Tag Archives: Kosovo

Latest Newsletter of the Human Rights Review Panel

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HRRPThe Human Rights Review Panel (HRRP) has issued its ninth newsletter. The newsletter comprises a detailed analysis of the Panel’s decisions over the last two months.

The newsletter also highlights the visit of students from the Law Faculty of the University of Essex. The Panel was given the opportunity to brief students on its mandate, work and case-load.

An outreach campaign was also recently organized by meeting with the Coordinator of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija in northern Mitrovica on 26 June 2014 to brief on the activities of the Panel and, inter alia, in furtherance of the public outreach campaign in the northern Mitrovica region.

The HRRP’s mandate is to review alleged human rights violations by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) in

the conduct of its executive mandate. The Panel will look into whether a violation of human rights occurred or not and formulate recommendations for remedial action.

Last Newsletter of the Human Rights Review Panel

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HRRPThe Human Rights Review Panel (HRRP) has issued its eighth newsletter. The newsletter comprises a detailed analysis of the Panel’s decisions over the last two months.

The newsletter also highlights the Panel’s visit to the Law Faculty of the AAB University of Pristina where the Panel was given the opportunity to brief students on its mandate, work and case-load.

An outreach campaign was also recently organized by meeting with the Mayor of Pristina as well as with the Director of the Kosovo Police and the Director of the European Centre for Minority Issues in Kosovo.

The HRRP’s mandate is to review alleged human rights violations by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) in the conduct of its executive mandate. The Panel will look into whether a violation of human rights occurred or not and formulate recommendations for remedial action.

iLawyer Dr. Guénaël Mettraux is a member of the Panel.

Kosovo Parliament Approves Creation of Special Court

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Members of parliament take the oath during its first session in Pristina

Kosovo Parliament

Yesterday, the Kosovo parliament approved the creation of an EU-backed special court for serious abuses committed during and after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war. Parliament approved the special court by a vote of 82 to 22, with 2 abstentions.

The special court will adjudicate cases against individuals based on a 2010 report by Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty. The report accused some members of the ethnic Albanian insurgency, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), of abductions, beatings, summary executions, and in some cases, the forced removal of human organs on Albanian territory during and after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war. The report named some individuals currently in the Kosovo government, including Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.

Thaci, who was the political chief of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, has rejected the allegations as an attempt to tarnish KLA’s reputation.

The Marty report said most of the alleged crimes occurred after June 1999, when NATO’s bombing campaign forced Belgrade to end the war and withdraw Serb forces from Kosovo.

The special court will operate within the Kosovo justice system but, prosecutors and judges will be international. It will have one seat in Kosovo and another abroad, possibly in the Netherlands, which will deal with protected witnesses.

An estimated 10,000 people died during the 1998-99 war, the great majority of them being ethnic Albanians. About 1,700 people are still missing.

Report of the Human Rights Advisory Panel

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HRAP

The Human Rights Advisory Panel rendered its annual report for 2013. The Panel issued a number of important opinions in the past year, deciding whether and to what extent facts alleged by the complainants had led to different violations of human rights by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

Those opinions particularly deserving of attention came from cases involving allegations of a lack of an adequate police investigation in connection with abductions, disappearances, and killings related to procedural obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as allegations of violations of Article 3 of the Convention against victims and close relatives. The importance of the right to truth has also been recognized by the Panel.

In these opinions, as well as in other cases, the Panel has continued to elaborate its own jurisprudence, taking into consideration the international human rights standards expressed in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and other international bodies, including, in particular, the UN Human Rights Committee. Continue reading →