Over 260 days, average domestic violence treatment case

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said preventing violence on gender grounds is daily commitment. By video, Osman said that approval of the convention has marked only one step and that there is much work to be done to be implemented.

The “Conventa and various legal instruments only get sense when they find full implementation. They live through our daily work and work. The Istanbul Convention is a golden opportunity of ours to guarantee equality between men and women, the protection of women from all forms of violence and punishment for all who violate basic rights and practice violence against women in the family. Violence has no place in our country, and fighting it is neempromis”, she said.

It called on institutions to engage in full implementation of the Istanbul Convention.

EU Ambassador Thomas Szunyog also said that violence against women is still reality in Kosovo.

“Unfortunately, despite institutional efforts and civil society, domestic violence and other forms of violence against women are still a reality in Kosovo, in this direction I welcome once again that the justice minister identified fighting the phenomenon as one of her ministry's priorities, and her efforts to put this on the government agenda. Ensuring freedom from all forms of gender-based violence is a permanent commitment of the European Union. Some of you may be familiar with the EU strategy for gender equality 2020-2025 and the gender action plan, the free and specific implementation plan for Kosovo, which I signed in September 2021. In Kosovo's programme for gender equality, the plan outlines strategic priorities for advancing gender equality and empowering women in Kosovo. The Istanbul Convention is finally known as the broader legal instrument to prevent and combat violence against women as a violation of human rights”, he said.

Researcher by the Kosovo Institute for Justice, I achieved Rezniqi said that cases of this nature are being handled faster than other cases. However, it stressed by 50 analysed acts, they have noted that the average solution to one case is more than 260 days.

The current moment of committing criminal acts until a first-instance plea is 266 or 8.5 months in handling the case. Which means if all the procedural steps that need to be taken in line with the Code of Criminal Procedure that are conducted from the moment the work is carried out, then on the general average we can say that these cases are handled more quickly than other cases handled in our country's courts. In this respect, courts are more efficient in treating these cases. But here, too, is a difference because depending on the legal assessment of the deeds done, we have automatically noted that the cases that are done much faster. Despite that average, there has been a difference in treating cases in general. For example, there were times when we identified the indictment as being set up on the first day, in other cases we saw that the indictment was filed after 764 days from the moment the criminal act was committed”, she said.

Rezniqi added that they have analysed 50 acts of prejudice, where 37 of them have had parole sentences.

Fifty counts of judgments that we've analyzed, we've had in 47 cases, courts have taken punishment acts. In two cases there has been a liberating act of judgment, and one case has been a rejection act. Of the 47 cases of punitive bias have been involved in 50 persons, and for these 50 people, 37 of them courts have pronounced parole sentences. This automatically shows that to a drastic extent, courts in domestic violence cases pronounce conditional sentences and do not pronounce merit sentences. In only five cases, in cases that we have analysed courts have pronounced imprisonment with effective sentences, while in three other cases, the penalty for effective imprisonment has been replaced by prison sentences of”, Rezniqi added.

And Kosovo Centre for Gender Studies Director Luljeta Demolli said they have faced difficulties in communicating with the Kosovo Judiciary Council.

The Istanbul Convention is extremely important for us and therefore our organisation has taken an initiative that is supported by the Un Women and the European Union to adopt in some respects, build capacities, with the sole aim of implementing legislation and strengthening implementation to end the struggle on gender grounds, fight against women and war in the family. The Istanbul Convention recognises violence against women as human rights violations and a form of discrimination against them. Based on approaches focused on victims, it provides tools to ensure the protection of girls and women, their security and empowerment. It links these with a broader goal, that of achieving gender equality”, Demoli said.

In Istanbul's “Convention on Court Acts in Kosovo”, another case has been cited, which the Lawful State Prosecutor was withdrawn from the prosecution, as it has been said, with the argument that the parties are former husband-in-laws and authorising the defendant for domestic violence.