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

The primary objectives of the Centre are to contribute to and promote the study of human
rights, and to foster the cause of human rights in the region. In order to achieve these goals the
Centre promotes and conducts research activities in the field of human rights at national and
international level, providing advisory services to governmental institutions and nongovernmental
organizations on human rights issues.
Prof. Enver Hasani, President of the University of Prishtina
Hasani holds a Master of Law of the University of Prishtina, also a MA of the University of
Bilkent, department of International Relations and has PhD in the field of International Law
and International Relations. Hasani has been working
at the law department of the University of Pristina in
Kosovo since 1987. He is a professor of International
Law and International Relations, in addition to being a
visiting professor within some of the regional
academic programs run by the local universities in the
Balkans. Currently he is presiding the rectorship.
The president began his speech describing the
university as a very young institution in operation, the
youngest in the region, having partnerships with
different educational institutions in Mexico, Germany
and France. At the moment the University is
experiencing different problems – together with the
need of self-determination (the university is partly
isolated because of the situation in the region), it also
needs rehabilitation and restructing according to the European standards. The financial
situation is also very difficult, as the university has to rely primarily on its foreign partners.
The president also mentioned the problem of educating assistants and minority groups at the
university. The case of teaching Serbians was given particular attention. Today there are no
Serbian students at the university for security reasons. Students of other ethnicities, like Turks
and Bosnians, are represented. While classes are generally taught in Albanian there is only
one exception where Serbian students participate: during the work of summer university.
There is only one program in Bosnian – that is the business studies program. And teaching in
the Serbian language is considered to be a highly political issue.
Speaking about the HRC itself, the president said that it is introduced into the curriculum of
the university through the law department workshops, as well as through the seminars done
by other institutions. Nowadays, the HRC is mostly dealing with projects devoted to
international events.
Prof. Hajredin Kuqi, professor of International Relations,
deputy leader of the Kosovo Democratic Party
Kuqi named human rights in Kosovo a new notion bringing
new possibilities to the region after the Communist regime. At
the same time, he considered the situation with minority groups
in Kosovo to be far from ideal and admitted the gap between
the implementation of human rights and political rights. New
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