Pristina, January 18 2022 – Dear Members of the Parliament, Citizens of the Republic of Kosovo,

In fulfilling constitutional liabilities entrusted, today I am disclosing to you a summary report of Ombudsperson Institution, by which I would like to inform you about the main findings regarding the state of human rights in the Republic of Kosovo for the year 2021.

The report unveils the level of respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Republic of Kosovo, based on investigation and case analysis handled with regard to all levels of government.

In 2021, we managed to increase the activity to investigate and recommend improvement of respect for human rights to public authorities.

This year, Ombudsperson Institution received 1,612 complaints, whereas 45 cases has been initiated ex officio by the Institution. It should be noted that 157 recommendations have been addressed from investigated cases.

In 2021, we had a significant increase in implementation of recommendations issued by the Ombudsperson by public authorities, which reached 27%, from 19% in 2020. Notwithstanding this increase on implementation of recommendations, the low level of implementation of Ombudsperson’s recommendations, remains a great concern.

In 2021, based on investigated cases, of a great concern has remained the failure to respect the following rights related to:

–  the right to life and the insufficient measures undertaken by authorities to prevent violence against women,

–  the right to a fair trial due to the delay of court proceedings,

– the right to protection from discrimination in terms of citizens’ equal treatment,

– the right to property in terms of women’s participation in inheritance and property division,

– the right to access effective legal remedy.

Many of our recommendations constitute solutions that do not require additional financial or human resources, but simply compliance with the law.

We have reminded authorities that the failure to initiate enforcement of a number of laws constitutes violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, by emphasizing on this occasion the Law on Health Insurance, the Law on Child Protection, the Law on Electronic Supervision of Persons whose Movement is Limited by the Decision of the Court.

One of the biggest problem in terms of fundamental rights continues to be the access to justice and the right to a fair trial due to the delay of court proceedings, the lack of an effective system of judicial remedies, the ambiguities in consistent interpretation of the law, as well as the lack of appropriate reasoning.

With regard to children’s rights, we have noticed that there is still not a proper commitment in the areas such as: protection of children from child labor, protection of children from begging in the street, protection of children from domestic violence and their appropriate social integration.

Some of the laws processed for amendment, such as: The Law on Social Services and the Law on Local Government Finances, which positively impacted children’s rights, failed to be approved. We have also noticed that only 2 of the 18 sub-legal acts defined by the Law on Child Protection have been issued. While in the special report related to the health emergency in COVID-19 pandemic period, we have found that there was no comprehensive support strategy for children with disabilities, actually there was a lack of appropriate health treatment.

The issue worth to be pointed also is the lack of fulfillment of obligations by the municipalities, according to the Law on Pre-University Education, with regard to establishment of municipal professional teams for assessment and support of persons with disabilities.

During 2021, many recommendations have been addressed by us with the aim to improve the state of children’s rights, mainly on increasing the effectiveness in enforcement of legal obligations, on harmonization of legal acts with regard to collisions that prevented their coherent implementation and the inaction of the public authority to issue the corresponding sub-legal acts that constitute a legal obligation.

The right to non-discrimination continues to be denied to many categories of citizens, especially those with a graver social and economic status, children, persons with disabilities and many other social groups. We have observed serious omission in the understanding and implementation of the principles of the Law on Protection from Discrimination, at both levels of government.

Such phenomena are mainly the result of the lack of human and financial capacities, of practices which have failed to be based on transparent procedures as well as lack of awareness for enforcement of subject legislation principles. The lack of a proper judicial practice also contributes to this situation.

One of the most serious issues of discrimination is the inability of the public authority to guarantee persons with disabilities their freedom of movement, their right to privacy as well as their right to a safe and healthy environment.

We have found that the criteria according to the Administrative Instruction for Construction Buildings Technical Terms of Accessibility to Disabled Persons are not being respected.

Discrimination continues to be present in the field of women’s right to equality in front of the law. This inequality is expressed in aspects such as: women’s participation in the division of wealth in inheritance, their participation in the labor market, in political life and in decision-making processes, in the field of education, health, etc.

In carrying out of the mandate as the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture, we have conducted regular and unannounced visits to all places where persons deprived of their liberty are located and we have found that the phenomenon of corruption and physical incidents between prisoners continues to be a problem and based on findings ascertained during the visits that the NPM has undertaken, recommendations have been addressed to the authorities.

I appreciate the positive trend of citizens’ awareness rising, of the media, of the civil society and the population in general with regard to the importance of the environment in everyday life, in health and in public policy-making in general.

However, public authorities continued to ignore environmental assessments concerning hydropower plants, waste dumps, concerning destruction of riverbeds, uncontrolled development of the quarry industry, etc.

On 9 November 2021, I have visited the Specialized Chambers and Detention Facilities in The Hague.

During this visit, I met all remand detainees, apart Mr. Sali Mustafa, who has been imposed a restriction measure and was not allowed to have visits, except his family members. On this occasion, the detainees whom I met have expressed their concern: for non-respecting of the principle of equality of arms during the judicial proceedings; for the duration of detention; for the lack of supervision for the right to an efficient legal remedy, referring to the fact that the court functions as a structure and there is no sound scaling for the efficient review of legal remedies; for the delay of translations into Albanian of the minutes of court hearings; for editing of the indictment and other materials, which denies to them the right to have all the evidence and information in a language they understand, etc.

In 2021 we have published the Report on the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Human Rights, where we generally found that restrictions by public authorities to prevent and combat the spread of the pandemic have negatively affected a number of human rights, including: freedom of movement, right to education, right to employment, right to access to court, etc. The Report also found that the restrictive measures imposed for preventing further spread of the pandemic had directly impacted on citizens’ mental health in general.

In this period, we found that there was an increase in the number of reported cases of domestic violence.

It has been ascertained that the supporting measures for overcoming the pandemic were insufficient for vulnerable groups and with a sensitive social position.

For your attention, I reiterate that the findings and recommendations addressed throughout this year are continuous efforts that basically have the respect, advancement and protection of human rights. Therefore, in this context, I hope that these findings and recommendations, presented in this report, will receive the deserved authorities’ attention, so that this document can be a guideline for the orientation of state’s operation policies, in accordance with the principle for respect of human rights, equality, the supremacy of the rule of law, transparency, accountability, as democracy values.

I will be decisive in continuing to be critical, but reasonable voice, that through provided solutions exercise a substantial mandate for protection of the rights of citizens in our Republic.