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

one-third of its clients in its Prishtina office. After the March 2004 riots, mobile visits gained
even more importance, and CRPK is now opening a second office in North Mitrovica. In
order to facilitate the return preparations, CRPK is running a project in co-operation with
UNHCR where future returnees are provided with the opportunity to first visit their homes
before coming back.
For the activities of the CRPK, Vandegg identified missing documents and varying
implementation standards by local authorities as the main challenges.
Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED)
KIPRED is a think tank founded in 2002 on the initiative of two individuals with the aim to
provide local input on Kosovar politics. Ilir Dugolli, one of the founders of KIPRED and a
senior researcher and trainer for the institute, briefed us on KIPRED’s main activities and
challenges in terms of human rights and minority rights protection, focusing mainly on issues
concerning Albanian-Serb relations in Kosovo.
KIPRED has two pillars of activity: it sponsors policy training sessions for lawmakers in
Kosovo and it is a recognised research institute. Its research
activities are focused on governance and democracy, political
parties, government sector reform and decentralisation.
To understand human rights protection in Kosovo, Dugolli
stressed the importance of the Communist past. In socialist
times, the protection of economic rights was more prominent
and demands for the protection of political rights gained
importance only in the 1990s. Accordingly, awareness for
political rights was rising among common citizens who
started to fight for both political goals such as independence
and for personal, individual rights. Thus, according to
Dugolli, there was a momentum of formulating political and
civil human rights in Kosovo that unfortunately was lost with
the arrival of the international community and administration
with their own human rights agendas.
As main challenges for the human rights discussion in today’s Kosovo, Dugolli identified the
process of constitution making, the discrepancy between nominal participation and de facto
segregation, and the large distrust between the Serb and Albanian populations of Kosovo.
The status question is closely entangled with the constitutionmaking
process which raises the question to what extent the
forthcoming constitution, as well as the laws and governmental
organs, of Kosovo are locally owned or imposed from outside.
Today’s laws are widely considered as illegitimate by the
citizens of Kosovo. This problem is also felt in questions of
identity. What identity shall be chosen by the Kosovars, what
symbols are acceptable to everyone and how could acceptance
be increased among the Serbs who refuse any kind of Kosovar
identity?
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