Courts most frequently violate human rights

The ombudsman, Hilmi Jashar, in an interview for Radio Free Europe, said the biggest human rights violator is the courts.

He said most citizens turn to the judicial system to seek justice, because it is the last and final mechanism, which issues a verdict regarding a certain right. Currently in Kosovo, number of subjects in prosecution It's said to be about 200 grand.As long as the length of the court cases passes the minimum 5-year term, which is against any standard and the courts themselves, Jashar says, have confirmed the problem.

Radio Free Europe: Mr. Jashari, how do you describe the current human rights situation in Kosovo, given complaints and cases you prosecute?

Hilmi Yasar: The human rights situation in the country, based on complaints we accept, is not good or not satisfactory, for I would call the fact that systematic problems are identified on the three pillars of the state, beginning with the legislative, executive, and judicial systemic consequences.

If we talk about the legislative system, it is evident that the legislative system has been faced with frequent amendments of laws that always exceed the 50 percent degree of laws within a calendar year, which is absolutely not acceptable to build a stable and secure judicial system, and that aims to have precise and precise laws and that abide by time.

Second, this country has failed to harmonise all legislation that is in force because there has never been a process of encoding of law or a summary of the laws of a relevant field with a single legal document that is published and ready for all in the official newspaper. Parts of the legislation are distributed on the pages of the official newspaper, laws mainly, while regulations are published on the prime minister's website.

The part of administrative guidelines is usually published on the pages of ministries and is a fully fragmented process of the legal system. This makes it impossible then for judges or law enforcement to observe the standards required by them, but there is a frequent change of law that cannot afford to have a consensus on law enforcement and makes a situation uncertain for anyone who applies the law.

But above all, it gives law enforcement the opportunity to have a kind of great disrepute in establishing issues that often change laws, and this completely affects the perception created by public opinion. Lack of Faith in the Judicial System Or administrative for the fact that the laws fail to be implemented properly, while the Kosovo Assembly fails to have a strong parliamentary control of the executive to keep them responsible and accountable in terms of implementing legislation.

Although this has never worked out comes to the inability to make decisions, to draw conclusions or eventually question the sustainability of a relevant ministry or even the individual leading that ministry, due to the lack of results in law enforcement.

A citizen passing by the ombudsman's office

Radio Free Europe: What are the most frequent complaints of citizens to you?

Hilmi Yasar: The most frequent incidents that are directed at us if we talk about the responsible parties refer to the judicial system, and the executive level of municipal and central governance, and the figure is 50 percent. All the time, there's been a kind of trend that has represented citizens' complaints, as long as we talk about the nature and demand of economic and social areas.

Radio Free Europe: Consequently, the complaints and cases that are handled, who or which institutions turn out to be the biggest human rights offenders?

Hilmi Yasar: On the basis of these information, the report we have published so far, is primarily the court, the chief violator for fair judgment for a certain deadline, human rights violations this and second administration institutions due to administrative silence, when it is applied on the part of citizens for a request that may be in the interest of realisation whether before municipalities or before central institutions. These two are leading in our list of institutions considered on the basis of the violations we have filed and the recommendation we have addressed for these institutions.

Radio Free Europe: Given the European Commission's progress reports, but also the reports of civil society in Kosovo, the justice system is consistently presented as slow and inefficient. What effect does this fact have on human rights?

Hilmi Yasar: The majority of citizens turn to the judicial system to seek justice, because it is the last and final mechanism that issues a verdict regarding a certain right. But if this system has problems with what I've said earlier in the big procrastination of the settlement procedures, then it actually constitutes a second-time human rights violation, and what's worse, the state has not yet managed to organize the system to compensate citizens for that right, other words to compensate because the state has failed to organize the system in order to be efficient and effective as guaranteed by the constitution and as required by the European Convention.

The second, Kosovo is also the only country in the Balkans considered a black hole, figuratively speaking, in the Balkans, as we are unable to take advantage of any international legal mechanism, normally a large part because of political reasons, while the second due to the non-membership of international organisations that oversee human rights as if it is the European Convention and the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Radio Free Europe: Long ago you were sent The Law on Rewards The Constitutional Court. What was the problem with this Law, taking into account the proceedings you made for Constitutional?

Hilmi Yasar: First, we have accepted a considerable number of complaints from organisms, institutional troops, different trade unions where the total number has been around 35, for this law, that have raised concerns about the uneven treatment compared to the other pillar of power or even the same work done with another power pillar institution.

This has been the first concern, while the other is a package of laws that he has in his mind even carried the law for public officials, which was adopted long ago and for which we had remarks and for which the court adopted a temporary measure.

Concerns have been about The problem of discrimination or equal treatment, which has been the main goal at least was said in public procedures of law sponsors, which this law intends to regulate at the same price and provide a unifying system for the entire country.

This has failed to take place, and if we look at the law, we note that Kosovo's Assembly and the entire administration is excluded from the legal regulation of this law, and they have a special status compared to the same work other institutions do. The difference somewhere in a certain case is worth about 500 euros, which is a huge difference at the country level.

Then in different sectors in the executive sector, there are also offices that have received a special status and are mentioned in a way that has not been principally regulated as thought.

For example, there are some directors under the prime minister, some other directors in the Public Administration Finance Ministry who have a special status compared to other positions held in other ministries or who perform the same tasks, and make up a difference that is legally inexplicable and why this has happened and what has been the goal of making such an exception, and the very fact that there is such exception then implies that it is not compatible with the principles of rule of law that is the fundamental principle of any democracy throughout the world.

I know that in public opinion there have been concerns of certain groups whether this law will affect them, which by the end of December can't get the wages on the rise, but it's never been and it's not part of the concern we've had to raise salaries, but we've dealt with the part that we think has been discriminated against.

Of course. after review of the Constitutional Court This category will not be affected, and those who will receive increased salaries will still be paid retroactively, but there has been some kind of confusion in opinion for different reasons. Financial field experts will then provide answers to the Constitutional Court for this part.

Nevertheless, the Constitutional Court is what receives the final verdict. An opinion has already been requested by the Venice Commission, which is part of the Council of Europe's mechanism that specialises in legal matters, and I believe it has been much more objective to make a contribution to clarification whether this law is in compliance with the constitutional provisions we have disputed.