Kosovo Trust Building

1. To strengthen partnership between youth-led initiatives and media actors in order to amplify the positive role of youth in building sustainable peace in their communities through building inter-ethnic trust, promotion of responsible citizenship and awareness-raising on diverse human-rights related issues.

16 Initiatives

Media and communication

2. To undertake efforts to provide media coverage and space for youth-led activities at the key public broadcaster and other media in order to raise the attention of local and central institutions to the problems that Kosovo youth face on a daily basis (education-related issues, bullying in schools, prevention of peer-to-peer violence, employment opportunities and socio-economic empowerment, air pollution, etc.) and empower youth by giving them a stronger voice in their communities

5 Initiatives

Media and communication

3. Encourage cooperation of women in: media, NGO and politics.

8 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

4. To ensure that the staff at the municipal level have received appropriate training with regards to timely provision of access to official documents and to ensure proper implementation.

2 Initiatives

Media and communication

5. To promptly condemn all attacks and violence against journalists and other media workers such as intimidation, threats and harassment, including online attacks and smear campaigns against journalists.

1 Initiative

Media and communication

6. Improve cooperation between municipalities and media with no discrimination on any grounds.

2 Initiatives

Media and communication

7. To provide incentives for involvement of young people in awareness raising campaigns offline and online on societal issues, including as key actors in disseminating information.

23 Initiatives

Media and communication

8. To strengthen cooperation between the Ombudsperson, media and civil society in order to develop and institutionalize implementation of the existing legal frameworks on access to official documentation.

0 Initiatives

Media and communication

9. To urge judicial authorities to promptly investigate and prosecute all attacks and violence against journalists and other media workers such as intimidation, threats and harassment, including online attacks and smear campaigns against journalists, as well as the cases of disappearance and murder of journalists.

1 Initiative

Media and communication

10. To encourage municipalities to allocate funds to media outlets in a given area, in a transparent and legal manner, to report on issues of general importance in municipalities and improve multi-ethnic reporting, without interfering in their editorial independence.

0 Initiatives

Media and communication

11. To strengthen cooperation between the local and central media.

2 Initiatives

Media and communication

12. Implement relevant legislation and policies addressing use of language in rule of law systems, including through a) verification of accuracy and quality of translation of laws from Albanian to Serbian language and vice versa and their approximation; b) provision of resources (sustainable funding and adequate staffing) for translation/interpretation purposes; c) development and/or procurement of dedicated translation software; and d) provision of language training (courses Albanian, Serbian and other(s) where needed) to all justice system personnel.

14 Initiatives

Access to justice

13. Strengthen Rule of Law. Kosovo institutions should be involved in speedy restitution of usurped property, with special emphasis on non-majority communities. Responsible actor/s -Ministry of Justice, international organizations, municipalities, community representatives

1 Initiative

Economic empowerment and environment

14. Religious communities should jointly advocate against domestic violence and in promotion of women rights, thus also targeting patriarchal norms in the society;

2 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

15. Prevent and manage incidents with religious connotation from escalating into larger conflict;

2 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

16. Direct informal and formal communication between religious communities;

1 Initiative

Inter-religious trust-building

17. Educate children on other communities and religious groups and on the multicultural and multi-confessional aspect of Kosovo through the formal education systems. Subsequently, organize regular workshops for pupils from, primary and secondary schools, on tolerance and non-discrimination.

2 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

18. Provide adequate facilities to treat juveniles in conflict with the law that have problems with abuse of narcotics.

0 Initiatives

Access to justice

19. Municipal authorities should promote programs that raise awareness on building inter-religious trust ;

4 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

20. Implementation of court decisions regarding resolving the issues of contested religious community property;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

21. Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) should coordinate its activities with religious communities, and use good practices from inter-faith dialogue to increase overall inter-community understanding;

2 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

22. Media and religious communities should engage in the common platform to promote positive stories;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

23. Encourage government to take into consideration religious communities’ amendments proposed on the Law on Religious Freedom;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

24. Religious communities should be more transparent toward the media;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

25. Media should refrain from portraying religious groups as political instruments;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

26. Media organizations should engage in comprehensive communication and promotion of inter-faith dialogue and stress positive achievements of inter-religious cooperation;

1 Initiative

Inter-religious trust-building

27. Traditional practice is prevailing over the Law on inheritance / Women are disadvantaged in the process of property inheritance / Religious leaders should play a role in promoting women rights;

1 Initiative

Inter-religious trust-building

28. Provide common database for hate crime data and fast track system to treat such crimes.

1 Initiative

Access to justice

29. Religious communities should effectively work on sustainable programs that counter violent extremism and nationalist political rhetoric as well as different kinds of segregation;

