Indpendent Agencies Report - Alb, Ser, Eng.pdf - QKSS

A novelty is the entitlement of the Ombudsperson to refer questions to the Constitutional Court on the
constitutional compatibility of laws, Presidential decrees, Government regulations and municipal
statutes. This competence to check constitutionality does not, however, extent to individual acts or
failures to act by state authorities, amounting to be a specific and individual human rights violation.
11. Draft Law on the Ombudsperson
In view of the changes at constitutional level, the Government has submitted a new draft Law on the
Ombudsperson to the Assembly of Kosovo. This draft law contains some innovations to the existing
powers of the Ombudsperson, e.g. when he initiates investigations on his own, the Ombudsperson must
obtain the consent of the person whose human rights have allegedly been violated. Also, the
Ombudsperson is not able to intervene in cases before the courts, unless the judicial proceedings
themselves result in unreasonable delays or apparent abuse of authority. It is now also explicitly stated,
that the Ombudsperson may enter the official premises of all public authorities, whereas in the past such
power was limited to entering premises where persons were held while deprived of their liberty.
However, these powers remain “soft”, i.e. failure to cooperate with the Ombudsperson or to implement
its recommendation may result in another recommendation to take disciplinary action against a civil
servant. The enforcement of which depends on the discretion of the respective public authority. Under
the new draft law, the Ombudsperson continues to receive funds from the Kosovo Consolidated Budget.
However, the draft law explicitly states, that the Ombudsperson should submit his annual budget
proposal directly to the Assembly of Kosovo 324 , thus avoiding the possible interference of the
Government with the budget allocation to the Ombudsperson.
Until now, precisely this possible
interference was criticized as being a major impediment to the independence of the Ombudsperson
under existing legislation 325
VI. Related Security Sector Legislation
9. Kosovo Intelligence Agency
The Law on the Kosovo Intelligence Agency is the only legislation which explicitly authorizes
individuals, institutions and other third parties to submit complaints against acts of the Kosovo
324 Draft Law on Ombudsperson, Article 34.1. and 2.
325 Interview with Hilmi Jashari dated 24 February 2010
91