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Minority Rights in Kosovo under International Rule

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Future status talks provide best hope and greatest danger for peace in Kosovo
08.07.06 Vienna: As talks on the future status of Kosovo resume today with a focus on community rights and decentralisation, Clive Baldwin, Head of International Advocacy at MRG warns that unless minority communities are consulted at each stage of the process and their rights are legally safeguarded, the seeds are being sown for conflict in the future. 'The danger is that the patterns of segregation that are accepted in Kosovo, and that lead to the terror of ethnic cleansing, will be enshrined in the constitution and will be played out again over the next decade,' he says.

By Clive Baldwin

Summary

Nowhere in Europe is there such segregation as Kosovo. Thousands of people are still displaced and in camps. Nowhere else are there so many 'ethnically pure' towns and villages scattered across such a small province. Nowhere is there such a level of fear for so many minorities that they will be harassed simply for who they are. And perhaps nowhere else in Europe is at such a high risk of ethnic cleansing occurring in the near future - or even a risk of genocide.

This is not a description of Kosovo in 1998 or in 2003. It is a description of Kosovo today. For the Serbs and 'other minorities' - the Roma, Bosniaks (Slavic Muslims), Croats, Turks and Albanians of Kosovo - who suffer from expulsion from their homes, discrimination and restrictions on speaking their own language, the pattern of violence they have endured for so long may be about to be entrenched as law in the new Kosovo, as the future status talks continue behind closed doors in Vienna. How, after one of the longest and most expensive international administrations since the creation of the United Nations (UN), whose mandate was explicitly to secure an environment for refugees to return home and ensure public safety (Resolution 1244, Article 10), has this been allowed to occur? This report tracks a clear failure on the part of the international protectorate to learn lessons from the past and draw on the minority rights expertise available to it in the UN and other bodies. This failure has allowed decision-makers to remain unaccountable, and produced a Constitutional Framework that refers to minority rights so broadly that they are too wide to be effective. Instead of integration, the current situation encourages the opposite: segregation. The report shows how the initial international governance structure - five different armed brigades in Kosovo, each running a different region and led by a different country (France, Germany, Italy the UK and the USA), each with very different policies towards security and minorities - has kept fresh the wounds inflicted before the security forces first arrived and allowed patterns of violence to be repeated.

The problem is not lack of financing. Conversely, the fact that so much money has been spent on the region has allowed segregation in public services to become an easy solution to conflict between groups. A short-term mentality, the use of quota systems in public services and an electoral system based on rigid ethnic representation show a lack of commitment to implementing minority rights in any meaningful way.

This report shows how the future status negotiations currently under way in Vienna represent both the best hope and the greatest danger for peace. For hope to be justified, the report emphasizes, there is a radical need for change in mindset and in practice:

- Minority rights should be guaranteed by a rule of law that is actually taken seriously and applied. Till today, the governing administration, the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) have declared themselves above regulation, overturning even the most basic of human rights laws, that of requiring all detention to be by order of a judge. Rights that exist on paper are made meaningless, and any fragile sense of security minorities have is consistently undermined. Therefore:

- The criminal justice system must hold those responsible for past crimes to account and see them arrested whatever their political power. Out of hundreds of investigations into the 2004 atrocities, few have been prosecuted, and those few convicted have received lenient sentences.

- All minorities should be consulted on the future of their lives, their property and their country, instead of talks taking place among a select group of people, in secret and behind closed doors.

- Specific efforts must be made to include women's views and international negotiations should include minority rights and gender experts. When the Constitutional Framework was drawn up in 2001 it was not put up for general consultation. The same mistake is being made today, with talks taking place in Vienna, far from where the most disadvantaged can take part. Understanding the devastating realities facing returning refugees and communities wanting to keep their language alive, to travel in safety and to seek work at all levels of society - all of which have become next to impossible for Kosovo's minorities despite seven years of international intervention - is vital for anyone involved in peacekeeping missions, in reportage or in international governance.

The report shows that measures that separate communities through religion or ethnicity should be transitional, if they have to be used at all. The future status talks offer a chance for change. Otherwise, the danger is that the patterns of segregation that are accepted in Kosovo, and that lead to the terror of ethnic cleansing, will be enshrined in the Constitution, and will be played out again over the next decade.

Preface

In 1999 the United Nations took over the administration of Kosovo with minority rights at the core of its mandate. Today, with the future status negotiations beginning, Kosovo remains a deeply divided, and physically segregated society. Kosovo provides important challenges, and also opportunities to fulfil the guarantees of human rights and the promises of international cooperation. To the realization of these promises we must all bring the most faithful application of lessons learned over the past decades of experience with enforcement of rights, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction. The test that Kosovo offers is also a challenge for the international machinery of human rights and, more specifically, minority rights. Where ethnic tensions and violence divide societies, as in Kosovo, respect for minority rights advances the conditions for political and social stability and peace. Rather than promoting segregation and separation, minority rights are based on the principle of an integrated society, where each can use their own language, enjoy their culture and practise their religion but still feel part of a broader, inclusive national identity. In such societies, various national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups are able to live confidently together, communicate effectively, and recognize value in their differences and in their society's cultural diversity.

Central to my mandate as UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues is the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. This, along with other pertinent regional and international standards on minority rights, offers the essential normative tools from which overdue solutions can emerge. They provide both obligations and guidance in the field of minority rights, but also, once enshrined into a constitutional and legislative framework, a firm foundation upon which to build just societies. On their own such standards are not enough; they require commitment, leadership and creative initiatives to turn principles into reality. The UN and other inter-governmental organizations currently working in Kosovo, need to more effectively implement human rights standards and human rights-based approaches. I welcome the appointment of the Honourable Marti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland, to lead the future status talks and believe that he will play a pivotal role in forging constructive, collaborative strategies of engagement and inclusive approaches in the negotiations ahead.

The diverse ethnic, religious and linguistic communities of Kosovo must realize that solutions lie in their hands as much as they are the responsibility of governments and the international community, and make concerted efforts to move beyond the current divisions. The political will to reach just and durable solutions must be demonstrated by the whole of civil society, as well as by states and international actors. The political will to respect the rights and value the contributions of all is an essential component of functioning, healthy, prosperous societies: the will to talk, to share, to cooperate, to include and to participate; the will to build bridges and break down barriers between communities, no matter how entrenched those barriers have become. Without such will, the best efforts of the international community will never be sufficient. There are no easy solutions to the problems of Koso-vo; however, there are paths ahead that offer the greatest potential for inclusion, peace, stability and development. Such paths must firmly reject segregation and ethnic cleansing, and embrace the rule of law and minority rights. The alternative is a future of continuing division, distrust and uncertainty, which has the potential not only to bring suffering and conflict once again to the lives of the people of Kosovo, but also to further inflame the tensions of a region that has suffered enough from the destructive consequences of nationalism and discrimination.

I welcome this timely and important report from Minority Rights Group International, which offers a vital and usefully realistic analysis of progress so far on the dif-ficult road to a new Kosovo. A key message of this report is the need for consultation and the meaningful participation of all of Kosovo's communities, a message that I fully endorse.

The report also provides a much-needed assessment of the essential role of minority rights, and guidance on ensuring that they find their place in the future legal framework of Kosovo, whatever the outcome of the future status negotiations.

Gay McDougall
UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues

(pdf* format - 434 KB)