Pristina, December 26, 2023 – At an annual media conference, Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj presented the preliminary statistics for the year 2023 of the Ombudsperson’s Institution.

During this year, the Ombudsperson’s Institution (OI) received 1,571 complaints, with a total of 4,152 citizens involved in these complaints. Of this number of complaints, 608 were opened for investigation, while 38 cases were opened ex officio. OI has launched investigations in 12 cases based on media reports.

Citizens mostly complained about the right to work and exercise the profession (226 cases), the right to a fair and impartial trial (195 cases), the right to legal remedies (118), equality before the law with 83 cases and others.

The responsible authorities to which complaints are directed (a complaint may have more than one responsible party) are: Courts with 451 cases, Ministries with 429 cases, Municipalities with 210 cases, State Prosecutor’s Offices with 69 cases, Kosovo Police with 53 cases etc.

The total number of cases closed by OI during 2023 (including cases registered earlier and closed during this year) is 541 closed cases. Out of this number, 210 were solved positively, 140 cases were inadmissible because no violation or misadministration was found, 63 cases were inadmissible because the cases were in use of legal remedies, 59 cases were closed with a report, 29 inadmissible, because of non-use of legal remedies; 25 cases were closed due to lack of interest of the complainant, failure of the party; and 11 other cases were inadmissible because the cases were out of jurisdiction.

For 2023, the Ombudsperson issued 230 recommendations, of which only 40 recommendations were implemented by the responsible authorities or 17.4 percent. Partially implemented recommendations are 3 percent, while 80 percent of recommendations remain pending implementation.

The Ombudsperson presented some of the reports with recommendations according to the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, such as the rights of children, rights in education, the rights of persons with disabilities, the rights of elderly persons, delay of judicial procedures and others.