Over a thousand and 500 complaints handed down to the ombudsman: Human Rights Touched Significantly

The institutions have not implemented even half of the recommendations that have been issued, until 69% of them are pending implementation.

In the interview for Kosovo, the Ombudsman states that last year has been challenging with many cases violating human rights. Naim Celaj also speaks of the issue of right for life, the condition of disabled persons, and the Law on Protection from Discrimination.

Early in 2022, a woman was killed in Kosovo by her husband, whom Celay says human rights were significantly violated.

The “has been a challenging year, that we had several cases since the beginning of the year that significantly violated human rights. The year began with a woman's murder by her husband, then there were many developments in our entire society that directly influenced our work, and we failed to properly adhere to the agenda and planning we had made from the year before the year”, he says.

The ombudsman institution has classified three areas it was dealt with over the past year.

The main topic we've discussed this year can be divided or grouped into three major issues, the first has to do with life's right, protection from domestic violence as a result of the situation created by the case of the woman's murder in Lausa, then and at the end of the year with two tragic cases that shocked society, and in this case, us as an ombudsman institution. The second issue we've dealt with, or the second segment that we've been dealing with, is about the state of disabled, respecting their rights, joining the campaign this year, as a year of disability. The idea has been to be closer to citizens, persons with disabilities themselves, we have managed to organise around 13 tables in different Kosovo centres”, adds Celay.

The ombudsman has said there are shortcomings also in implementing the Law for Protection from Discrimination by officials themselves who are competent to do so.

The third time we've taken so much this year is to analyze the Law on Protection from Discrimination. In fact, by analyzing this law we have analysed the very aspect of discrimination by keeping in touch with civil society, with organizations and with institutions that are in charge of implementing this law. Even here we have seen that there are many defects in implementing this law, from informing the public of the content that this law has, for the rights it provides and guarantees, for mechanisms to deal with cases of discrimination to the part of its information or awareness of its officials who are competent to implement the law, such as courts, administrative organs and other bodies, and including the position of officials themselves for protection from discrimination and gender equality”, he says.

The cell has also talked about cases of complaints that have been handed over to the ombudsman's institution, which it said led cases of procrastination in court procedures.

“1514 complaints were exercised in the ombudsman institution. The structure in rational terms is close to the demographic structure that has populations. There is a growing tendency to hold complaints from non-US communities, which makes us feel good about the fact that we enjoy credibility among other communities as well. While, the list of claims on which right has been violated continues to lead as much as any other year in the number of complaints about the lack of law or denial of the right to fair and impartial judgment, which are mainly related to procrastinating judicial procedures”, Qelaj claims.

Citizens' polls also concern legal rights, labor rights, and professional training, health protection, property protection, and legal inequality.

From recommendations issued by the ombudsman, not half of them were implemented last year.

It's a slight decline compared to last year, I believe that 2021 was the record implementation year because there was a 10 percent increase by 2020. This year we have a much lower percentage than last year... Implementation has reached the full implementation level of 29 percent of the recommendations, and 68 percent are pending implementation. Authorities have pledged, have presented an action plan on how the lawyer's recommendations, which is a truly encouraging and hopeful mirror”, he points out.

Of these recommendations, there are 13 cases of investigation by citizens' complaints and over 100 letters of correcting.