The decision of the Parliament’s Commission for Legislation not to proceed with a law proposal until further clarification on the fact that the proposal and in particular the Parliament’s logo were written in the Cyrillic alphabet reopened a longstanding discussion on the official use of language and their alphabets.

This update to ECMI Kosovo’s Kosovo Communities Issues Monitor situates this disagreement within the longstanding but unresolved discussion on the use of the Cyrillic alphabet in official use in Kosovo. It urges Kosovo’s political representatives and institutions to solve this legal ambiguity through a serene and inclusive dialogue. In addition, the update also uses this occasion to address the poor implementation of Kosovo language legislation in general.

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In July the new human rights package came into effect. In this political analysis, we provide an overview of the laws and the challenges that need to be considered by the Kosovo institutions on how to improve the enjoyment of the fundamental rights and freedoms for all the community members.

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During the past ten days, there has been an upsurge in incidents involving Serb communities in the Pejë/Peć and Klinë/Klina area. These incidents come on the heels of a series of incidents in Klinë/Klina this past May, where Kosovo Serb returnees were victims of robberies and verbal abuses. This newest contribution to ECMI Kosovo’s Kosovo Communities Issues Monitor argues that this series of attacks, while still being under investigation, speaks of an emerging trend of incidents directed at the Serb community in the area, which cannot be discarded as merely isolated cases. This pattern of incidents calls for adequate security measures and engagement from all sides of the political spectrum, including representatives of the majority community.

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During the past weeks, the Serb community in and outside Kosovo has marked the holiday of Vidovdan with cultural events and religious services throughout Kosovo. On Sunday 28 June, the annual celebrations surrounding Vidovdan concluded with a memorial service at Gazimestan. No incidents were reported either by police or by media. This is a highly significant step towards normalisation of ethnic relations in Kosovo, even in relation to politically charged commemorations such as Vidovdan. The latest update to our Kosovo Community Issues Monitor analyses the factors that contributed to this positive development.

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The ECMI Kosovo Guidebook on Social Mobilization targets civil society organisations, and individuals, interested in enhancing their skills, techniques and methods for community mobilization in Northern Kosovo.

This user-friendly guide consists of presentations, instructions and recommendations used throughout the implementation of three capacity building modules with participation from twenty civil society organization active in Northern Kosovo.

The Guidebook on Social Mobilization is published within the framework of the project “Community Mobilization – Capacity Building Program for CSOs in the North of Kosovo”, supported by the European Office in Kosovo and implemented by ECMI Kosovo in partnership with NGO Aktiv.

On 6 May, the Gorani community traditionally gathers on the hills and in the villages of the Gora region to celebrate the beginning of spring. This day is considered the national holiday of the Gorani and has been recognised as a memorial day by Kosovo Law.

Ahead of the memorial day, a delegation of the Gora Community Network was received for a brief meeting with PM Isa Mustafa. Besides a representative of the Consultative Council for Communities within the Office of the President, however, no official representative of the Kosovo government or the local municipality of Dragash/Dragaš attended the 6 May festivities. This is a missed opportunity for the Kosovo institutions, as it would have been a strong symbolic gesture that the government is actually concerned about the difficult position of the Gorani community in Kosovo.

A noted guest at the festivities was Serbian Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who opened two employment offices in the area. Vulin’s visit symbolizes the continuing efforts of the Serbian Government to maintain strong links with the Gorani community. Serb politicians have repeatedly propagated the establishment of the current parallel Municipality of Gora within the Kosovo system as well as its subsequent inclusion in the Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities. Many members of the Gorani community support this move, as it would guarantee the continued functioning of Serbian institutions while allowing them to enter into more direct cooperation with the central Kosovo institutions.

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