Pristina, July 14, 2022- The FOL movement supported by the US State Department, through the International Bureau for Narcotics and Rule of Law (INL), together with the students of the Faculty of Law visited the Basic Court of Peja, Gjakova, Ferizaj and Prizren Basic Court.
The students were welcomed to the meeting by the presidents or vice presidents of these courts. During the meetings held, the students were closely informed about the organization and functioning of these courts, the challenges they face and the flow of cases, as well as they had the opportunity to see up close the halls where court proceedings are held.
The presidents of the courts expressed their willingness to host students in meetings or other groups that show interest in the organization and work of the courts in the future.
The FOL movement, together with students, will also visit other basic courts, as well as the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.
This Project is funded by the US State Department, through the International Bureau on Narcotics and Rule of Law (INL).

Plesin, July 13, 2022 – The FOL movement today started the series of Open FOL debates with the Mayors of the Municipalities of Kosovo, where the first guest of this format was the deputy mayor of the Municipality of Ferizaj, Mr. Lulzim Ali. The discussion with the citizens was held in the village of Plesina in the Municipality of Ferizaj.

During this meeting, it was discussed about the implementation of the Law on Local Self-Government, as well as the implementation of the Administrative Instruction of (MAPL) for the Organization, Operation and Cooperation of Municipalities with Villages, Settlements and Urban Neighborhoods.

During this meeting, the participants had the opportunity to discuss with the vice president Mr. Ali for the problems these citizens face every day. Also, during this discussion, the issue of the selection of local councils, their functioning, as well as the best way of cooperation between the municipality and the heads of the councils to address the demands of all citizens was elaborated in detail.

FOL will hold debates of this format in other municipalities of Kosovo.

This discussion is supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Pristina, July 12, 2022 – The FOL movement, with the support of “Safe Journalist”, held information sessions on Tuesday regarding the Slapp Lawsuits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) with activists and journalists from the Municipality of Peja and Ferizaj.

In this discussion, journalists and activists had the opportunity to be informed about the meaning of Slapp Lawsuits, the level of spread of this phenomenon in our country, as well as how endangered Kosovar journalists and activists are from exercising these lawsuits.

The purpose of this meeting was for journalists to become familiar with Slapp Lawsuits and how to fight these lawsuits, as well as the important role played by journalists and other media actors in a democratic society.

Such discussions with journalists and activists will continue to be held in other municipalities of Kosovo.

This project is funded by the European Union through safejournalists.net.

Pristina, July 4, 2022 – The FOL movement has continued with the monitoring of the publication of judgments on the web-portal of the Judicial Council of Kosovo for all courts in the country. During the month of May 2022, the courts have published 4523 judgments. The court with the largest number of judgments published for the month of May is the Basic Court of Pristina with 1353 judgments. Below you can see the infographics for each court and branch. You can also see the number of judgments published according to criminal, civil, administrative and economic nature.

Pristina, June 21, 2022 – The non-governmental organizations Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD), Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) and FOL Movement (hereinafter: Coalition), on March 24, 2022, presented the Report “Integrity of the selection process of the Chief Prosecutor of State (Monitoring and evaluation report of the selection process of the Chief State Prosecutor).”

In this Report as well as in continuation, the Coalition considered it necessary that the process of selecting the Chief State Prosecutor should return to the zero point, assessing that the Prosecution Council of Kosovo (KPK) had failed to ensure the integrity and meritocracy of this process.

Among other things, the Coalition had assessed that the interview panel had failed in an objective and comprehensive evaluation of the candidates. Such irregularity of the process is now best evidenced by the candidate evaluation forms (score sheets) from each member of the interviewing panel. The Coalition managed to secure these score sheets on June 10, 2022, only through the Information and Privacy Agency (AIP), since the Prosecutorial Council had not responded at all to the Coalition’s Request for Access to Public Documents, submitted on April 4, 2022.

After analyzing the score sheets of each member of the interviewing panel, for each candidate for Chief State Prosecutor, the Coalition has noticed that the evaluation rationale for each scoring category is shallow and lacks proper analysis, and is in complete contradiction with the Guidelines for Articles 13 and 14 of the Regulation on the Appointment of the Chief Prosecutor and Chief Prosecutors, approved by the KPK itself. The members of the interviewing panel failed to provide an analytical justification for the assessment made, simply giving superficial justifications, without a genuine analysis and convincing justification for the assessment made.

