Research shows which Kosovo court has best performance

These findings have revealed research to “Transparency and efficiency of Kosovo's basic courts”, according to lawyers and residents, researching these designed and undertaken by Democracy Plus.

According to this research, the lower-profile court was the Constitutional Court of Mitrovica, ranked lower even in other categories such as access to information, efficiency and impartiality, while Prizren's was the worst in the mito's prevalence category.

Roberta Osmani from Democracy Plus, who introduced the findings of this research, said the court with the lowest exercise turns out to be Mitrovica's.

“Political influence is the main cause of corruption in the judiciary, except in Prizren, where responses are largely focused on the influence of lawyers. As for bribery, the participants who have claimed a bribe have been asked is 4.5 percent, while those who have bribed are 2,61 percent”, she said.

Meanwhile, the report points out that the Gjakova Foundation and Pec Court have ranked first in the frequency of corruption.

Brian Martalus, from Mission USAID in Kosovo said citizens seek transparent and accountable judiciary.

The citizens seek effective and transparent judiciary that gives hope to citizens. USAID continues to be partner with the Kosovo Judiciary Council and courts in order to empower the judiciary. We are witnessing infrastructure improvements and the increase of judges per capita. This year it is time to see that this has paid off, so to see better management of courts. Courts must provide quality services to all citizens, resolve the contexts over time, and treat citizens equally. These are the standards you need to aspire to”, he said.

According to him, the number of old files that still remains very large is an indication that more work is needed.

While the leader of the Justice System Strengthening Program, Andrew Boname expressed the importance of measuring citizens' pleasure with courts, and said research should be done every year.

“Encourages courts to be more efficient and this to be viewed by citizens. Application of policies and practices that increase the satisfaction of court users will boost confidence and respect for Kosovo judiciary institutions. It has been bad news that only a few court users have used internet sites, though it is good news because larger campaigns for raising awareness” must be launched, he said.

The programme's leader expressed satisfaction that on the basis of the survey results, some courts have already begun better practices, while adding that based on this, better results are expected in the future.

Gjilan Foundation Court Chairman Ramiz Azazi said this report will serve as a reminder that in the future they will be more careful and flexible in the area of court management.

I have encouraged lawyers who allegedly took bribes to report to me, and the only address is the head of the Court, that these negative phenomena are represented by the report we fight. We will try to make statistics and the situation in the coming year the most improved”, Asia said.

This research is designed and undertaken by Democracy Plus to gather citizens' views of the performance of seven basic Kosovo courts, made for the needs of the U programme.AID to empower the justice system.