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Why recruit from the communities?

When ECMI Kosovo began developing this approach in the early 2010s, it was difficult to find lawyers from some of the communities facing the greatest barriers to legal help. The team recruited people already trusted in their communities, including young activists. It trained and coached them in rights, procedures and the responsibilities of public institutions, and gave them ongoing technical support.

People could raise a concern in a language they used every day. Paralegals helped them understand their options, make referrals and follow up with the responsible institution. As our eyes and ears in the field, they also brought recurring problems back to ECMI Kosovo so the organisation could address them with communities and institutions.

How the model developed

ECMI Kosovo’s early team developed the approach deliberately. Executive Director Adrian Zeqiri recalls working on its design with project manager Lars Burema and other colleagues.

The work grew out of ECMI Kosovo’s early legal-empowerment work. The first documented rollout began in 2014 with support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. Eight women activists from four municipalities received training and support to help women and girls reach services and legal assistance. ECMI Kosovo adapted an international community-paralegal approach to Kosovo and documented the method in its 2016 guidebook.

Under ERAC, 17 community paralegals helped residents understand procedures and reach public bodies or professional legal assistance. Under HumanRightivism, the network grew from five to twelve between 2020 and 2023. Paralegals also helped bring livelihood support within reach of families who were otherwise difficult to contact.

From individual cases to wider change

In Prizren, an ERAC paralegal worked with a family, school staff and ECMI Kosovo to help a child return to school after harassment. The school also agreed to activate its dropout prevention and response team. In Ferizaj, HumanRightivism paralegal follow-up helped bring a neighbourhood’s prolonged water outage to the responsible municipal bodies and maintenance company.

Working on cases also gave local activists experience dealing with public institutions. Gazmen Salijević worked as an ERAC community paralegal in Gračanica and went on to chair the Consultative Council for Communities. His path illustrates how people with experience supporting their communities can also contribute inside public institutions.

Guides and handbooks

Further reading