Vushtrri (Upper Stanoc ) July 21, 2022 – The FOL movement, within the framework of the FOL Open debates with the Mayors of the Municipalities of Kosovo, held a third meeting with the Mayor of the Municipality of Vushtrri, Mr. Ferit Idrizi.
The topic of discussion of this meeting with citizens was the implementation of the Law on Local Self-Government, as well as the Administrative Instruction (MAPL) for the Organization, Operation and Cooperation of Municipalities with

Podujevë (Gllamnik) July 20, 2022 – The FOL movement, within the framework of the FOL Open debates with the Mayors of the Municipalities of Kosovo, held a second meeting with the Mayor of the Municipality of Podujev, Mr. Shpejtim Bulliqi.
The topic of discussion of this meeting with citizens was the implementation of the Law on Local Self-Government, as well as the Administrative Instruction (MAPL) for the Organization, Operation and Cooperation of Municipalities with Villages, Settlements and Urban Neighborhoods.
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.
Also, the participants had the opportunity to discuss with Mayor Bulliqi about the problems these citizens face every day. The debate with citizens was held in the municipality of Podujeva, in the premises of the school of the village of Gllamik (SHFMU “Congress of the Monastery”).
FOL will hold debates of this format in other municipalities of Kosovo
This discussion is supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Pristina, July 15, 2022 – The FOL movement has continued with monitoring the publication of judgments for the period June 1 – June 30, 2022 for all Kosovo courts.
During the monitoring of judgments published on the website of the Judicial Council of Kosovo for the aforementioned period, it was observed that a total of 3567 were published. The court with the most judgments published for the month of June 2022 is the Court of Appeal with 746 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, 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