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ECMI Kosovo works with community paralegals, rights activists and civil-society organisations to help people understand a rights problem and reach the body able to respond. HumanRightivism strengthened this approach through local contact, legal knowledge and follow-up with public bodies.
ECMI’s 2020–2023 HumanRightivism work was funded by Sweden through the Community Development Fund, which managed the programme. It combined rights awareness, assistance to communities and engagement with the institutions responsible for responding.
Local contact and case follow-up
Our community-paralegal contacts include Peja/Peć, Gjakova/Đakovica, Ferizaj/Uroševac and Ranillug/Ranilug. People can raise a concern through someone who knows their community and language. That relationship helps uncover problems that may never reach a formal complaint.
In 2020, five ECMI paralegals identified 91 rights cases across fourteen municipalities. The concerns included returnees’ rights, language access, civil registration and discrimination based on ethnicity.
ECMI reviewed the concerns raised, helped identify the relevant procedure and, where needed, directed cases to human-rights mechanisms. Paralegals remained in contact with the people affected and followed the response. Language, property and discrimination cases could require cooperation between several public bodies.
In May 2022, a paralegal helped complete a late birth registration for an Ashkali child. Working with municipal community officials, the paralegal identified the fee exemption and helped the family assemble the required documents.
ECMI and its paralegals also supported the Roma community’s longstanding request for Romani to become a language in official use in Prizren. The Municipal Assembly adopted that status on 31 October 2022, connecting sustained community advocacy with a formal municipal decision.
Helping pupils enter school and apply for support
In October 2022, six Ashkali pupils in Ferizaj were registered in secondary school after a community paralegal and ECMI raised the barriers to their admission with the Municipal Directorate of Education. Their intervention referred officials to the applicable admission instruction.
In November 2023, pupils from Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities faced scholarship-application barriers because they were missing ethnic-affiliation documents. ECMI and its paralegals took the problem to municipal authorities and the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation. On 22 November, ECMI announced that the Ministry had accepted its request and reopened applications until 29 November, giving pupils another opportunity to complete them. CDF’s account of the scholarship advocacy describes this work.
In August and September 2023, an ECMI paralegal worked with young people and civil-society volunteers in Prizren to help Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian families apply for textbook support through e-Kosova. They explained the process and helped complete online forms where digital access or skills were a barrier.
Community representation in census recruitment
In autumn 2023, reports from paralegals prompted ECMI to raise concerns about non-majority representation among census staff. Its public statement called on the Kosovo Agency of Statistics and other responsible bodies to include these communities when selecting coordinators, monitors, supervisors and enumerators.
Getting a response to a water-supply problem
Residents of Ferizaj’s Sallahe neighbourhood, home to Roma and Ashkali communities, had been without water for six months because of a damaged main valve. They had reported the fault to the maintenance company without securing a repair.
The paralegal brought the concern to the Community Committee and the Municipal Office for Communities and Return. Municipal representatives visited and documented the problem. The maintenance company then repaired the valve in October 2022. Local contact, municipal follow-up and the company’s intervention together restored the service.
Support during the pandemic
During 2020, paralegals also helped communities deal with the disruption caused by COVID-19. They supported online education in Bosnian and Romani, helped people complete forms for emergency assistance and made face masks for free distribution. This contact kept immediate needs visible while ordinary access to services was restricted.
Handbooks for community-based rights work
HumanRightivism produced handbooks on fair-trial rights in criminal proceedings, human-rights institutions and the legislative framework for minority communities. They give paralegals, activists and organisations reference material for understanding the responsibilities, procedures and legal protections relevant to their work.
The 2022 Legal Handbook on Institutions that Work on Human Rights explains responsibilities and routes for raising concerns with central, municipal and independent bodies. The Legal Handbook on Legislative Framework on Minority Communities covers community rights, local self-government, language, education, protection from discrimination and gender equality.
The Handbook on Fair Trial Rights in Criminal Proceedings covers the pre-trial, trial and appeal stages. Its publication record explains how to request the full handbook. The earlier ERAC handbook for paralegals remains a related resource from ECMI’s wider rights-assistance work.