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

Bernd Kuebart, Legation Councilor and Deputy Chief, German liaison office in Kosovo
The last speaker was Mr. Bernd Kuebart. He started with
a small introduction about himself and about the German
liaison office in Kosovo. The German liaison office is not
a coordinated embassy because Kosovo is not a state. It’s
the second largest liaison office after the UN with a staff
of 72 people. The main tasks of the office are consular,
economic, political and other issues. To give an example
of consular work Mr. Kuebart said that more than 10.000
visas are granted there per year. Germany is a member of
the Contact Group and plays a big role in Kosovo and in its provisional institutions. Mr.
Kuebart said that addressing minority issues is especially important and underlined the role of
KFOR presence for protection of minorities.
On the question about the large Albanian diaspora in Germany and the ability of Kosovo in
tackling this problem, Mr. Kuebart said that Germany indeed has a general problem of
diaspora and gave some statistics. Nearly 300.000 Albanians, 35.000 minority members of
Kosovo (e.g. Roma), 10.000-15.000 Kosovo Albanians live in Germany. About 40.000 people
don’t have a legal status. Mr. Kuebart also stressed that Germany represents the whole
opinion of the Contact Group and doesn’t have any singular opinion on the Kosovo issue.
Friday, 24 November 2006
Speeches and Discussions at the Human Rights Centre at Prishtina University
minutes taken by Polina Dolgikh
Greetings and lectures by University officials
Valon Murati, Director of the Human Rights Centre at Prishtina University
In 2004 Mr. Murati completed the European
Regional Master’s Degree in Democracy and
Human Rights in South Eastern Europe at the
Universities of Sarajevo and Bologna with
the masters thesis: “Poverty and
Development: Possibilities and Obstacles in
Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights”.
At the beginning of the presentation about the
work of the Centre, Murati gave a welcome
word to the participants of the workshop, then
shortly described the HRC, focusing on its
founders and objectives. It was established by the Senate of the University in July 2000 and is
part of the University. Its establishment was encouraged and supported by the World
University Service of Austria (WUS), with funds from the Austrian Foreign Ministry and the
European Commission. It has received financial support from the Finnish Human Rights
Project as well as the Finnish Foreign Ministry.
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