On 4 and 5 of July 2019, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) welcomed 15 Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) from Kosovo and Serbia at its permanent premises in The Hague for the second workshop with the Court Information Network (CIN). The network of NGOs was established in June 2018 following several months of consultations with various stakeholders. The aim of the CIN is to build relationships with people and NGOs in the region as part of the KSC's objective to ensure accurate and transparent sharing and dissemination of information about its mandate and work.
The objective of this year’s workshop was to evaluate the progress made by the KSC in its outreach activities following feedback and recommendations received from the CIN during last year’s workshop and discuss manners in which the KSC outreach programme can still be improved as well as suggestions for potential future outreach activities.
President Ekaterina Trendafilova welcomed the group and reiterated how much the KSC values the Network’s feedback and their “assistance to the KSC in reaching the people in Kosovo and the region most affected by the court’s work by, among others, disseminating accurate information about the court’s mandate and operations”. The President emphasised how important outreach is to the success of the KSC and expressed her gratitude to the participants for their participation in this years’ workshop.
The NGOs that participated in the workshop this year were the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) Kosovo; HLC Serbia; European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI) Kosovo; Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) Kosovo; YIHR Serbia; YUCOM; AKTIV; Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture (ACDC); Center for Research, Documentation and Publication (CRDP); Integra; Center for Peace and Tolerance (CPT); ForumZFD Serbia; ForumZFD Kosovo, Roma in Action, and Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (CHRIS).
Since the Network last met in June 2018, the KSC has carried out over 30 outreach meetings with civil society in different parts of Kosovo, including Prishtinë/Priština, Obiliq/ć, Graçanicë/Gračanica, Gjilan/Gnjilane, Ferizaj/Uroševac, Shtërpcë/Štrpce, Pejë/Peć, Gjakovë/Djakovica, Mitrovica North, Hoçë e Madhe/Velika Hoča and Graboc/Grabovac, and met with Victims’ Associations in Belgrade, Niš/Nish and Kraljevo/Kraljevë. The KSC also organised a roundtable with journalists in Kosovo with respect to reporting on future trials at the KSC and conducted a training on trial-reporting in cooperation with the International Nuremberg Principles Academy in Nuremberg.
The KSC’s outreach activities in Kosovo are funded with the generous support of the Swiss Government.
