Pristina, May 26, 2022 – The Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj met on Thursday with representatives of civil society, local institutions and human rights activists in Mitrovica, part of the “Equality for All” campaign.

The Ombudsperson said that the purpose of these meetings is to hear more closely about the challenges and problems they face in their work and how the Ombudsperson’s Institution can influence in solving their problems.

Roundtable participants represented some of the city’s communities and raised a number of topics and issues they face.

Lack of employment of people with disabilities was one of the topics presented at the roundtable considering that the quota provided by the law on training, vocational rehabilitation and employment of people with disabilities is not being implemented.

The representative of the organization that deals with the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities stressed that this community continues to be marginalized, and the biggest challenge for them is unemployment. Members of civil society also stressed that the Law on the Use of Languages ​​is not being properly implemented by public institutions.

Also, the representative from the city safe shelter said that they are facing the reduction of the budget from the authorities, emphasizing the reduction of 20 percent, while the number of victims has increased significantly recently. On the other hand, the victim protector of this city stressed that cases in court are delayed on while this casus problem for victims of domestic violence to solve their housing cases.

This roundtable was funded by the European Union project “EU Support to the Ombudsman Institution (OI) in Kosovo.