Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

“ Domestic violence against women, including spousal abuse, remained a serious and persistent problem. The law prohibits domestic violence, and convictions carry prison terms of six months to five years. The law treats domestic violence cases as civil cases unless the victim suffers bodily harm. Failure to comply with a civil court's judgment relating to a domestic violence case is a criminal offense and can be prosecuted. When victims did press charges, police domestic violence units conducted investigations and transferred cases to prosecutors. ”

“ The inspectorate lacked trained staff and did not enforce health and safety standards effectively. The law does not permit employees to remove themselves from dangerous workplaces without jeopardizing their continued employment.
Although there is a law to protect employees' health and working conditions, many private and public institutions continued to violate it. Labor inspectorate officials reported difficulties in obtaining accurate information since workers rarely disclosed the problems themselves, in spite of legal protections. ”

“ The constitution and law prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, and in the provision of other state services; however, the situation of persons with disabilities remained difficult. Although the law mandates access to official buildings, it was not enforced and such access was rarely available in practice.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare is the government agency responsible for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. By law, protection and provision of services is offered to all citizens ”

“ Traditional societal attitudes toward women resulted in discrimination. In rural areas, women frequently had little ability to make decisions involving their children or to exercise control over property. While the law makes no gender distinction in the right to inherit property, family property customarily passes only to men. In rare cases, Kosovo Albanian widows, particularly in rural areas, risked losing custody of their children due to a custom calling for children and property to pass to the deceased father's family while the widow returns to her birth family. ”

“ Trafficking in children remained a problem. The NGO Terre des Hommes reported that during the year it identified 15 child victims of trafficking. Seven were from Kosovo, eight from Albania; all were Roma. Six were girls and nine were boys, and their ages ranged from six months to 16 years. All were exploited for labor, typically begging. The six-month-old child was used to aid others in begging. Police identified one minor victim of trafficking, a sexually exploited 17–year-old girl from Albania. ”

“ While education is free and compulsory up to age 15, statistics from 2005, the most recent year for which data was available, indicated that only 77 percent of children between the ages of seven and 14 from non-Serb minority communities (Ashkali, Bosniak, Egyptian, Gorani, Roma, Turkish, and others) attended school. Girls from non-Serb minorities attended school at a rate of 69 percent. In contrast, 97.5 percent of Kosovo Albanian and 99 percent of Kosovo Serb children were enrolled in primary school. Since 2008 the government has purchased books for pupils through the fifth grade. ”

“ International organizations and NGOs continued to report that corruption was a serious problem. A lack of effective judicial oversight and general weakness in the rule of law contributed to corruption in the government.
The law provides that public officials are subject to financial disclosure laws. During the year the Assembly passed new anti-corruption legislation and amended an existing conflict-of-interest law. The anticorruption law creates a government agency to investigate public corruption and forward suspected cases of corruption to prosecutors. ”

“ Women possess the same legal rights as men but traditionally have a lower social status, which affected their treatment within the legal system. The Agency for Gender Equality under the Prime Minister's Office has the mandate to implement and monitor the gender equality law. ”

“ There was anecdotal evidence of child marriage, particularly in the Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian, and Kosovo Albanian communities. The government and NGOs did not compile statistics on child marriage, so the extent of the problem was unclear.
Statutory rape is a criminal offense punishable by five to 20 years in prison, depending on circumstances and the age of the victim.
The law prohibits possession, production, and distribution of child pornography. Anyone who produces, uses, or involves a child in making or producing pornography is subject to one to five years' imprisonment. ”

“ For internally trafficked victims, 64 percent received a false job promise, nearly 21 percent were given a false promise of marriage, and 4 percent were kidnapped.
Police reported great difficulty in identifying trafficking victims due to their reluctance to come forward and report the crimes to police. Unlike in previous years, where traffickers shifted their operations into private homes, all the trafficking victims identified by police were discovered in public bars and clubs. Traffickers continued to use financial incentives to encourage victims to refuse assistance. ”

“ Sporadic incidents of violence and intimidation targeting minorities continued to limit freedom of movement for Kosovo Albanians in northern Kosovo. The government enhanced efforts to facilitate minority travel, but real and perceived risks deterred many minorities from traveling outside their neighborhoods.
Police arrested and filed charges against three suspects in the March 2008 demolition of a bridge in a Kosovo Serb village. ”

“ Official and societal discrimination persisted against Kosovo Serb, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities in employment, education, social services, language use, freedom of movement, the right to return, and other basic rights. Members of the Kosovo Bosniak and Gorani communities also complained of discrimination. Reports of violence and other crimes directed at minorities and their property persisted. ”

“ Children acquire Kosovo citizenship from their parents or by virtue of birth in the country. According to a July 2008 UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) study, 14 percent of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian children in Kosovo Albanian-majority areas were not registered at birth. In Kosovo Serb-majority areas, 5 percent of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian children were not properly registered. UNICEF reported that as a rule, a lack of registration did not impact the child's ability to receive elementary education or health care but could adversely affect access to social assistance. ”

“ According to a draft report prepared by the prime minister's Office of Community Affairs, minority employment in public institutions fell during the year and was generally confined to lower levels of the government. The report recommended that the government more actively reach out to minorities and implement reporting, recruiting, training, equal opportunity, and language procedures. ”

