Prishtina, 5 June 2021 – The Ombudsperson, on the occasion of marking the World Environment Day, points out the importance of protection of the environment and its impact on human rights. The Ombudsperson once again calls upon all country’s institutions on the need of setting the environment among their priorities by focusing particularly on preventive and averting measures, so that citizens’ right to a safe and healthy environment is respected.

Notwithstanding the constitutional liability for protection of the environment as well as ample legal basis, the country did not achieve to make any twist through which arbitrary interventions in water, air and land would progressively disappear. Poor air quality, polluted water, uncontrolled discharges, interventions on the land without any criteria, open-pit mines and quarries, constructions without any criteria, lacking appropriate construction standards and spatial planning, forest damage, failure to properly manage waste, noise, deficiency of rehabilitation activities etc., has continued with the same intensity.

The right of public participation in decision-making processes, access to information as well as to justice (realization of rights in the courts) with regard to environmental issues, continues to be a challenge. No improvement has been marked in appropriate balancing among project development interests and environmental protection, through professional environmental impact assessments, through which it would be contributed to the preservation and improvement of the environment, protection of human health as well as improvement of life quality.

Joining the global campaign “Ecosystem Restoration”, the Ombudsperson, with the aim to protect the environment, health and improve the quality of citizens’ life, calls upon responsible authorities to take accelerated steps towards prevention, non-degradation, averting and improving the environment.