Enhancing the protection of minority rights in Kosovo
Protecting the rights of minorities has been a priority for the OSCE Mission in Kosovo since it was set up in 1999. In March this year, however, it stepped up its focus on minority issues with a more robust hands-on approach.
The Mission has begun using a "rights-based" approach, which means that each problem minority groups might face will first be reviewed from the standpoint of international and domestic standards and applicable legislation. When these have been breached, the Mission will intervene with the authorities.
A new chapter
"We are marking a new chapter in the Mission's history," says Oliver Schmidt-Gutzat, who heads the Mission's Communities Division. "We will not be the advocates of minority communities, as we are not the advocates of the majority, but we will promote minority rights," he adds.
This was the case with Kosovo's Gorani community and their right to education. Since the authorities have not yet developed school curricula in Serbian, as required by law, the Mission insisted that Gorani children be allowed to continue their education using curricula and textbooks developed by the Serbian Ministry of Education - an idea that Kosovo authorities initially opposed.
"Any other ruling at this point would violate their right to education," says Schmidt-Gutzat.
Sharpening the focus
The increased focus on minority rights also required changing the structure of the Mission's field work.
"So far we have had 'municipal teams' monitoring developments in all municipalities and pilot municipal units," says Erik Tintrup, Director of the Mission's Monitoring Department. "Now we will also have 'communities teams' in each of our five regional centres: Gjilan/Gnjilane, Mitrovice/Mitrovica, Peja/Pec, Prishtine/Pristina and Prizren."
The communities teams will work closely with communities and local authorities specifically on minority issues, while the municipal teams will continue to monitor the compliance of municipalities with legislation, and general human rights and good governance standards.
"In some cases, we will also have to explain to communities that they might not be entitled to certain things," says Schmidt-Gutzat. He cites the request to introduce Turkish as a third official language Kosovo-wide - in addition to Albanian and Serbian - as an example.
"There was no legal basis to support such a request Kosovo-wide," he says, "but based on standards and best practices in the region, we backed a request to introduce Turkish as an official language in Kosovo's Prizren Municipality, which was a success."
The Turkish community makes up some five per cent of Prizren's population, but only about one and a half per cent of Kosovo's estimated population on the whole.
Finding durable solutions
The communities teams will monitor and report on any violations of minority rights by local authorities. They will also work with all sides to find durable solutions to protect these rights in the future.
"Our approach brings together minority rights monitoring and conflict resolution," says Johan Axander, Communities Protection Adviser at the Mission. The new teams will advise and make recommendations for early corrective action, mediation and conflict resolution, as well as for developing policies sensitive to regional needs.
"If no domestic or international minority standards are applicable in a specific case, the Mission will develop legal positions based on general human rights standards," says Schmidt-Gutzat. "We'll then advocate solutions that can satisfy both the majority and minority groups."
Setting priorities
An in-house training programme has been developed to enhance the communities teams' understanding of minority rights. "The training will also make it clear for them what kind of issues they should be on the lookout for," says Axander.
Their area of responsibility includes eight points:
- security and freedom of movement,
- equal access to services and remedies,
- return and reintegration policies,
- effective participation in public affairs,
- use of languages,
- access to education,
- religious freedoms and cultural heritage, and
- promotion of tolerance and inter-community dialogue.
"The communities teams will not be passive observers," says Schmidt-Gutzat. "They will promote dialogue, sound the alarm when ethnic tensions begin to flare, and intervene to help promote and protect minority rights and resolve conflicts."