Although the reasoning and argument should be organized in such a way that it is as convincing as possible and also to protect the member’s own points, however, the interviewing panel has not managed to build such a reasoning, since the points of these members do not matches the reasoning given and this is best observed in some scoring categories where the member’s reasoning is full of praise and without any remarks and then the candidate is deducted some points, without showing the reason why those points are being deducted and where he failed the candidate.

According to the aforementioned Guide, to ensure a fair, consistent and meritorious approach, Panel members should take notes about the answers to the questions and use that information to decide what standard the candidate has achieved in relation to the specific competence under consideration. However, with such shallow reasoning, from only one page per candidate, with a minimum of sentences for a scoring category (in certain cases only with one sentence), it is clearly shown that the members of the KPK interview panel give the impression that they have developed this process without giving it the time and importance that belongs to this process, as well as they have not managed to convey to the public the conviction that the assessment made for the candidates was adequate, based on the interview and what is the most important undermining the meritocracy of the process. Also, in the justification of the score sheets, it was seen that the members of the interviewing panel are not even clear about the powers of the Chief State Prosecutor and those of the Prosecution Council, since in their reasoning, the candidate is estimated to have not shown vision, strategy and management skills for the general challenges in the prosecutorial system which are under the competence of the KPK as a collegial body and also the competence and responsibility of the Chief State Prosecutor. Regarding this problem, the Coalition also in the published report on the selection process of the Chief State Prosecutor emphasized that many questions in the Concept Document form are related to the processes that are the competence of the KPK and not of the Chief State Prosecutor.

In conclusion, the Coalition’s past findings that, among other things, the Regulation for the appointment of the Chief State Prosecutor and the Chief Prosecutors of the Prosecutions of the Republic of Kosovo as well as the relevant Guide have not found adequate application in the evaluation of candidates, failing to ensure the integrity and meritocracy of process, this is reconfirmed even after providing the score sheets of the members of the interviewing panel. Therefore, the Coalition continues to insist that the process of selecting the Chief State Prosecutor should be returned to the zero point, in order to guarantee the integrity and meritocracy of the process.

 

Pristina, 09 06 2022- The FOL movement with the support of UNMIK, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, yesterday together with the students of the Faculty of Law visited the Basic Court in Prizren.

The students were welcomed to the meeting by the Chairman of the Court Mrs. Hope Emra. During this meeting, the students were informed about the organization and functioning of the Basic Court in Prizren as well as its branches.

Chairman Emra said that “we work tirelessly to increase transparency, to be open to the public and the rulers of the law, but with a special emphasis on helping law students”.

Chairman Emra, in the conversation with the students, answered numerous questions from the students, providing clarifications on the nature of the work of the Court and additional information on the handling of special cases in which the students were interested.

The President emphasized that in recent years the Court has reached the level of transparency, improving and developing the infrastructure in order to increase the quality and transparency of the judicial process and services to the public.

Chairman Emra expressed her readiness that in the future she will host students in meetings or other groups that show interest in the organization and work of the Basic Court in Prizren.

This Project is financed by UNMIK – the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.

Pristina, June 8, 2022 – The FOL movement held today the FOL Open discussion with the director of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Mr. Yll Buleshkaj.

With Mr. Buleshkaj discussed the legal changes that have been made to the Law on the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Law on the Declaration, Control, Origin of Wealth and Gifts as well as the effect of these laws on the Agency’s current mandate.

Also, during this forum, the implementation of the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers and the Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest was discussed.

This discussion was supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Pristina, May 20, 2022 – The FOL movement has continued with the monitoring of the publication of judgments from all courts of Kosovo on the web-portal of the Judicial Council of Kosovo. During the month of April 2022, the courts on the web-portal of the Judicial Council of Kosovo have published 2177 verdicts. The court with the largest number of judgments published for the month of April is the Court of Appeal with 676 judgments. Below you can see the infographics for each court and branch. You can also see the number of judgments published according to criminal, civil, administrative and economic nature.

Pristina, May 10, 2022- The Assembly of Members of the FOL Movement held today the next meeting where the Executive Director of the FOL Movement was elected.

During this meeting, some changes in the statute of the FOL Movement were discussed, which was approved with the proposed changes by a majority of votes.

