Human rights

Hilmi Jashari, Ombudsperson, speaking about the role of Youth in promoting human rights in Kosovo in the first session of the OSCE’s Youth Academy, Prishtinë/Priština, 24 September 2019. (Sehida Miftari)

The Mission works to advance human and community rights through their monitoring, protection, and promotion. It supports Kosovo institutions in complying with domestic legislation and international legal instruments. Community rights include, among others, language rights, access to education, support for returnees and repatriated persons, communities’ participation in decision-making processes, property and housing rights of vulnerable groups (e.g. displaced persons), access to justice, religious and cultural heritage protection, as well as communities’ security issues.

In addition, the Mission works on gender equality and domestic violence prevention within communities as a cross-cutting issue.

In practice, work on human and community rights includes legislative and policy review and analysis, support to the development of new policies and legislation, monitoring the work of executive, judicial, legislative, and law enforcement institutions related to human rights compliance. It focuses particularly on promoting appropriate police responses to cases of hate crimes and public gatherings. . Furthermore, the Mission provides training to staff working in public institutions and civil society organizations, and engages in outreach initiatives and human rights advocacy. It also works with public safety mechanisms – the Local Public Safety Committees (LPSC) and Municipal Safety Councils (MCSC) - to sensitise them to the need to contribute more to the safety of their localities, and to gender equality and youth inclusion in various processes.

A strong commitment to protecting and advancing the economic, social, and cultural rights of the most vulnerable groups within communities is key to the Mission’s work.