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ERAC brought community organisations, legal expertise and research together to challenge discrimination and improve access to rights. ECMI Kosovo led the European Union-funded project in 2015–2019; the coalition was launched in Prishtina on 11 May 2016. Its work joined local case assistance with research on the barriers facing minority communities, women, young people and LGBTI persons.
Seven partners, shared work
The seven founding organisations were ECMI Kosovo, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights Kosovo (YIHR), the Kosovar Gender Studies Center (KGSC), the Center for Equality and Liberty (CEL), Kosovo 2.0 through Kosovo Glocal, the Center for Legal Aid and Regional Development (CLARD), and the Center for Social Group Development (CSGD). Grassroots associate organisations connected the coalition with different communities and localities.
Partners helped choose research issues, divide delivery responsibilities and review work together. Each organisation brought its specialist knowledge and local relationships, while ECMI Kosovo coordinated the programme, supported delivery and brought the different strands into a shared institutional dialogue.
Community paralegals and local concerns
Seventeen community paralegals were engaged from September 2016. Through contact with the communities they served, they identified rights concerns, explained available procedures and raised cases with the relevant public bodies. The coalition’s specialist organisations advised on further steps and referrals where professional legal assistance was needed.
Building the network required sustained work in communities. ECMI’s team visited paralegals in the field, met municipal officials and helped work through residents’ concerns. Case discussions with the Labour Inspectorate, Consultative Council for Communities and Ombudsperson gave paralegals direct contact with the institutions responsible for responding. Kosovo 2.0’s profile of a paralegal’s work in Gračanica describes this local assistance.
At Mati Logorec school in Prizren, ERAC paralegal Muhamed Elshani worked with a family, school staff and ECMI Kosovo to help a child return to school after harassment. The school also decided to make its dropout prevention and response team functional, connecting an individual case with a wider school safeguard.
In another case, an ERAC paralegal helped a family obtain municipal rent support from March to December 2017. The municipality and the NGO VoRAE also arranged support towards longer-term housing: VoRAE offered to cover building-material costs on condition that the municipality funded construction labour. The paralegal connected the family with these sources of support.
Research with distinct partner contributions
ECMI’s research addressed citizenship and civil documentation in The People in Between, published in April 2018, and language access through the 2018 papers on linguistic quality in legislation and municipal language proficiency. Work in 2019 examined the Consultative Council for Communities and informal waste collection and recycling. These studies linked legal and institutional questions with people’s experience of services, participation and livelihoods. Enhancing Inclusive Education for All in Kosovo examined the practical functioning of school and municipal dropout-prevention teams, connecting field experience with recommendations on educational inclusion.
KGSC led research on women’s participation, corporate-board gender quotas and police responses to gender-based violence. Its Women’s Participation in Decision-making in Kosovo was published in January 2017 through ERAC. YIHR led youth research, while CEL and CSGD led research on LGBTI rights. The coalition brought these contributions together while preserving each partner’s authorship.
KGSC’s 2018 study of gender training examined whether training was reflected in officials’ participation in policymaking. It called for formal cooperation between the Agency for Gender Equality and the Kosovo Institute for Public Administration (KIPA), and more systematic training arrangements. The findings were presented to the institutions; KIPA’s training director expressed a commitment to strengthen this work.
Advocacy and institutional cooperation
Research presentations put findings into discussion with the bodies responsible. In July 2019, ECMI presented its informal-waste study with representatives of the environment ministry, Kosovo Landfill Management Company and the regional waste company Pastrimi. Billboard campaigns carried human-rights messages in Albanian and Serbian into public spaces.
On 31 May 2018, coalition partners and paralegals worked with the Ombudsperson Institution on human-rights protections, regional offices and complaint routes. Workshops with USAID Justice Matters and the Free Legal Aid Agency on 19–20 February and 18 June 2019 covered eligibility for legal aid, First Response Hubs and referrals.
Referral training used simulated cases to practise connecting people with the Free Legal Aid Agency. In March 2019, Serb and Bosniak women in Gorazhdec/Goraždevac met representatives of the Agency, the Victims Protection Agency and an ERAC paralegal to discuss barriers to justice and available legal services.
The coalition also connected rights assistance with employment services. In November 2018, ECMI worked with the International Labour Organization and the Regional Labour Office on a workshop for coalition members, legal assistants and municipal community offices. They discussed measures to address employment barriers for Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian young people.
CSGD held five workshops for Kosovo Police in 2019 on LGBTI rights and protection from discrimination. CEL and CSGD also worked with legal experts to analyse the legal framework and prepare a draft law proposal on legal gender recognition. The draft remained a proposal at the close of the project.
Partners also exchanged experience with rights organisations through study visits to Belgrade in 2017, Podgorica in 2018 and Tirana in 2019. The visits provided opportunities to compare approaches to rights protection, legal assistance and cooperation.
Learning through work in rights organisations
ERAC placed eighteen interns with five coalition organisations to support research and other project activities. Five were subsequently hired by the organisations where they had been placed. The placements connected research and rights work with practical experience in civil society.
Resources for rights assistance
The October 2019 Handbook for Paralegals explains the responsibilities and contact routes of institutions working with vulnerable and marginalised groups. It remains available through its publication record, alongside the coalition’s research. Our HumanRightivism account describes the later development of ECMI’s community-based rights assistance.