Also at this meeting, the Director of the FOL Movement was elected. With 22 votes in favor, no abstentions and none against, Mexhide Demolli-Nimani is re-elected Executive Director of the FOL Movement. The number of members of the Assembly of the FOL Movement reaches 22, while 14 of them were present at this meeting.

Mexhide Demolli-Nimani is the co-founder of the FOL Movement and since May 2018, she has served in the position of Executive Director.

At the last meeting, the Chairman of the Assembly of FOL was also voted, with 14 votes in favor, Gersi Gashi continues for a term as Chairman of the Assembly of members of the FOL Movement.

The FOL movement thanks all members of the organization’s Assembly for their contribution to achieving the organization’s objectives.

Prishtina, June 9, 2022 – The FOL movement with the support of “Safe Journalists” held on Thursday, June 9, the discussion “FOL Open” with journalists and activists of the Municipality of Prizren.

In this discussion, journalists and activists had the opportunity to be informed about the meaning of SLAPP lawsuits, the level of prevalence of this phenomenon in our country, as well as how endangered Kosovar journalists and activists are from the exercise of these lawsuits.

The purpose of this meeting was to acquaint journalists with SLAPP lawsuits and how to fight these lawsuits, as well as the important role played by journalists and other media actors in a democratic society.

Ongoing such discussions with journalists and activists will be held in other municipalities in Kosovo.

This project is funded by the European Union through safejournalists.net.

Prishtina, June 3, 2022 – FOL movement with the support of “Safe Journalist” has held on friday a one-day training with journalists of local and central media.

In this training, the journalists were closely acquainted with the experiences of their colleagues, Ardiana Thaçi and Lavdim Hamidi, who are facing SLAPP lawsuits. Meanwhile, the media expert, Flutura Kusari, informed the journalists about the legal framework of the SLAPP lawsuits, freedom of expression and the rights of the journalist.

This training was intended for journalists to get acquainted with SLAPP lawsuits and how to fight these lawsuits, their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, the important role played by journalists and other media actors in a democratic society as and international standards of freedom of expression.

This project is funded by the European Union through safejournalists.net

Prishtinë, 18 May 2022 – The FOL movement, supported by the US State Department, through the International Bureau for Narcotics and Rule of Law (INL), held the discussion “FOL Open for the Rule of Law in Kosovo”. In this discussion, the Ambassador of the United States of America Mr. Jeffrey M. Hovenier as well as the Minister of Justice Mrs. Albulena Haxhiu.

In this discussion, the findings from the report “Performance of the prosecutorial and judicial system for cases of domestic violence during 2021” were presented, while the American Ambassador made his first address regarding the field of the rule of law in Kosovo.

The Minister of Justice also made an address about the rule of law in Kosovo. Albulena Haxhiu.

Find the report in Albanian at this link: https://bit.ly/3yJKhgx

as well as in English here: .

Pristina, May 20, 2022 – The FOL movement has continued with the monitoring of the publication of judgments from all courts of Kosovo on the web-portal of the Judicial Council of Kosovo. During the month of April 2022, the courts on the web-portal of the Judicial Council of Kosovo have published 2177 verdicts. The court with the largest number of judgments published for the month of April is the Court of Appeal with 676 judgments. Below you can see the infographics for each court and branch. You can also see the number of judgments published according to criminal, civil, administrative and economic nature.

Pristina, 17 03 2022 – The Assembly of Kosovo is expected to examine today, among other things, the Draft Law on the Financing of Political Entities. This is the third time, namely the third legislature in a row, that this draft law goes through the legislative procedure in the parliament.

The failure to review and approve this very important law has continuously violated the transparency and financial accountability of political entities, which receive over 4 million euros from the state budget every year, as well as represents a setback in the implementation of the European Reform Agenda (ERA).

The new draft law on Financing of Political Entities largely addresses the concerns regarding the lack of financial transparency of political entities. Knowing the many failures and delays in the selection of auditors by the Assembly, by means of this draft law, the competence for the selection of auditors is transferred to the Office for Registration of Political Parties and Certification, which has been provided with a high level of functional and budgetary independence. Likewise, the contributions that political subjects can receive, as well as the sanctioning measures in case of violations, are defined. At the same time, we recall that this draft law is in accordance with the opinion of the Venice Commission as well as the demands and recommendations of the civil society.

We, civil society organizations, estimate that the further delay of this draft law is unreasonable, as well as damages the integrity of political entities and the public’s credibility towards them. We understand the different positions that political subjects may have regarding the draft law as a whole or certain parts of it, however, we request that these positions be expressed and translated into contributions during the review of the draft law between the two readings.

