UNMIK/PR/1439
PRISTINA – SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen today addressed the first meeting of Internal Security Sector Review’s Consultative Group, as part of the ISSR process.
The Consultative Group draws from all elements of the Kosovo society, including political parties, representatives of ethnic and religious communities, business groups, media, and women’s groups.
Welcoming the participants to the Consultative Group, the SRSG recalled that the ISSR was “introduced as a very important capacity-building exercise in the area of security but was also the first concrete initiative to get ready for Post-Status Kosovo”. The purpose of the internal sector review is to build the security architecture of the new Kosovo, he added.
The role of ISSR Consultative Group, in which the SRSG encouraged all individuals and communities to participate, is to inform, review, and validate the development of the future internal security policies. “The Consultative Group is established exactly in recognition of the fact that all citizens of Kosovo, all individuals, have an interest in building up the kind of security arrangement that means that each and every person in Kosovo can feel safe and secure in a future Kosovo”, the SRSG said.
“This is indeed your chance to include and contribute your experiences, your views, your opinions and feed those views and opinions into the ISSR process. By doing so, you will all be making a very important contribution to building up a Kosovo based on the rule of law and with all the necessary security institutions, security structures, security rules, security standards and security ethics”, the SRSG said
The SRSG asked the participants to consider this meeting “the first of many” and as “the beginning of a process that, by necessity, will require some time. We are here to exchange views and opinions, and I hope you will all be patient, you will be generous and, as always in any democratic society, you will respect the views of all the participants”, he said.
“It is of huge importance that you all get involved”, the SRSG stressed. “In that exercise, all citizens are stakeholders.”