Application deadline: 16th of July 2017

Main reasons of bad relations between two nations in the 20th century are different historical perceptions of Serb-Albanian relations with regard to Kosovo. These relations were the topic of Mitrovica Social Club debate held on June 14. in North Mitrovica.

North Mitrovica, May 16, 2017 – On May 16, AKTIV led its second lecture on the legal system in Kosovo, with the aim of informing high school and university students in the Mitrovica region on the concepts of justice, rights, access to justice, accountability mechanisms and reform. The lecture was held by Nebojsa Vlajic, a prominent lawyer and a former law professor.

North Mitorvica, April 27, 2017 – Kosovo Ombudsperson Hilmi Jashari presented the central role and jurisdiction of the Kosovo Ombudsperson Institution (OIK) as the citizens’ human rights watchdog at a town hall debate held at the Center for Civic Energy. Mr. Jashari addressed a diverse group of 38 university and high school students, as well as NGO representatives, hailing from the North and South Mitrovica area. He was joined by Miljana Scekic, Legal Adviser of the OIK’s Regional Office in North Mitrovica who took care to explain the competencies of the Ombudsperson Institution, including OIK’s Regional Offices, such as offices in Mitrovica.  Meanwhile, the Kosovo Bar Association (KBA) was well represented on the panel by Advocates Dejan Vasic and Ubejid Gasi – each of whom joined the Ombudsperson in fielding tough questions from the audience – while also sharing their perspective regarding citizen access to justice in Mitrovica which they stressed would require additional attention from the Ombudsperson.

Starting from May 2017, Serbian citizens residing in Kosovo are forbidden to pass borders with passports issued by Coordination Directorate of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republic of Serbia. Coordination Directorate started issuing passports in August 2009 exclusively for citizens of Serbia with residence in Kosovo and the main characteristic of these passports is that they are excluded from visa-free regime which was approved for citizens of Serbia back in 2009.
Next to the fact that passports issued for Serbian citizens with residence in Kosovo made them second-class citizens, discriminated based on the place of their residence, owners of these passports are additionally discriminated, now by the Kosovo Government, and by certain Embassies in Kosovo.
According to Article 3 of Law of Citizenship of Kosovo, paragraph 1 and 2 state that: a citizen of Kosovo may also be a citizen of one or more other states. The acquisition and holding of another citizenship shall not result in the loss of the citizenship of Kosovo. Dual citizenship implies that citizens may use travel documents of their preference and the right of citizens of Kosovo to hold passports issued by Coordination Directorate of Republic of Serbia cannot be denied neither to Serbs, nor any other ethnic community that meets the requirements for citizenship of Republic of Serbia or any other country. Likewise, passports issued by Coordination Directorate cannot be disputed by the argument that they are issued by ”parallel institutions” of Republic of Serbia, since the Coordination Directorate is central institution of Ministry of Internal Affairs situated in Belgrade.
We would like to remind the public of the fact that in the previous years, certain embassies in Kosovo, refused to provide consular services to owners of these passports, but have withdrawn their decision shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, there are still embassies that are continuing this practice, opposing human rights principals and violating the laws that are applicable in Kosovo.
We wish to invite all responsible parties, but primarily the Government of Kosovo to cease selective implementation of laws and recognize the right of its citizens to dual citizenship.
With this statement, we would also like to remind the public and numerous international and local human rights organizations in Kosovo, that Kosovo Government did not provide equal access to travel and identification documents to all of its citizens. This practice led to a situation in which a group of people in Kosovo is unable to obtain Kosovo IDs, hence any other documents, but who, at the same time, have the legality of only documents they own contested.
Lastly, we are inviting the European Union to revise its assessment that Kosovo meets technical conditions for visa liberalization, all the while having in mind that the first technical requirement put to Kosovo Government was equal access to travel and identification documents to all citizens.
You can find more about these issues in this document.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA- Kosovske institucije blokiraju pošiljke knjiga iz centralne Srbije na Kosovo a takvi postupci ugrožavaju osnovna ljudska prava srpske i drugih nealbanskih zajednica, ocenjeno je na debati  koja je održana u okviru “Mitrovičkog društvenog kluba” u Kosovskoj Mitrovici.