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The Ombudsperson presented the work of the institution for 2021

21/12/2021

Prishtina, 21 December 2021 – The Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj presented the preliminary statistics of the one-year work of the Institution to the media. He also presented some of the reports worked on during this year that deal with the pandemic, children’s rights, environment and others.

The Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj said that statistical data on the number of complaints and their nature shows that citizens continue to face delays in court proceedings (26% of complaints) violation of the right to effective remedies (20%), and also remains concerned about protection of labor rights where 12 percent of complaints are related to the violation of this right.

The created state of the pandemic has also affected the well-being of citizens, and without a doubt has also affected the deterioration of the economic status, further deepening the gap of social inequality between families, said Ombudsman Qelaj.

The economic situation of families is reported to be further aggravated by the risk of increasing poverty, said Mr. Qelaj. A very worrying aspect that has had an impact on the life and health of children, especially those with disabilities, has been the lack for certain periods of essential medicines. And if the lack of these drugs alone was not enough, for many parents the provision of these drugs through illegal means has been a high-risk challenge, he added.

Below you can find the preliminary statistics of the OI.

From January 1 to December 17, 2021, the Ombudsperson Institution has received 1,536 complaints of citizens throughout the territory of the Republic of Kosovo. Out of this number, 665 cases have been opened for investigation. The number of persons involved in those complaints is 2,387.

According to the gender of the complainants, men dominate with 71 percent of complaints, while women with 29 percent. During this year, the Ombudsperson has opened 44 cases ex-officio, while 12 cases have been opened based on media reports.

During 2021, 753 cases were closed (including cases from last year) in the OIK, while 317 of them are cases that have been resolved positively.

Whereas, 162 cases were considered inadmissible because no violation or mismanagement was found. 117 cases were closed inadmissible because they were in use of legal remedies, while 44 inadmissible because they were not in use of legal remedies. 79 cases are closed with reports, 29 cases are closed because the complainant did not show interest, and 5 inadmissible cases because they were outside the jurisdiction of the OIK.

Citizens’ complaints were addressed to the following authorities: ministries 462 complaints; courts with 429 cases; municipalities 232; police 90; state prosecutors 63; private persons 53 cases; private companies 36; public enterprises 27; Privatization Agency of Kosovo 19 cases; and foreign authorities with 19 cases.

According to ethnicity, in the cases that were investigated, the division is as follows: Albanians 577 cases, Serbs 37; Turks with 16 cases; Goran 8; Ashkali 7t; Egyptianas 7; Bosniak 5; and others with 2 cases.

The subject matter of the cases investigated, based on the rights guaranteed by the Constitution (a case may involve more than one violation of the guaranteed rights) is as follows:

The right to a fair and impartial trial251; Right to legal remedies 207; The right to work and practice the profession 121; Equality before the law 76; Health and social protection 74; Property Protection 62; The right of access to public documents 40; Child rights 31; The right to education 27; Prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 23; Defendant’s rights 18 cases; Right to life 13; Human Dignity 13; Freedom of movement 11; and another 43 cases.

The Ombudsperson has issued 147 recommendations in reports and letters of recommendation to all public institutions. Of this number, only 43 recommendations (29.3%) have been implemented by the authorities. While, 4 recommendations (2.7%) remain unimplemented, and another 100 recommendations (68%) pending implementation.

The OIK has also presented statistics on indicator 7 of the Sectoral Reform Contract for Public Administration Reform. Indicator 7.3.1 requires that at least 80% of central government institutions, to which the Ombudsman has addressed recommendations in the period between 1 January and 30 November 2021, have responded by letter within the legal deadline of 30 days.

The Ombudsperson during the period 1 January to 17 December 2021, has addressed 79 recommendations to central level institutions, out of which, for 54 recommendations he has received a response within the legal deadline of 30 days, while for 25 other recommendations we have not received a response or the response has arrived outside the legal deadline. This concludes that the level of implementation for indicator 7.3.1 has not reached the target, because the Ombudsman during the defined period has received a response within the legal deadline of 30 days for only 68.36% of the recommendations addressed to central level institutions. Therefore, according to these data, indicator 7.3.1 is not met.

Indicator 7.3.2 requires that at least 60% of all recommendations addressed to central government institutions, issued in 2019, 2020 and 2021, to which central level institutions have responded positively, have been implemented.

The Ombudsperson during 2019, 2020 and the period from January 1 to December 17, 2021, has addressed a total of 296 recommendations to central level institutions. In the recommendations addressed during the same period and for which we have received positive responses or responses with positive intent on the implementation of recommendations, we have 215 recommendations, of which 118 have been implemented, or the degree of implementation of the Ombudsman’s recommendations, according to indicator 7.3.2 has reached 73%.