Pristina, December 22, 2022 – As every year, this year as well, the Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj presented the preliminary statistics to the media and spoke about the work and activities of the Institution during 2022.

During this year, the Ombudsperson’s Institution received a total of 1,514 complaints from citizens, of which 645 complaints were opened for investigation. From this number, 39 cases have been opened according to official duties, while 16 of them have been investigated based on media reports.

“On the basis of the presented cases, it appears that the rights that are most violated are this year similar to the previous years, so that the most complaints are due to the delays of court procedures, the violation of the right to a legal remedy, the right to work and exercise the profession, health rights, and so on,” said Mr. Qelaj.

According to ethnicity, the biggest complaints come from the majority community with 1,365 complaints, followed by the Serbian community with 77 complaints, 27 complaints from the Bosnian community, 13 complaints from the Ashkali community, 10 Turks, 10 Roma, 2 complaints from the Gorani community and 2 complaints from the Egyptian community.

During this year, from the investigations, 109 recommendations were addressed to the authorities, the observance of which will be monitored by the Ombudsperson’s Institution. “It is of particular interest to implement these recommendations, because it would be a sufficient indicator that the state is reacting to improve respect for human rights, law enforcement, and all this will directly affect the well-being of citizens,” said Ombudsperson Qelaj.

The level of implementation of the recommendations was also presented, for which he said that only 22.9 percent have been fully implemented, 4.6 percent have been partially implemented, 69.7 percent are awaiting implementation, while the recommendations that have not been implemented are 2.8 percent.

Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj also spoke about the work and activities that the Institution has done during this year, emphasizing that the focus for this year has been the collection of data on the state of the rights of persons with disabilities, and the other issue was the topic related to protection from discrimination.

The Ombudsperson’s Institution has joined the campaign, which this year is dedicated to persons with disabilities, and has organized 11 meetings in different cities in the country.

As for the protection and respect of the rights of persons with disabilities, from the data collected in the field, main challenges are:

• Non-implementation of the Law on training, professional retraining and employment of persons with disabilities
• Cases of violence against children and adults with disabilities – lack of shelters
• Not employing persons with disabilities
• Lack of access to infrastructure, particularly the facilities of courts and prosecutor’s offices as well as PSCs in different municipalities.

Ombudsperson strssed the increased domestic violence, violence against women and cases of rape of girls, emphasizing the recommendations for the responsible authorities to take the necessary measures to change the situation.

Mr. Qelaj also highlighted some work that has been done, such as rights in education, community rights, the creation of a forum for dialogue with civil society and the plans for 2023.