The Weakest Link of Kosovo's Democracy - KFOS

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when appointed or promoted within the system.
Another dimension of the Kosovar justice system that requires attention is that of multiethnicity.
Judges of the Serb community have rejected to contribute to the system
after February 17, 2008, beside accepting their salaries. Aware of the low number of
judges and prosecutors that face an increasing number of cases and a low budget is
another fact that cannot be denied. The substitution of those that retire due to age, or
those dismissed takes a very long process. So far, it has been very difficult for the Kosovar
society to identify individuals or institutions with responsibility on bad functioning
of the justice system. Further, the situation does not seem to change in a near future.
unMIK Justice System
The merits and responsibilities for creation and setting up of the Kosovar justice system
belong to UNMIK and other international agencies engaged in its development
and consolidation. As such the system has both its own advantages and weaknesses.
International judges and prosecutors have contributed to proper functioning of Kosovar
justice. But the cases that these structure paid attention to were those that implies
inter-ethnic and war crimes. With the increasing number of judges and prosecutors the
cases they engaged in belonged to a broader spectrum of problems. Nevertheless their
number was limited. The quality of this engagement remains unclear to this day. Mr.
Alexander Borg Olivier, legal advisor to the UN’s Special Representative of Secretary
General claimed during an interview early this year that “no country sends its best
judges and prosecutors to missions, because they are needed in their own country.
The countries provide only with those less needed. Those we have in Kosovo are the
best we could get. Some stay for two-three months, and majority of them are not that
committed to know the country they work in” 46 .
Another weakness of international engagement seems to have reflected in the recruitment
of Kosovar judges and prosecutors. The recruitment seems not to have
considered the context of political and social developments in the country that has not
developed an enabling environment for the highly needed reforms of the justice sector.
Establishment of courts which combined national and international judges was a
development that took place for the first time Kosova, in entire UN practice. Hence, the
lack of experience must have had own impact. But after an 8 year experience, much
more could have been achieved.
The Kosovar society is going through important and intensive developments which
make the progress of justice sector difficult and complicate the efforts to evaluate and
interpret the impact. The purpose of this report was to identify and evaluation the relations
the Kosovar justice has established with Kosovar politics and other institutions in
general. In this effort, the research group focused on the politicization and the partiality
of the judiciary.
46 Express, 31 January 2008 “Foli Borgu”