Month: May 2023

Building professional capacities of judges and prosecutors including professionals associates on “Charging and sentencing of Domestic Violence cases” – practical implementation of the international standards on treating domestic violence cases including the national legal framework for protection from domestic violence – was the focus of the second training on this topic held under the Kosovo Justice Academy umbrella.

18 participants, consisting of 14 judges, three prosecutors and one professional associate, coming from six regions: Pristina, Peja, Prizren, Ferizaj, Gjilan and Mitrovica attended the training, delivered by the EUKOJUST Long Term Expert on Public Legal Education/Domestic Violence and Marginalized Groups Bardhë Krasniqi.

The training “Charging and sentencing of Domestic Violence cases” including its material is tailored and aimed at:

• Improving prosecutorial and judicial response to domestic violence cases,
• Understanding the seriousness and complexity of domestic violence cases to contribute and increase consistency in the treatment of domestic violence cases and expand their practice-based resources.
• Safeguard and achieve the charging and sentencing of domestic violence cases proportionate to the gravity of the crime in compliance with international and national legal standards.

The participants highly appreciated this training and benefited both from the professional point of view and from the good experience of the trainer.

The training was delivered under the EUKOJUST project’s specific objective of strengthening access to justice for all citizens in Kosovo, particularly in the field of domestic violence and disadvantaged or marginalized groups – and is in compliance with both the Rule of Law Strategy and Strategy on Protection from Domestic Violence and Violence against Women and their Action plans.

A workshop on creating the platform for centralizing translation and interpretation services in the Kosovo court system was held in Pristina.

The event, co-chaired by the EUKOJUST Long Term Expert for Access to Justice, Alina Matache, and the Head of the Kosovo Judicial Council Court Administration Committee, Fahret Vellija, gathered Court Presidents, Court Administrators, KJC members, translators, and interpreters to discuss options on centralizing the translation and interpretation services.

The participants had the opportunity to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of two options that were presented in the Concept “Centralization of translation services within Kosovo Court System” as drafted by EUKOJUST Midterm Expert on Management of Translation Services in Courts and Prosecution Offices, Filloreta Hoxha.

At the tenth meeting of the Steering Committee of the Justice Sector Programme in Kosovo, financed by the European Union, the achievements for January – April 2023 period, were discussed. The meeting, held in Pristina on April 26, was co-chaired by the Chair of Kosovo Judicial Council Mr. Albert Zogaj, and Mr. Volkmar Theobald, EUKOJUST Team Leader.

Present at the meeting were also: Deputy Minister of Justice Mr. Blerim Sallahu, Chair of Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, Mr. Jetish Maloku, Acting Chief State Prosecutor, Mr. Besim Kelmendi, Director of the Legal Office of the Prime Minister’s Office Mr. Mentori Borovci, EUKOJUST Project Director from IRZ Ms. Teresa Thalhammer, as well as Mr. Nicola Scaramuzzo from EU Office in Kosovo.

During the presentation, it was underlined that in general, EUKOJUST has made progress in supporting the inter-institutional coordination mechanism and beneficiary institutions,  Ministry of Justice, Kosovo Judicial Council, Kosovo Prosecutorial Council and Kosovo Justice Academy, with the aim of increasing their capacities for systematic and sustainable coordination of the overall rule of law and justice system.

In addition, the project provided support in strengthening their capacities for better coordination and communication among their institutions and their representatives, as an essential part of the well-functioning of the overall justice system.

The large-scale modification of Kosovo justice legal order towards their approximation with the EU Acquis has been further supported. In parallel, the project is also supporting the legal cleaning and legal consolidation process to create a coherent legal order that can be easily implemented.

The project contributed to improvement of access to justice for all in Kosovo, especially for women, ethnic minorities, juveniles, persons with disabilities, vulnerable, marginalized, and under-represented groups, by strengthening free legal aid mechanism, improving access to jurisprudence and legislation in non-majority languages, and strengthening free legal professions as per the strategy on the fight against domestic violence and rule of law strategy and ensuring its implementation.

During this period, EUKOJUST has supported its stakeholders with eighteen (18) assessment and research reports, drafted four (4) concept documents; provided support in drafting of five (5) sub-legal acts and supported seven (7) strategies and action plans; drafted seven (7) manuals and SoP’s. Regarding capacity building, eight (8) training programs and materials to support the justice reform in line with the EU best practices were drafted by the experts and started with their implementation. Finally, the experts have provided one memorandum of cooperation between KCS and Centre for Counselling, Social Service and Research.  During these three months, the project organised 20 events including a study visit for interpreters and translators at the European Parliament and European Commission translation services in Brussels.

The data evidence from the capacity building events were systematically collected by the project and disaggregated by gender. The project has further cooperated with parallel assistance and all sector donors in Kosovo, to create good synergy and coordinate their activities to avoid any possible overlap. After the discussion, the voting members of the Steering Committee set the end of July as the date for the next Steering Committee Meeting and agreed on its chairing, while EUKOJUST presented the work plan for the next quarter.