Pristina, December 29, 2023 – The Ombudsperson has published a Ex-officio Report with Recommendations no. 479/2022 regarding the assessment of accessibility for persons with disabilities based on Administrative Instruction no. 33/2007 on the Technical Conditions of Building Facilities for the Access of Persons with Disabilities in the municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo.

Out of the 38 municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo, to which the Ombudsperson has sent a request to complete the questionnaire, 21 municipalities have sent answers, while 17 municipalities have not responded to the Ombudsperson’s request.

Based on the information that the 21 municipalities have sent, the average percentage of criteria fulfilled by all municipalities together is 41%. Meanwhile, the 17 municipalities that did not respond to the Ombudsperson’s requests were not included in the calculation of the average percentage of fulfilled criteria.

The Ombudsperson with this report emphasizes that the municipalities have exclusive and full competence to undertake actions in order to remove all obstacles that prevent access to facilities and public spaces for persons with disabilities. These powers are also defined in Law no. 04/L-110 on Construction, in which the legal framework is defined, which regulates the issuance of construction permits, compliance with the requirements of the construction permit and the issuance of the certificate of use within the territory of Republic of Kosovo.

The Ombudsperson addressed recommendations to the municipalities that do not meet the legal criteria regarding the access of persons with disabilities to public spaces and buildings to take measures to meet the legal criteria.

A recommendation has been addressed to the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, to issue new administrative instructions for the technical conditions of construction facilities for the access of persons with disabilities in the municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo, in accordance with the Law no. 04/L-110 for Construction.

Read full report -> https://bit.ly/48wBahW

Recommendations have also been addressed to the municipalities that have not responded to the Ombudsperson’s requests, including the reminder that failure to respond to the Ombudsperson’s requests constitutes a violation of Article 132, paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo and Article 25 of Law No. 05 /L-019 for the Ombudsperson.