17th of June 2013 – The Ombudsperson, Mr. Sami Kurteshi jointly with his collaborates met with citizens of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian community in Lipjan Municipality. Other participants in this meeting were also the director of Municipal Directorate of Education as well as representatives of “Sud” Forum, Youth club from Magure and Gadime village and NGOs “Health of All” and “Zemra e Hapur”. Education, employment and law enforcement on daily bases were the issues that have been discussed in this meeting.

During the meeting, representatives of these communities exposed their core challenges which they face daily, with the main emphases on education. They state that the current situation, compared with one in the past regarding education shows progress, reasoning it with the fact that six students from these communities have reached the status of undergraduate students.
Unemployment was the problem emphasized by the citizens participating in this meeting. They stated that their communities feel abandoned and not integrated within anticipated percentage for minority communities in public institutions and presented concrete cases when they have felt discriminated with the regard to employment. As per discrimination in employment, they stated that they have addressed a petition containing 500 signatures to Lipjan Municipality expressing their concern regarding this issue.
During the meeting the Ombudsperson denoted OI mandate and competencies to the participants putting emphases on mandatory application of Constitution and Laws, respect of International Instruments and Acts of Human Rights that are directly applicable in Republic of Kosova. He also pointed out the work that is being done in OI, stressing the work of Discrimination Unit, which deals with investigation of all types of discrimination, including discrimination based on nationality, gender, religious, origin, age, political orientation etc.
By the end of the meeting Mr. Kurteshi stressed his readiness to handle and investigate each complaint lodged by them in the premises of OI as well as willingness of this institution to discuss and review each problem which they consider worth discussing as per human rights perspective.