Prishtina, December 24, 2024 – At the annual media conference, the Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj, presented the achievements and challenges of the work during 2024.

The Ombudsperson Qelaj emphasized that 2024 has been one of the most successful years in terms of handling citizens’ complaints about their allegations of human rights violations. He said that the case management data center has progressed by achieving modern digitalization, as an aid to the work process and for quality archiving.

The Ombudsperson mentioned some of the challenges that the Institution has faced, such as the decline in the response from public authorities to the Ombudsperson’s questions. He also stressed that the vote against the 2022 report in the Kosovo Assembly has been considered a violation of the independence of the work of the Ombudsperson’s Institution.

Mr. Qelaj stressed that there is also a decline in the implementation of the Ombudsperson’s recommendations by public institutions – a barometer that shows how much human rights are being respected in the country.

During this year, the Ombudsperson’s Institution (OI) has received 1,349 complaints, with a total of 4,469 citizens involved in these complaints. Of this number of complaints, 532 cases have been opened for investigation, while 36 cases have been opened ex officio. The OI has launched investigations in 7 cases based on media reports.

Citizens mostly complained about the right to a fair and impartial trial (171 cases), then the right to legal remedies (145), 70 complaints were made regarding the right to work and exercise of a profession, health and social protection with 67 cases investigated, as well as 47 cases investigated for complaints regarding the right to equality before the law.

The responsible authorities to which the complaints were addressed (a complaint may have more than one responsible party) are: Ministries/administrations with 440 cases, Courts with 419 cases, Municipalities with 210 cases, Kosovo Police with 89 cases and others.

The total number of cases closed by the OI during 2024 (including cases registered earlier and closed during this year) is 874. Of this figure, 307 were resolved positively, 190 cases were inadmissible because no violation or maladministration was found, 56 cases were inadmissible because the cases were in the use of legal remedies, 241 cases were closed with a report, 39 inadmissible, non-use of legal remedies; 33 cases were closed due to the complainant’s lack of interest, failure of the party; and 8 other cases were inadmissible because the cases were outside the jurisdiction.

For 2024, the Ombudsperson issued 172 recommendations, of which only 17 percent were implemented by public institutions; unimplemented recommendations are 8 percent; Partially implemented recommendations are 4 percent, while 71 percent of recommendations remain pending implementation.