SKOPJE – 07.06.2010 – During their working meeting Ombudsperson of Kosovo, Mr. Kurteshi and the Ombudsperson of Macedonia Mr. Ixhet Memeti discussed strengthening of the cooperation and exchange of experiences between the Institutions concerning protection of the Human Rights.
Also, one of the main topics was finding solution concerning the problems related to residence permit in the Republic of Macedonia. The citizens of the Republic of Kosovo are facing such problem, respectively those who are by origin from Kosovo but they are not entitled to Macedonian Citizenship because the authorities in Kosovo are not issuing to them documents which could prove or not, that they are registered in the civil registration books of the respective country.
Therefore, Mr. Memeti and Mr. Kurteshi agreed that this phenomenon, respectively such action by the Authorities in Kosovo creates problems for the citizens staying in the Republic of Macedonia on deferent basis, but they are not able to regulate their status.
Obtaining the Citizenship of the Republic of Macedonia based on the previous Laws was very liberal and with legal easiness, so most of the citizens, mostly Albanians regulated the issue of Citizenship since part of them did not regulate this issue in the past because of the legal restrains.
However, part of citizens, mostly Albanians, approximately 2000 of them did not use the legal easiness of the previous Law on Citizenship as a result of their negligence, living abroad, lack of information and they remained without Citizenship.
The current Law on Citizenship in the Republic of Macedonia requires additional documents in order to obtain the Citizenship. The Ombudsperson Institution in Macedonia received several complaints filed by the Citizens because their application for Citizenship was refused reasoning that additional documents must be submitted.
The persons whose application was refused were born in Macedonia and their parents are by origin from the Republic of Kosovo. The Law requires that this must be testified by a document issued by the Civil Registration Center of the Republic of Kosovo. The parties requested such documents at the offices of the civil registration in the various Municipalities of Kosovo, but their applications were refused.
Mr. Kurteshi demanded preparation of several cases which should be forwarded to the Ombudsperson Institution in Kosovo and afterwards the Institution shall contact the Central authorities of the Republic of Kosovo, aiming that the civil registration centers of the country issue necessary documents to all those substantiated applications.
During this visit Ombudsperson Mr. Kurteshi was accompanied by the Lawyer Mr. Isa Hasani.