UNMIK/PR/567
Pristina---The Department of Judicial Affairs welcomes the second public report A Review of the Criminal Justice System 1 September 2000 to 28 February 2001 prepared by the Legal Systems Monitoring Section of UNMIK Pillar III, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The different components of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo share the difficult task of rehabilitating the justice system in Kosovo. Our common goal, to establish a fully functioning and independent judicial system that observes international human rights standards has proven to be complex and most challenging. To this end, OSCE has been given the important task of monitoring to ensure that human rights protection and promotion concerns are addressed. The Department of Judicial Affairs warmly welcomes the current OSCE report as it identifies a number of problems that will have to be tackled in the future.
As a result of the first OSCE report on this subject, a joint OSCE/DJA Working Group was formed. The Working Group met regularly to examine some of the issues raised in that report and to find viable and implementable solutions to problems identified. Again, in this current report, OSCE has underlined its commitment to supporting the further development of the criminal justice system by identifying concrete problems and recommending a strategy to address them in a coherent and comprehensive fashion. There is significant value that can be attached to an objective, external strategic overview which enables reflection and planning for future activities that can lead to improvements to what has been achieved so far and what remains to be achieved.
Since the establishment of the Department of Judicial Affairs, the majority of efforts were directed towards the rehabilitation of the judicial infrastructure, in terms of physical and personnel and the provision of adequate working conditions. Now, as these conditions are generally fulfilled, the Department is concentrating its efforts to improve the quality of the justice system, including the correctional services.
While we can only comment on the part of the Report that reflects on the activities of the Department of Judicial Affairs, it is most useful to have an overview of all related component activities. In this connection, we would also like to stress that this report is based on a review of the activity of one sector of the criminal justice system, particularly cases of special interest from a human rights perspective in the District Courts. Cases in the Municipal Courts, which handle almost ten times more first instance criminal cases, are outside the scope of this review.
Since the first OSCE public report, the Department has introduced many innovative changes and in commenting on the part of the Report that reflects on the activities of the DJA, I would like to mention the most significant points:
The importance of setting up an effective disciplinary mechanism has been emphasized in both reports. UNMIK regulation 2001/8, of 6 April 2001, on the creation of the Kosovo Judicial and Prosecutorial Council is an important milestone. This body is replacing the Advisory Judicial Commission in advising the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on the appointment of, and complaints against, judges, prosecutors and lay judges. A further change is that the Kosovo Judicial and Prosecutorial Council is competent to impose disciplinary sanctions other than removal from the office. In reaching any disciplinary decisions, this new body will be assisted by the Judicial Inspection Unit of the Department of Judicial Affairs. Although not yet fully staffed, this Unit has thus far conducted 21 investigations of alleged misconduct of judges and prosecutors, seven of which have been completed.
The responsibility for all detention centers and correctional services has, since the first OSCE report, been placed under the Penal Management Section of the Department of Judicial Affairs. There are still shortfalls in some aspects of correctional services that are well recognized by the Department. Strategies to address these shortfalls are already in place and, in due time, improvements will be observed.
The Department welcomes the comments in the Report on the significance of the work of the involvement of international judges and prosecutors. It has indeed been a challenge to fully staff the International Judicial Support Program. The Department now has 17 international judicial professionals, including two judges and one prosecutor for each district court and two judges at the Supreme Court of Kosovo. It had been foreseen that full staffing of the Program would lead to operational flexibility but, in fact, the international judiciary has attracted a greater workload than was originally envisaged.
In further developing the Department’s strategy to meet the simultaneous responsibilities for ensuring delivery of justice while laying the foundation for comprehensive reform, we are acutely aware of the deficiencies of the system over which we are presiding and the magnitude of the task ahead. This Report provides an additional tool to help focus all efforts of the various components of the Mission working in the field of criminal justice and the treatment of offenders. This will ultimately lead to improved commitment to coordinating a comprehensive strategy to address the immediate and long-term needs of the justice system, while guaranteeing due process.
Finally, the Department of Judicial Affairs wishes to express the sincere thanks of all its staff members to their colleagues of the OSCE team who put together the second public report, and in particular to the field monitors whose work has been fundamental to the value of the information that this report contains.