Therefore, we call on the deputies of the Assembly of Kosovo, both from the position and from the opposition, to vote for the approval of this draft law in principle without further delay.

We will continue providing our expertise through concrete recommendations in order to advance the draft law during the discussions in the period between the two readings. Also, we will closely monitor the work of the Assembly bodies that will be involved in the review of this draft law.

Organizations:

The FOL movement

Kosovo Democratic Institute / Transparency International Kosovo

Democracy Plus (D+)

Democracy for Development (D4D)

Organization Rise / Preportr

Pristina, 15.03.2022 – The FOL Movement has today published the report “Performance of the Prosecution and Judicial System in the Resolution of Corruption Cases during 2021 (statistical analysis)”, which addresses the issue of the performance and efficiency of the first instance of the judicial system and that of the prosecution in the resolution of corruption cases during the period January – December 2021, as well as elaborates the workload level of these institutions in the resolution of these cases.

The report is based on the official statistical data received by the Prosecution Council of Kosovo and the Judicial Council of Kosovo for the year 2021, while to measure the performance of these institutions on the basis of these official statistics, FOL has used the methodology of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ). The report does not include the quality of the cases, or the quality of the work of the prosecutor’s offices and courts, but only their statistical measurement.

Albana Hasani, Researcher at the FOL Movement presents the main findings of this report, some of which are listed below.

-The Special Prosecutor’s Office and the seven basic prosecutor’s offices of the Republic of Kosovo during 2021 have handled a total of 802 corruption cases, of which they have managed to handle a total of 409 cases, respectively 51% of all the cases they have handled during this year. Meanwhile, part of the 393 cases remained unresolved and were carried over to 2022.- The Special Prosecutor’s Office and the seven basic prosecutor’s offices of the Republic of Kosovo during 2021 had a total of 802 corruption cases at work, of which they managed to deal with a total of 409 cases, namely 51% of all the cases they have worked on this year. Meanwhile, part of 393 cases remained unresolved and were carried over to 2022.

-The resolution rate of corruption cases in all prosecution offices of the Republic of Kosovo for 2021 turns out to be 84%, which means that the number of cases resolved during this period was lower than the number of new cases received during the year.

– Based on the general statistical data received by the Prosecutorial Council of Kosovo, the Prosecutor’s Office that has achieved the best results in handling corruption cases during this period is the Basic Prosecutor’s Office of Prizren, which during this period has achieved the highest rate of resolution of cases (120%), the highest turnover rate of cases (4.29%) as well as the shortest time needed to resolve the cases that remained unresolved this year. In other words, out of 90 corruption cases that this prosecutor’s office has handled, it has managed to resolve 73 of them, or 81%.

– Meanwhile, the prosecutor’s office with the weakest results in handling corruption cases during 2021 (the same as in 2020) was the Basic Prosecutor’s Office of Mitrovica, which during this period achieved the lowest turnover rate of cases (0.26), the highest rate low resolution of cases (44 %) as well as the highest index of accumulated cases (2.96). In other words, out of 133 cases that this prosecutor has worked on this year, it has managed to solve only 28 of them, or only 13% of all the cases it has worked on.

– As for the number of indictments filed during this period, the seven basic prosecutor’s offices and the Special Prosecutor’s Office in 2021 had filed indictments for 335 people in connection with criminal offenses of corruption.

As for the findings regarding the judicial system, Hasani declares that:

-The seven basic courts of the Republic of Kosovo during 2021 had a total of 383 corruption cases (281 of which were inherited from the previous year and 102 new cases created during the year), while they managed to resolve only 108 cases, or 28% of all the cases they have handled.- The seven basic courts of the Republic of Kosovo during 2021 have handled a total of 383 corruption cases (281 of which were inherited from the previous year and 102 new cases created during the year), while they managed to resolve only 108 cases, or 28% of all cases they had at work. 73% of the corruption cases that were at work during 2021, namely 281 cases, were inherited from the previous years.

-The resolution rate of corruption cases in all basic courts during 2021 was 106%, which means that the number of cases resolved during this period exceeds the number of new cases created during the year.

