Balancing rights in Kosovo's communities

Dealing with issues of minority and human rights in Kosovo is a difficult balancing act. It involves trying to ensure the proper treatment of individuals and communities.

Community Committees

One way the international community is trying to address this at a local level in Kosovo is through the Communities Committee. This is one of the three mandatory committees that each municipal assembly in Kosovo had to set up under UNMiK Regulation 2000/45 on Municipal Self-Government. It is responsible for ensuring that the rights and interests of the communities living within the municipality are respected, and advises the municipal assembly on matters of possible discrimination.

The Communities Committee is meant to bring balance to members of the municipal assembly and the municipal administration so that all of the communities within the municipality will have, for example, equal opportunity and access to services.

Its members come from various walks of life, ranging from lawyers to farmers, and vary from community to community. They are members of the municipal assembly and active representatives within their different communities.

Many committees are still being formed and figuring out what they are supposed to do. Sometimes they are surprised that they have the responsibility to protect human rights.

Training Human Rights
The OSCE Mission in Kosovo Human Rights Division and the OSCE-run Institute for Civil Administration have a held a series of one-day workshops to help Communities Committees understand standards of human rights and how these are central to their work. Special attention is paid to the protection of minority rights, and how these rights can be respected as well as violated.

"The training begins with a discussion of the basis of what human rights are so they understand what human rights mean in a legal context," said Greg Fabian, Training Co-ordinator in the OSCE Human Rights Division. "The focus then shifts to particular human rights instruments of minority protection, which is meant to give an understanding of the specialised instruments that can help minorities to defend their rights within the community."

Participants then looked at a number of practical situations that Communities Committees might have to deal with, applying cases to certain provisions within the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, an internationally agreed structure for protecting minorities. This use of legal standards not only helps detection of possible discrimination, but also allows participants to determine what a Communities Committee would do. Case studies reflect possible situations, some very difficult, that might been seen every day in Kosovo. "The emphasis here is that you can always do something no matter how difficult the situation is and concretely address it," said Fabian.

A member of the Communities Committee in Peje/Pec believed this component of the workshop was both interesting and proved helpful: "It becomes practical, applying knowledge of human rights to solve hypothetical problems that could happen in our community."

Striving to Protect Everyone's Rights

The Communities Committee has a very important function in the municipal government structure in balancing interests, but it is not a political body. Yet there are political realities, pressures and interests that deal with issues differently. For example in Vushtrri/Vucitrn a participant suggested that political parties would protect the interests of communities. Fabian countered by asking, "Can you find a political party that will protect a person for any reason and defend their rights?"

The training is interactive and very practical - what human rights means in people's lives and also in a person's role as a Communities Committee member. It demonstrates the responsibility to keep human rights violations from happening, and provide remedy for individuals or group of individuals from any community from discrimination.

"The aim of the Communities Committee is to resolve the inter-ethnic conflicts and other issues, as well as building relations, within our municipality as well as throughout Kosovo," said Ellheme Hetemi, a member of the Community Committee in Skenderaj/Srbica.The membership of this committee roughly reflects the population in the municipality - three Albanians, three Serbs and one Ashkali. Hetemi considered the training very helpful in providing a number of legal tools that can be used in their duties in resolving problems and protecting the rights of minorities.

Though not formally a member of the Communities Committee, Milutin Kovacevic, a representative of the Banja community in Skenderaj/Srbica, participated in the session with his colleagues. He saw the training as very useful as the committee is dealing with sensitive issues. "I think that we are obliged to deal with the possible discrimination of people's rights and we work hard to balance the interests of communities in the municipality. Our role is to alarm the municipal government when rights are violated and offer them direction and measures for dealing with human rights," said Kovacevic.

Both believed that a balance could found among individual needs and interests, and that no person should be discriminated against for identifying themselves with one community. In other cases, there is a clear benefit for participation in the work of the committee to create links and interaction. "What is apparent is that there is a thirst for knowledge of human rights standards, such as the Framework Convention, where individuals and groups can start to resolve disputes in a peaceful way," said Fabian.

Problems associated with discrimination can afflict peoples' lives in many ways. By properly dealing with these challenges and providing the knowledge of human right standards, the Communities Committee can demonstrate the advantages of a shared and common interest to Kosovo's communities.

A key task of the OSCE in Kosovo is to support the development of democratic structures that represent and work on behalf of people. Political parties and NGOs have related roles in society, in that both are creating sustainable democratic institutions. That development is being nurtured through a network of Community Centres.