Compensation of crime victims, the country's biggest fault

Between October 2018 and September of this year, from statistics managed by the Office for Protection and Help of Victims, there are 1313 cases represented as victims of domestic violence. According to organisations that protect human rights, compensation for the victims is the country's biggest fault. The same criticises the country's institutions for not having the capacity to prevent cases of violence.

Basri Kastrati, manager of the Office for Protection and Relief of Victims, has told of KosovaPress, how the number of domestic violence victims has been this year compared to the previous year.

“Viti 2018 has had 1620 cases since a preliminary year sometime around 300 more cases. Of this number, a large number are victims of domestic violence. This year Thirteen cases we have represented victims of domestic violence, either with requests for defence warrants or further procedures in the courts and prosecutors from the beginning of the” procedure, Kastrati says.

During 2017 the first victim of crime from the Mitrovica region, initiated by the Bureau for Protection and Help of Victims. In this case, the implementation law on compensation for crime victims has first started.

Kastrati shows the number of compensation cases.

Until last year, there have been 10 cases of compensation, it's a start, but I believe we've also started completing this law due to increasing the number of compensable criminal acts, that up to now in this law there have been only six criminal acts that have been compensated, while others will now be included in the fulfillment of the new law”, Kastrati says.

While the number of cases of domestic violence victims, trafficking, sexual assault, still remains high in Kosovo, Ombudsman Hilmi Jashar says the biggest problem is that of compensation and state responsibility against crime victims.

“Mbi the basis of cases that have occurred in Kosovo, but also those that we have accepted in our institutions that have been treated, have not been done enough, there continue to be systematic problems, and the biggest problems Kosovo faces have to deal with compensation or state responsibility or obligation to crime victims. It is about compensation and rapid procedures that should be legal tools for these parties. That Kosovo for a long time continues with the fluid from this flaw, and very rarely does the victims receive adequate compensation because of irregularities and injustices that have been possible by the authorities themselves, who are called to offer justice”, Jashar claims.

Even the few cases where the state has compensated, Jashar says they are symbolic cases and at the time when they unfortunately ended with fatality.

Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms Chairman Behgjet Shala for Kosova Prees says the state should deal not only with punitives, but also prevent such cases.

The “Ende is missing both experience and professional level is not elevated to just play the preventative role. We mostly all the more mechanisms deal with the consequences than we have a preventative role. I think the police, the courts should have a preemptive role, but in concrete cases both the police and the Prosecutor's Court took on more consequences than they have a preventative role”, Shala says.

He considers punitive severity the best way to prevent such cases.

We still give the victims a moral statistics, rather than making up for the suffering they've experienced materially. It is the goal to increase the percentage of those who are compensated for as victims of crime. I think however there is a date to be marked, it is not a date that simply deserves to weave elozes and other praise”, Shala adds.

Otherwise, during today with the motto “Justice restores the dignity of victims”, the 10th annual Crime Victims Rights Week has been marked. While the punishment of the perpetrators has been sought, foreign embassies in Kosovo have sought to protect the victims.

According to the Office for Protection and Relief of Victims, in October 2018-September 2019, there are 1126 cases of domestic violence, 27 human trafficking, 9 murders, and 42 sexual abuses of persons under the age of 16.