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The twenty seats guaranteed to communities in the Assembly of Kosovo are only as useful as the capacity behind them. Members representing the Serb, Turkish, Bosniak, Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian and Gorani communities sit on committees, draft amendments and speak on laws of vital interest with little specialist support. In 2022 and 2023, with UNMIK’s support, ECMI Kosovo provided that support to the Multi-Ethnic Parliamentary Group and other non-majority members.

Expert advice inside the legislative process

ECMI recruited local experts — four in 2022 and seven in the January–February 2023 phase — who prepared legal background notes, desk research, position papers and speech notes on the legislative topics the members chose, and advised on their participation in Assembly committees. The arrangement was agreed in meetings with the committee chair and deputies before it began, so that the advice answered the members’ own agenda. Members of the group and two other non-Serb non-majority deputies received support during their four-year term.

Workshops on the framework and on public employment

Three one-day workshops in March and May 2022 introduced the constitutional framework on community rights and the members’ roles and responsibilities in the Assembly. In early 2023 a two-day workshop on the employment of community members in public institutions examined the legal quota, the statistics and the barriers, and asked what the Assembly could do to make the quota real; members identified political will, the pool of qualified candidates, monitoring and resistance within the majority as the four problems to address.

A further workshop connected the members with the community-based paralegals of ECMI’s HumanRightivism programme, so that rights violations identified on the ground could reach the deputies who could raise them.

A reference the members keep

ECMI compiled a list of all publications setting out the constitutional and legal provisions for non-majority communities, and in 2023 produced a report on the institutional set-up for non-majority communities in Kosovo — the responsible institutions at central, municipal and independent level, their mandates and how they connect, with the provisions on discrimination and gender — for the members’ daily use.

Programme support

Technical Support to the Multi-Ethnic Parliamentary Group in the Assembly of Kosovo, 2022 and January–February 2023, supported by UNMIK (Office for Community Support). Implemented by ECMI Kosovo. The project was non-political in purpose and content; ECMI Kosovo’s independence was explained to all parties at the outset.

Publications and practical resources

Related publications