PUBLIC FORUM TARGETING THE LEGISLATION ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES (PRISTINA)

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On behalf of NGO AKTIV and members of the Kosovo Coalition for Reconciliation, we are pleased to invite you to:

Public forum targeting the legislation on the use of languages

A public forum to be held in Hotel Prishtina in Pristina

on the 29th of June 2022

 

The Constitution (2008) and the Law on Use of Languages (2006) declare that Albanian and Serbian are official languages that are in equal use in all institutions in Kosovo. This official equality of languages is a special guarantee given to non-majority communities to ensure their participation in public life and equal access to public services. The equal position of members of the Serb community, as well as other residents of Kosovo who rely on Serbian language in administrative and legal affairs, such as members of Gorani, Bosniak, part of Roma, Croatian and Montenegrin communities, depends on its equal use by institutions. In practice, official or institutional bilingualism, established in this way, has proven to be too high a standard for Kosovo institutions to achieve. In addition to financial and personnel limitations, there is a need to further work on improving the normative framework for the protection of language rights. The reasons for this are various: non-compliance with legal regulations, partial compliance with legal regulations, misinterpretation of certain legal norms, lack of political will for full implementation of the right to official use of languages, lack of professional staff such as professional translators, proofreaders, etc.

 

NGO AKTIV and their partners look forward to welcoming you to what we believe will be a fruitful, engaging and important discussion!

 

AGENDA

10:45 – 11:00                                      Arrival and registration of participants

11:00 – 11:15                                      Opening remarks

11:15 – 11:55                                      Current state of implementation of the Law on Use of Languages on institutional local and central levels

11:55 – 12:30                                      Steps forward: How to make sure that the Law on Use of Languages is implemented adequately and what are the legal mechanisms for achieving sustainable bilingualism on the institutional level in Kosovo

 

This event is supported by the European Union and is conducted by the NGO AKTIV and the Kosovo Coalition for Reconciliation.

NGO AKTIV Mitrovica

NGO AKTIV Priština

NGO AKTIV Beograd