On 31 March, in Gračanica/Graçanicë ECMI Kosovo held a final conference for the project “Diversity is Opportunity: Promoting Tolerance as a Means of Reconciliation and Democratization”, funded by the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo. In this conference, ECMI Kosovo presented the activities that were developed throughout this project as well as the results achieved. Participants had the chance to express their opinions and talk about their experiences during this project. Furthermore, a booklet that contains a photo reportage that participants took was also presented during the conference.

The present report outlines the legislative and institutional measures undertaken by the Government of Kosovo to address issues of ethnic discrimination in the public service, and provide training on inter-ethnic equality. According to a report titled “Legal protection against discrimination in South East Europe”, produced by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in 2016, identifying, reporting, handling and even evidencing discrimination in Kosovo remains very low. Partly connected to local tradition and culture regarding human rights, and as such a weakness in recognizing and registering discrimination at a grassroots level, this report will address the lack of training among civil servants in human rights and anti-discrimination, to understand how discrimination remains concealed at an institutional level.

Please read here full report:

The Manuals for Municipal and School PRTANs were drafted in cooperation with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) within the framework of the joint education programme “Enhancing Access to and Retention in Education for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Children”. The Manuals serve to support the implementation of the Administrative Instruction (AI) 19/2012 which foresees the establishment and functionalization of PRTANs in each municipality and school in Kosovo. The concrete mechanisms and tools entailed in the Manuals help the teams to exercise their role and mandate in prevention, response and treatment of drop-out and non-enrolment in education and thus contribute to the overarching aim to ensure equity in education for all. Finally, the Early Warning System (EWS), the key part of the tools, has been integrated as an additional module within the Education Management Information System (EMIS) at central level. The PRTAN Manuals can be found also on MEST’s website.

Energy crisis in Kosovo and the urgent need to include non-majority communities in the Government’s call for energy efficiency subsidies

According to ECMI Kosova analysis of the data provided by the Government, only 2% of the beneficiaries of the Government’s energy efficiency subsidies belonged to non-majority communities.

Therefore, for a comprehensive financial scheme, the ECMI Kosova invites the Ministry of Economy to allocate funds into the minority quota system and cooperate closely with CSOs representing minority rights to:

– Ensure that the call is disseminated to all citizens, including non-majority communities living in rural areas;

– Ensure all information is provided in the language spoken by non-majority communities;

– Ensure that applicants have the necessary IT support during the application process;

– To transfer the value of the subsidy prior to the purchase of the equipment for the applicants who are beneficiaries of the social assistance scheme.

Please read the full report in English, Albanian and Serbian.

This report presents the key findings of this pilot phase of monitoring the Law on the Use of Languagesthrough the use of indicators, which focused on the work of the Assembly (Article 5). It seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the situation in this area and to identify challenges and potential recommendations to address them, in order to contribute to improving compliance with the Law within the work of the Assembly of Kosovo and ensuring the adequate use of official languages and other community languages in Kosovo.

This guidebook emphasizes the importance and need for evidence-based policy-making and outlines relevant regulations (including the legal procedures regulating Kosovo institutions when contracting companies or engaging external experts to provide data and information) and methodological issues, with a particular focus on community issues. It is intended to be a useful tool for Kosovo government institutions mandated to conduct research and develop policies related to community rights in Kosovo. This guidebook was prepared under the project ‘Supporting Effective Governance for Minority Communities in Kosovo’, funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).