1 Initiative

Inter-religious trust-building

30. Religious communities should openly support rebuilding/reconstruction of damaged and destroyed religious heritage sites; and building new ones;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

31. Publically condemn all security incidents affecting religious cultural heritage sites and undertake timely outreach activities with the aim of reassuring affected communities;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

32. Increase coordination between municipalities and religious communities to restore and maintain damage/destroyed graveyards and religious heritage sites. Municipalities should allocate more financial resources for the maintenance of graveyards;

1 Initiative

Inter-religious trust-building

33. Encourage government to adopt Law on Restitution and Law on Religious Freedom

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

34. Improve cooperation and communication between the judiciary and the police, particularly in execution of judgements.

1 Initiative

Access to justice

35. Provide adequate funding to the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates for Legal Help telephone service in both official languages to give basic information/orientation about where people should address legal claims.

0 Initiatives

Access to justice

36. Occupation and reoccupation of property should be emphasized as a priority for the judiciary, focus on the quality of judgments regarding application of sanctions, effective evictions and compensation (damages).

4 Initiatives

Access to justice

37. Special measures should be taken to ensure meaningful access to legal aid for women, children, IDPs and groups with special needs.

14 Initiatives

Access to justice

38. Increase cooperation between prosecution services of Serbia and Kosovo to tackle war crimes and cases of missing persons

1 Initiative

Access to justice

39. Enhance significance of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms aiming at reducing the backlog of cases. Increasing the funds to be used for these mechanisms and the payment for mediators. Provide sufficient funds to be used for alternative dispute resolution mechanisms aiming at reducing the backlog of cases.

9 Initiatives

Access to justice

40. Raise the public awareness about the judicial system (and how to better avail of the integrated system i.e. how is the court structured, what citizens expect from the integration of judiciary and what are the functions, etc.)

19 Initiatives

Access to justice

41. Follow up: this TBF meetings should be organized periodically and the focus groups should keep contacts to exchange ideas related to their topic.

2 Initiatives

Access to justice

42. Enhance implementation of Anti-Discrimination Law, particularly extra-judicial mechanisms.

1 Initiative

Access to justice

43. Enhance strategy to reduce case backlog.

5 Initiatives

Access to justice

44. Expedite recognition of decisions from Serbian run courts as per Brussels agreement.

2 Initiatives

Access to justice

45. Administrative Instruction (AI) on the Law on Civil Registration has to be amended or rewritten providing clear instructions for implementing the law and enabling citizens to get identification documents at municipal registry offices. It should provide documents issued in Serbian system to be recognized by Kosovo institutions, so Kosovo documents could be issued.

2 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

46. Provide free legal aid to women (e.g cases of divorce, domestic abuse and labor rights)

6 Initiatives

Access to justice

47. Ensure that draft laws are accompanied with assessment of their financial implications.

2 Initiatives

Access to justice

48. At the local level more funds are needed so additional interpreters could be employed, or the translating services could be outsourced.

4 Initiatives

0%

Progress status

49. Assure interaction between different databases used by the judicial system in Kosovo, including police databases.

6 Initiatives

Access to justice

50. Technical capacities in municipalities have to be improved through projects of international organizations by providing better technical conditions and education of staff.

27 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

51. Religious leaders should actively engage in request in resolving the fate of missing persons;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

52. Northern municipalities still miss the civil registry books that have been sent from Serbia to the central level. MLGA to support this process.

1 Initiative

Good governance and access to services

53. Recommendations published in the 2017 Report of the Ombudsperson for the Office of the Language Commissioner must be implemented.

0 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

54. Roster of licensed, qualified interpreters should be created. Additional testing and verification of diplomas should be introduced.

1 Initiative

Good governance and access to services

55. The Council for Cooperation between the Government and the civil society is one of the mechanisms for addressing the recommendations from this Forum.

0 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

56. Monitoring mechanism has to be established to follow up on development of all recommendations reached at this Forum.

1 Initiative

Good governance and access to services

57. Municipalities to address sexual harassment at the workplace through workshops, info sessions, thus increasing security and decreasing discrimination of women in the workplace.

5 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

58. Municipal Assembly Caucus groups have to be more functional.

1 Initiative

Good governance and access to services

59. Political parties should allocate more funding resources for women during political campaign.

0 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

60. Training of the staff to be financed by the international community.

19 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

61. It is necessary to increase awareness among politicians so women can have more executive power.

5 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

62. Municipalities should not delegate only one person to deal with the gender equality issues, but offices with several staff should be created.

