constitutional reservation of seats for minorities will stabilize the situation in Kosovo even in the case it becomes independent. He considers the inclusion of minorities by means of positive discrimination a good measure, but he added that there are voices that consider the reservation of seats discrimination against the majority and thus antidemocratic. In the general discussion, questions were posed to all speakers. Koster was asked if he knew anything about the implementation and application of courses on human rights. He replied that 20 courses had been held, but that a certain amount of caution was needed to prevent the grafting of a foreign system onto local structures. He stressed that it would be more important to refer first to domestic laws and then to the international human rights conventions. One participant asked if there were certain contradictions between the local and the Western judicial system. There was a general agreement about the danger of imposing a Western system. Especially considering the influence of traditional and religios systems during the years in which there was a lot of discrimination from the official judicial system towards the Albanian population and a lack of local judges that led to self government. A last question discussed the judicial consequences of bribery in Kosovo. Kostar talked about a case in which a bribed judge was sentenced to four years in prison. But he also added that the task of investigations, which was explicitly a task of the international judges, are very difficult in a culture of silence and that a general lack of consequences does lead to further bribes. Panel on Minority Rights Protection and Human Rights Issues in Kosovo, Part 2 NGO Representatives Minutes taken by Volker Pabst After lunch in the university cafeteria with a stunning view over Prishtina and a small caffeine shot in one of the city’s typical coffee bars, the afternoon session in the Human Rights Centre 14
started with the NGO panel. Representatives from three non-governmental institutions gave us an insight into their work and the challenges they face. Vanessa Vandegg, Civil Rights Program Kosovo (CRPK) In 1999, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) extended to Kosovo its Civil Rights Projects that were already being run in other parts of the former Yugoslavia. These projects have as their main objective the protection of the civil rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees by providing free legal assistance, aid and information. The Civil Rights Program was founded on the initiative of the NRC in 2004, but is now a local NGO in Kosovar hands. Since 2005, it has been carrying out the activities of the Civil Rights Project and thus, is the only local NGO working in the field of human rights protection. Vanessa Vandegg, a trainee with the Civil Rights Program Kosovo, gave an overview of the NGO’s projects in the context of minority rights protection and the main difficulties the organisation is facing. The target groups of the CRPK are IDPs, refugees, returnees and other vulnerable citizens. A large share of these people are members of minority groups. By UNHCR numbers, 120000 people in Kosovo belong to a minority group out of which according to official figures, some 20000 are displaced. Unofficial estimates are even much higher. Moreover, 85% of CRPK’s clients are minorities. CRPK assists them with legal advice when returning and dealing with property and registration issues. Complex registration procedures require returnees to provide documents such as birth certificates, working booklets, property documents or ID cards to claim their rights. A returnee from Serbia, for instance, has to prove five years of residency immediately before his/her flight from Kosovo unless forceful expulsion can be proven. Since among members of minority groups such documents are often missing, these people face additional obstacles when returning home. Among Roma, for example, the high rate of home births and a general lack of understanding of the importance of registration leave some 30 percent of this ethnic group unregistered. Moreover, many birth register books and archives have been destroyed or relocated to Serbia and the needed documents are provided only after very lengthy procedures. Implementation standards for registration that are applied differently and sometimes arbitrarily by the official organs further complicate the issue. For instance, not all municipalities consider children from Kosovo Serbs that are born in Serbia as eligible for registration. Recognising the crucial importance of legal certainty for the willingness of IDPs/refugees to return home, CRPK is thus running a project to provide advice and help to facilitate the process of regaining crucial documents. Returnees, especially forced returnees who had no time to prepare their return, are often poorly reintegrated into the community and live in fear. Outreach of the Civil Rights Program is thus very important and CRPK works with only 15
Page 1 and 2: Minority Rights Protection and Huma
Page 3 and 4: Programme of the Workshop 23. - 26.
Page 5 and 6: Thursday, 23 November 2006 Briefing
Page 7 and 8: Wolfgang Koeth, Political Advisor a
Page 9 and 10: The primary objectives of the Centr
Page 11 and 12: a witness in a small area like Koso
Page 13: Julie Chadbourne, International Hel
Page 17 and 18: Concerning nominal participation, D
Page 19 and 20: Denis Gratz missed a feeling of com
Page 21 and 22: towards the improvement of the inte
Page 23 and 24: Elena Kulipanova, M.P.S. candidate
Page 25 and 26: which it approves, by majority vote
Page 27 and 28: town of Prizren has a population of
Page 29 and 30: Captain Rauer, CIMIC Coy Orahovac C
Page 31 and 32: Following this briefing, the group
Page 33 and 34: Finally the group would like to tha
Page 35 and 36: Bec Neumann, Janja, Prof. PhD Natio
Page 37 and 38: Engelmann, Holger Nationality Germa
Page 39 and 40: Ivkovic, Marko Nationality Monteneg
Page 41 and 42: Kulipanowa, Elena Nationality Kazak
Page 43 and 44: Neziri, Jeton Nationality Macedonia
Page 45 and 46: Seferi, Mentor Nationality Kosovar
Page 47 and 48: Suljagic, Emir Nationality Bosnian

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