-Based on the general statistics of the Judicial Council of Kosovo, the best results in the resolution of corruption cases during this period were achieved by the Basic Court of Prizren, which during this period achieved the highest rate of turnover of Cases (1.15), the lowest index of accumulated cases (1.13), as well as the shortest time needed to solve the cases that remained unresolved this year (317 days). In other words, out of 43 corruption cases that this court has dealt with, it has managed to resolve 23 cases, or 53% of all cases.

– While the weakest results in the handling of corruption cases during 2021 were achieved by the Basic Court of Pristina, which of the 197 cases it had at work in 2021, managed to solve only 34 of them, or only 17%. During this period, this court achieved the lowest turnover rate of cases (0.20), the highest index of accumulation of cases (4.61), as well as the longest time for the resolution of the cases that remained unresolved this year.

-In 2021, the basic courts issued 59 guilty verdicts, 26 acquittals, 4 rejection verdicts, and 19 cases were resolved in other ways. Of the guilty verdicts, for most of them, namely for 31 cases, finer sentences were imposed, while for 22 cases prison sentences were imposed and for 6 cases conditional sentences.

 

Pristina, March 1, 2022 – The FOL movement with the financial support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund held a press conference today where it published the monitoring of the report “Municipalities do not implement the Administrative Instruction of the MLGA No. 02/2019”.

FOL has monitored the level of implementation of Law No. 03/L-040 for Local Self-Government and Administrative Instruction (MAPL) no. 02/2019 on the Organization, Operation and Cooperation of Municipalities with Villages, Settlements and Urban Neighborhoods where the issue of selecting local councils is elaborated in detail.

Ardi Shatri said that “according to the administrative instruction in force, municipalities must adopt new municipal regulations for the regulation of local councils in compliance with the requirements of this administrative instruction within 6 months from its entry into force”.

Shatri said that “according to the monitoring of FOL, of the 38 municipalities of Kosovo, 14 municipalities (Prizren, Pejë, Ferizaj, Gjakovë, Mitrovica, Skenderaj, Kamenica, Hani i Elezit, Lipjan, Klinë, Kaçanik, Viti, Kllokot, Graçanicë) have published on their official websites the new versions of the municipal regulations for the organization and operation of local councils, which are in compliance with the requirements of the administrative instruction in force”.

Of the municipalities that have published the new regulations, only 2 municipalities (the Municipality of Gjakova and the Municipality of Peja) are fully implementing the new regulation in practice, he said. In addition, 13 municipalities (Deçan, Istog, Dragash, Obiliq, Leposaviq, Rahovec, Prishtina, Suharekë, Vushtrri, Gllogoc, Podujevë, Gjilan and Novobërdë) are operating with the old regulations, which are not in compliance with the administrative instruction in force. 11 municipalities (Fushë Kosovë, Partesh, Shtime, Shtërpcë, Zveçan, Zubin Potok, North Mitrovica, Junik, Mamushë, Malishevë, Ranilluge) have not published any version of the regulations.

According to Shatri, “the municipalities that have published the new municipal regulation in compliance with the requirements of the administrative instruction are the Municipality of Mitrovica, Gjakova and that of Peja”, while the municipality of Podujeva has indicated that the regulation is still in the stage of public consultation”. Meanwhile, the municipality of Gjilan has published the old municipal regulation that is not in compliance with the requirements of the administrative instruction.

Shatri said that regarding the status of the selection of local councils, according to the data sent by the responsible officials of the municipalities, out of the total of 38 municipalities of Kosovo, 18 of them (or 47%) have established local councils which are functioning normally , 8 municipalities (or 8%) have reported that the mandate of the local councils has passed, or that they have not yet been elected, while 12 municipalities (or 31%) have not responded at all about the status of the establishment and operation of the local councils.

According to data provided by FOL, of the 740 elected chairmen of local councils, 733 of them, or 99%, are men, while only 7 are women (respectively only 1%). The municipalities that have elected female chairpersons of the local councils are: the Municipality of Peja (with 3 female chairpersons of the councils), the Municipality of Shtime and the Municipality of Prizren (with 2 female chairpersons of the councils), said Shatri.

FOL recommends the Ministry of Local Government Administration to coordinate with the Association of Kosovo Municipalities regarding the approval of new municipal regulations for the selection of local councils, as well as the establishment and operation of local councils in compliance with municipal regulations, administrative instructions and the law on local self-government.

For more please find the attached report link: .

Ky aktivitet është mbështetur nga Rockefeller Brothers Fund.