3 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

63. The Law on Gender Equality to be strictly implemented.

24 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

64. All local institutions have to closely cooperate with the Official Gazette so it could be updated regularly.

0 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

65. All institutions must keep their web pages updated.

1 Initiative

Good governance and access to services

66. Institutions should be encouraged to meet minimum prescribed standards for public participation. They are to improve mechanisms for transparency by engaging NGOs in public debates where all issues will be discussed, and citizens will be active participants. That way the citizens will be involved in reaching conclusions and bringing decisions.

38 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

67. To improve the quality and regular updates of information provided on the web pages of municipalities in all official languages, as well as the prompt response to requests.

3 Initiatives

Media and communication

68. All institutions that have not delegated clerks to the office for gender equality have to do it.

0 Initiatives

94%

Progress status

69. The group failed to provide concrete proposals on the follow-up mechanism, but broadly suggested that a task force should be established to oversee the implementation of small-scale projects at the grassroots level in close partnership with municipalities, central authorities, and international community.

0 Initiatives

Education

70. Train teachers from all communities on values of tolerance and non-discrimination and extend such knowledge to parents through regular consultations or group meetings.

7 Initiatives

Education

71. Independent Media Commission, Associations of Journalists and Press Council of Kosovo have to provide capacity-building trainings on media ethics (inter alia: critical thinking, balanced fact-based and impartial reporting, work with marginalized and sensitive groups, coverage of non-majority communities and gender-awareness for journalists and students of journalism).

3 Initiatives

Media and communication

72. To encourage the public broadcaster to continue having qualitative programs in the languages of the communities, thus increasing the access to information and exchanges between the communities and regional public broadcasters.

2 Initiatives

Media and communication

73. To increase collaboration between Albanian and Serbian-language media; For example, to have cross-training or “exchange” programs for journalists, whereby one or more journalists from one Albanian-language media outlet would work for a while with a Serbian-language outlet and vice versa.

2 Initiatives

Media and communication

74. All media in Kosovo should have joint efforts to increase the presence of non-political topics of mutual concern, such as artistic and cultural events and environmental issues in public media in all official languages, while simultaneously insisting upon professional (objective, impartial and unbiased) reporting.

7 Initiatives

Media and communication

75. To avoid sexist and homophobic language on media.

1 Initiative

Media and communication

76. To develop incentives for increase in qualitative multi-ethnic reporting.

4 Initiatives

Media and communication

77. Increase number of joint meetings and public lectures of religious community leaders with the aim of improving inter-community understanding and serve as a good example of inter-community cooperation and educate younger generations on the importance of religious heritage;

0 Initiatives

Inter-religious trust-building

78. Further measures to guarantee the personal safety of judges and prosecutors and their families and provide adequate pension, health and risk insurance schemes.

1 Initiative

Access to justice

79. Advocate that recommendations from Consultative Council for Communities be fully taken on board, particularly those that relate to increasing access of vulnerable communities to quality education and fighting institutional discrimination

3 Initiatives

Education

80. Prevent youth-based violence by educating young people on mediation and dialogue as alternative ways of dealing with conflict.

20 Initiatives

Education

81. To present women as leaders and role models and avoid portrayals that reinforce discriminatory and patriarchal attitudes and social norms about the role of women (especially before and after elections).

3 Initiatives

Media and communication

82. To undertake efforts to increase the number of women in media, including in leadership positions;

2 Initiatives

Media and communication

83. Include gender-related issues in the media and do more to reflect gender equality within reporting.

4 Initiatives

Media and communication

84. To urge the public institutions to provide ongoing support for the investigation of cases of journalists who were murdered or kidnapped. To acknowledge the specific risks faced by female journalists and the importance of a gender-sensitive approach when considering measures to address the safety of journalists.

2 Initiatives

Media and communication

85. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport in cooperation with other local and international actors should invest in educating youth on how to identify, react to and prevent hate speech / intolerance online and offline, as well as to withstand fake news and propaganda through human rights education, counter and alternative narratives. The initiative should be broaden to any other age, whenever possible.

3 Initiatives

Media and communication

86. International community to finance workshops and projects aimed at increasing gender awareness.

26 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services

87. Religious communities should be more gender aware, respect for women rights, property rights;

1 Initiative

Inter-religious trust-building

88. At the central level help from international institutions and organizations is needed for financing engagement of more interpreters. Also, measures at the disposal of the Office of the Language Commissioner must be increased and utilized. Furthermore, (to overcome the poor quality of translations) a reorganization of the documents’ translation process is required and all documents should be translated at one office by qualified and skilled interpreters/translators. Proof Reading Officers should check all documents prior to its release to the Parliament.

6 Initiatives

Good governance and access to services