Prishtinë, 19 May 2021 – The Ombudsperson Institution (OI), on Tuesday, organized a roundtable with the banner “The role of civil society and the media on prevention and protection from discrimination”, which was attended by representatives of civil society and the media.

The Ombudsperson Mr. Naim Qelaj informed the participants that 2021 will be the year of promotion of the Law on Protection from Discrimination and this activity has actually started with civil society and the media in order to raise public awareness on discrimination.

“We must be together in this endeavor so the public is informed on this Law, so that they understand which are their rights and how easy it will be for them to achieve their rights through application of this Law in case their rights are violated,” was pointed by the Ombudsperson.

Mr. Ehat Miftaraj, from the Kosovo Law Institute stressed that from the monitoring of court hearings followed by his organization, they find that the greatest discrimination against citizens comes from the justice system where citizens’ cases are not treated in an equal manner.

“As KLI we have seen how important is implementation of this Law. We have made requests for access to public documents in all courts of the country in order to see how many lawsuits have been made based on this Law and we have found that the number is extremely low, “said Mr. Miftaraj.

Mr. Kreshnik Gashi, the editor-in-chief of the TV program “Justice in Kosovo” and the Kosovo Press Member Board, stressed that discrimination is widespread in society, by putting the emphases on the private sector where workers are deprived of many basic labor rights.

“The situation is the same in media as in other sectors as well. Pregnant women mainly are not hired or when the pregnancy is observed, attempts are made to remove them from the workplace, as well as working conditions still do not please. ” said Mr. Gashi, adding that the Law on Protection against Discrimination needs to be promoted further.

Mrs. Merita Syla, Director of the Department for Protection against Discrimination, disclosed the Manual on Protection against Discrimination. She stressed that discrimination is a serious and deep problem which causes harmful consequences for the whole society and slows down its development.

This roundtable was attended by other representatives of civil society and journalists who also unveiled cases of discrimination based on their experiences.

At the end of the roundtable, the OI came up with some conclusions drawn from the whole discussion including:

– it was found that there is a low level of implementation of the Law on Protection against Discrimination;

– there was not enough promotion in public;

– no concrete actions have been taken according to the provisions of the law related to promotion;

– significant lack of information about the Law by the professionals themselves who have the mandate to implement this Law;

– failure to issue bylaws from this Law;

– there is a frivolous institutional approach in relation to this Law despite its weight and importance;

– the Law has vagueness and lacks a clear definition of the procedures to be followed in institutions in cases where the citizen seeks legal protection from discrimination;

– there is no strengthening of mechanisms for implementation of this Law;

– lack of media and institutional education; lack of harmonization of Laws with the Law on Protection against Discrimination;

– cooperation between civil society and media with the Ombudsperson Institution need to be increased;

– inclusion of other sensitive groups in the following manual; further clarification of the confusion created within the Law on Protection against Discrimination and

– monitoring implementation of laws, especially parliamentary monitoring of laws.