“ Children were exploited most commonly for labor–-primarily begging–-while adults were trafficked mostly for commercial sexual exploitation in illegal brothels or through call girl services. Victims were trafficked through the country to Albania and Macedonia.
According to police and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) , there were more identified victims of trafficking during the year compared with previous years. During the year police identified 22 adult trafficking victims: 11 Kosovo Albanian women and 11 foreign female victims. ”

“ The country had a multiparty system dominated by five Kosovo Albanian parties with several minority parties and coalitions.
The law provides that individuals may nominate themselves as candidates to their parties, which must hold open and transparent internal elections to select candidate lists. Political parties could operate without restriction or outside interference, but party affiliation played an important role in access to government services and social and employment opportunities. ”

“ The law requires equal conditions for schoolchildren regardless of mother tongue and provides the right to native-language public education for minority students through secondary school. Schools teaching in Serbian, Bosnian, and Turkish operated during the year. Both Kosovo Serb and Kosovo Albanian children attended schools with inadequate facilities that lacked basic equipment. A few schools housed both Kosovo Serb and Kosovo Albanian pupils, who studied different curricula and rotated class schedules. ”

“ A 2006 study by UNICEF and the Ministry of Education on the prevalence of violence in schools found that violence against children was condoned and that corporal punishment was an accepted practice in homes and schools. Some students who lived far from school reported they were afraid to travel the distance due to the threat of peer violence. Children reported that persons close to them were perpetrators of violence, that boys were at higher risk for physical violence, and that girls were at higher risk of verbal abuse. ”

“ There were no developments in the 2007 Peje/Pec incident in which two Kosovo Albanian men assaulted and seriously injured a Kosovo Egyptian man or in the 2007 assault by a Kosovo Albanian on a Kosovo Bosniak. In the second case, the victim was hospitalized with serious injuries and police apprehended a suspect.
Roma were subject to pervasive social and economic discrimination; often lacked access to basic hygiene, medical care, and education; and were heavily dependent on humanitarian aid for survival. ”

“ A person convicted of engaging in sex with a person known to be a trafficking victim may be imprisoned from three months to five years, while sex with a minor known to be a trafficking victim carries a penalty of two to 10 years' imprisonment. When trafficking is committed by an official in the exercise of their duties, the perpetrator may be imprisoned for five to 15 years. ”

“ While no women were elected in the November mayoral elections, women represented 31 percent of elected municipal representatives.
Following the 2007 elections, there were 24 ethnic minority members in the 120-seat Assembly, including 10 Kosovo Serbs and 14 members of other groups, including ethnic Turks, Bosniaks, Gorani, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians. There were three minority government ministers--two Kosovo Serbs and one Kosovo Bosniak--and two Serb and two Bosniak deputy ministers. ”

“ Traditional societal attitudes about homosexuality intimidated most gays and lesbians into concealing their sexual orientation. LGBT individuals generally felt insecure, with many reporting threats to their personal safety. There were fewer threats reported than in previous years. This diminished reporting may have been due to greater caution taken by LGBT persons in their public activities. The print media at times reinforced negative attitudes by publishing articles about homosexuality that characterized LGBT persons as mentally ill. ”

“ Kosovo Serb representation in municipal assemblies in the southern part of the country was significantly higher than in previous years due to increased Serb participation in the elections.
In June 2008 the government implemented a new election law to create a single, multimember electoral district throughout the country. Under the law, elections are to be held with open lists according to a proportional majority system; a quota system is supposed to ensure adequate representation for women and minorities in the Assembly ”

“ Despite a lack of legal impediments, relatively few women obtained upper-level management positions in business, the police, or government. Women represented less than 30 percent of the government workforce. According to the Business Registration Agency, women owned fewer than 5 percent of registered businesses. Female unemployment remained at around 80 percent, 25 to 30 percentage points higher than the rate for men. ”

“ During the year employers often failed to abide by official labor standards due to a lack of government enforcement, particularly with regard to the standard work week and compulsory and unpaid overtime. Employees often did not report such violations due to fear of reprisals. According to the BSPK, many individuals worked long hours in the private sector as at-will employees without employment contracts, regular pay, or pension contributions paid on their behalf. ”

“ The police inspectorate operates as an independent body under the Internal Affairs Ministry and has a mandate to promote police efficiency and effectiveness, hold police accountable for their actions, and investigate alleged legal violations. ”

“ Kosovo Albanians and Serbs had clashed over the proposed mosque in June 2008.
There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts during the year. Approximately 40 individuals from two families in Prizren had some Jewish roots. The Albanian-Jewish Solidarity Association, an organization dedicated to promoting relations between ethnic Albanians and Jews, was active during the year. No synagogues existed in the country, but there was a small cemetery in Pristina. ”

“ The ministry provided some financial support to NGOs running shelters for domestic violence victims, which also accommodated some trafficking victims. The ministry also provided social services through social welfare centers. Several domestic and international NGOs pursued activities to assist women; however, they were constrained by a tradition of silence concerning domestic violence, sexual abuse, and rape.
The police training school offered special courses on domestic violence and rape. There were no reports that the police responded inappropriately to rape or domestic abuse allegations. ”