4.3 Mission in Kosovo
to every resident in Kosovo in all 38 municipalities, including
the north, where their establishment is expected to take place
at the earliest possible opportunity.
On 29 December, the Mission completed the process of
supporting the MoIA in developing the first publication
designed for members of MCSCs. The “Guide for MCSC
members” is the result of an eight-month process of interministerial and expert collaboration by the CSCO with
support from the Mission. By finalizing this first edition,
which aims to facilitate the regular activities of MCSC
members as well as familiarize new members with their roles
and duties in this consultative community safety mechanism,
the Mission also supported the strengthening of the CSCO
as the main agent for the capacity building of MCSCs in the
future. Following the aforementioned activities, the Mission
assessed the feasibility of future training requirements for
existing and new members of MCSCs together with partners
from the MoIA and KP, including preparations for a training
of trainers in municipal community safety programme to
be scheduled in 2017 as the final stage of the handover of
capacity-building from the Mission to responsible local
institutions.
Gender-based and Domestic Violence
Between October and December, the DHRC of the
Mission organized five one-day roundtables to present
the findings of their monitoring of the implementation of
the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Protection
from Domestic Violence. The aim of the roundtables was
to address shortcomings in the treatment of victims of
domestic violence identified during the monitoring, and
produce recommendations to improve referral mechanisms
and protect the rights of victims of domestic violence. The
discussions were preceded by a presentation on the roles
and responsibilities of health care providers on identifying,
referring and treating cases of domestic violence, as well as
an overview of existing gaps in available forms of redress
for domestic violence victims in Prishtinë/Priština and
Mitrovicë/Mitrovica regions.
In December, the DHRC of the Mission jointly with the
Ministry of Health organized four regional workshops for
health care providers on how to identify, refer and treat
victims of domestic violence. The workshops, which were
held in Pejë/Peć, Gjakovë/Djakovica, Prishtinë/Priština and
Mitrovicë/Mitrovica regions, gathered 122 representatives
(67 women and 55 men) from health care providers and
the KP Domestic Violence Unit. The aim of the workshops
was to improve referral mechanisms, enhance co-operation
between healthcare providers and the KP and protect the
rights of victims of domestic violence.
62
Hate Crime
In 2016, the Mission continued to monitor the KP’s response
to hate crimes and incidents affecting cultural and religious
sites. In order to improve shortcomings in data collection
and recording of hate crimes, the Mission provided
recommendations in the classification and recording of
hate crimes through a report it prepared and shared with
both the KP and the MoIA. The Mission remains concerned
that there is still a poor understanding on the identification
of hate crimes, which is reflected in under-reporting and
registration. This contributes to misleading and insufficient
data on the number of hate crime incidents and responses of
the KP, as well as prosecutors.
From 15 April to 13 May, the Mission facilitated eight
workshops on hate speech and hate crimes for around 135
KP officers and prosecutors in all police regions. The primary
purpose of these workshops was to broaden the participants’
knowledge on international human rights standards and
applicable domestic laws pertaining to hate speech and hate
crimes. The workshops highlighted the clear distinction
between the freedom of expression and hate speech in line
with international human rights standards. The workshops
also provided a succinct overview of hate speech in Kosovo,
where the participants thoroughly analyzed elements
including context, speaker, intent, content and form, the
extent of the speech and the likelihood that it characterized
hate speech.
The OSCE field operations in South-Eastern Europe
(SEE) met in Belgrade to discuss the implementation of
recommendations agreed at the 2015 Regional Conference
on Hate Crime. Field operations’ representatives agreed to
initiate a call for academic papers on various aspects of hate
crimes. The Mission contributed to the review of hate crime
concept papers, after which representatives from the OSCE
field operations met and reviewed the proposals on 7 and 8
June in Tirana.
On 11 and 12 July, the Mission, in co-operation with the
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
(ODIHR), facilitated a workshop on improving hate crime
registration in Kosovo, which currently prevents police and
prosecutors from dealing with such crimes effectively. The
workshop brought together representatives from the KP,
Prosecution Office and Kosovo Judicial Institute, and focused
on identifying gaps on hate crime data collection in Kosovo,
as well as the procedures for the hate crime recording system
of bias motivated crimes employed by the police and other
institutions. The workshop ended with a set of conclusions
and recommendations that highlighted the need to create
an inter-institutional working group that would ensure the
implementation of recommendations derived from the
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