In a new report HRW criticizes Kosovo's justice system, saying its failure to fairly and adequately prosecute criminals is to blame for its ongoing ethnic and political violence. The New York-based human rights group urged Kosovo's government and European overseers to improve Kosovo's "extremely weak" justice system.

 

“Kosovo’s criminal justice system is broken,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s in urgent need of fixing and that will take a real commitment by the government and the EU.”

 

The 34-page report, “Kosovo Criminal Justice Scorecard,” assesses progress in the justice system since the publication of a May 2006 Human Rights Watch report “Not on the Agenda: The Continuing Failure to Address Accountability in Kosovo Post-March 2004.”

The follow-up report concludes that there has been little progress on some of the key deficiencies in the system.
 
Witness protection is a particular problem, says HRW, especially in cases involving organized crime, war crimes, and attacks on minorities. Widespread witness intimidation and harassment mean that many witnesses are unwilling to come forward. Kosovo lacks a witness protection law, and judges and prosecutors often fail to use those measures that are available. For witnesses in the most sensitive cases, relocation outside Kosovo is the only effective means of protection. Despite this, European states and the United States are reluctant to receive, or otherwise support, witnesses who need to be relocated from Kosovo. “Unless EU states and the US are prepared to relocate and receive witnesses at risk, it will be next to impossible to prosecute individuals responsible for some of the most serious crimes”, said Carter.
 
Kosovo’s inadequate justice system has far-reaching consequences. In particular, many of Kosovo’s ongoing human rights problems, particularly ethnically and politically motivated violence such as anti-minority riots in 2004, can be traced back to the failure of the authorities to investigate, arrest and prosecute those committing the abuses.
 
The full report is available here: 

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/kosovo0308/