Sundimi i Ligjit

13RULE OF LAWcapacities and functioningof institutionsKeeping the responsibilities associated with thecourts within the Ministry of Justice of theRepublic of Kosovo is contrary to the spirit of23legal reform of the judiciary in Kosovo,therefore, liaison offices within the JudicialIntegration Unit must not remain under theresponsibility of the Ministry of Justice but theymust be transferred within the Kosovo JudicialCouncil.The mandate of the liaison officesLiaison offices are part of Judicial IntegrationDivision which is part of the Department forAccess to Justice in the Ministry of Justice. Inaddition to Regulation 2006/25, promulgated bythe SRSG, so far, there is no legal basis whichdefines in detail the mandate of court liaison24offices in Kosovo.As per description in the website of the Ministryof Justice, it is understood that these offices offerservices as follows:-Transportation of the parties in court / publicprosecutor;-Providing legal and technical guidance to parties foreasy access to the judicial institutions of the country;- Performing various technical and logistics servicesfor the parties in court or prosecutor's office, such asextraction of various documents from the archives ofthe courts, performance of other legal services forparties and other activities aimed at addressing theirparties and their subject in judicial institutions.As understood, the term of office is mainly forproviding technical and logistical assistance tothe parties who may not have access toinstitutions of justice and who come from areaspopulated by members of minoritycommunities and providing assistance throughlegal advices for these groups.As per provision of legal assistance to theparties, there is a straightforward duplication ofresponsibilities between these offices and themandate of the Kosovo Committee for Legal25Aid, which among others, provides free legaladvice to all vulnerable categories, includingminority communities in Kosovo. Thiscommittee has access to the entire territory ofKosovo, including northern Kosovo whichlargely lacks the institutional presence of theRepublic of Kosovo. It is now understood thatthe provision of legal aid for vulnerable partiesis conducted by the Committee on Legal Aidthat provides good access to the protection ofvulnerable and the poor categories.Given that most members of minoritycommunities are not in regular employmentrelationship, most of them could be classified inthe category of beneficiaries of free legalassistance from Legal Aid Commission.In addition to legal assistance offices to providelegal assistance to places where they are located,the Legal Aid Commission also provides mobilelegal assistance offering appropriate support torevoked groups, in places where they live.The only support that remains not covered byother institutions that must be provided by theLiaison Office's technical assistance istransportation of the parties. However, in thefollowing part on the scale of operation of theseoffices during the period this project lasts, it canbe concluded that these offices do not offertechnical assistance since most of them remainnon-functional.23 The authors of this paper have been engaged in building of the Ministry of Justice as well as in building the legal infrastructure of the sector.Their recommendations regarding the establishment of Judicial Integration Division in the Ministry of Justice are also carried in the OrganizationReport FREDOM which was engaged in functional assessment of the Government of Kosovo, an organization whose recommendations are nottaken into account. For more information, you may download the report at: http://www.fridomks.org/media/105a%20MoJ.pdf.24Publicly, there are rare accessible information on functioning of these offices. Limited information may be found at:http://www.osce.org/publications/mik/2007/11/27872_975_en.pdf, page 7, http://www.md-ks.org/?page=1,50, www.eulex-kosovo.eu/home/docs/A6%20ALB%20.pdf.25 For more information, see UNMIK Regulation no 2006/36 at: http://www.unmikonline.org/regulations/unmikgazette/03albanian/A2006regs/RA2006_36.pdf