On 18 and 19 of October 2022, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) welcomed Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) from Kosovo and Serbia to its premises in The Hague for a workshop on the court’s outreach programme.
The focus of the workshop was to discuss perceptions of the KSC and to receive feedback and recommendations on how the court can reach as many people as possible with accurate information that answers the questions Kosovo citizens in particular may have about the current stage of proceedings, in an easy-to-understand form.
President Ekaterina Trendafilova and Registrar Fidelma Donlon welcomed the participants. They spoke about the significance of the KSC’s outreach work over the years and the importance of the advice and feedback received from NGOs working in Kosovo and the region on the court’s outreach efforts.
“With the increased judicial activity and the various significant milestones that have been reached in the proceedings over the last year, it is all the more important to ensure that people in Kosovo and elsewhere are able not only to follow but also to understand what we do. With the excellent feedback received from the NGOs, we have tailored our outreach programme to provide for easily accessible information, including by making videos of our hearings available on YouTube and holding weekly press briefings to explain that week’s judicial activity. To that end, we are very grateful to the NGOs for their honest and very useful input,” said the President.
“Outreach has been a central priority of the KSC since the court became judicially operational and so far we have held about 130 interactive outreach events reaching some 2,800 participants. In the beginning, our focus was on informing people about the basic mandate and functioning of the court. While this remains important, it is also essential that outreach adapts to the new phase of proceedings and that we constantly look for new ways to bring the judicial process closer to the people,” the Registrar said.
Since 2018, outreach events have been held with young people, law students, journalists, community leaders and other citizens, giving people the opportunity to ask KSC representatives any questions they have and to express their views.
The KSC’s outreach programme in Kosovo is funded with the generous support of Switzerland.
