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Roundtable on “Social Assistance, legislation and administrative procedures
– criteria and needs to amend the Law on Social Assistance in Kosovo”
On 29th of
June 2010, the Civil Rights Program – Kosovo (CRP/K) organized a roundtable on the
“Social Assistance, legislation and administrative procedures – criteria and needs
to amend the Law on Social Assistance in Kosovo”.
The focus of this roundtable was article 4.1b of the Law on the Social Assistance
Scheme in Kosovo (LSASK), on the duty of the Center for Social Work for the assignment
of custody of minor, children and the compliance and applicability of the procedures
foreseen by the applicable laws in Kosovo.
The seminar participants included representatives of the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), representative of the office of the Ombudsman,
representatives of the department of Labor and Social Welfare within the Ministry
of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW), directors, managers and coordinators of the
Social Assistance Scheme at the Center for Social Work Kosovo-wide, representatives
of Complaints Commission within the MLSW, representatives of Roma, Ashkaelia and
Egyptian NGOs, CRP/K and others.
Roundtable on the “Administrative Procedures of Civil Status
Registration with focus on Civil Status Registration – late registration and difficult/complex
cases”
On 22nd of June, 2010, the Civil Rights Program – Kosovo (CRP/K)
organized a roundtable on the the “Administrative Procedures of Civil Status Registration
with focus on Civil Status Registration – late registration and difficult/complex
cases”.
The participants included representatives from various institutions, such as the
representatives from municipal civil status registration offices Kosovo-wide (heads
of offices), representatives from the Supreme Court of Kosovo, Ministry of Interior,
office of Ombudsman, UNICEF, representatives of minority communities, and so forth.
The main focus of this seminar was the late registration and difficult/complex cases
in the administrative procedures of civil registration where various participants
from the CRP/K presented five cases from their daily activities pertaining to late
registration, through administrative and court procedures. Various constructive
discussions and debates among the participants took place on the procedures that
were applied during the procession of these cases.
World Refugee Day Celebration
The Civil Rights Program – Kosovo (CRP/K) participated and presented it’s public
information materials in the Art Exhibition that has held at the
Prishtina Art Gallery
, as a part of the World Refugee Day, organized by the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The exhibition was held from 17 to 19 June.
Rebroadcast of the documentary on “Social Inclusion and
Access to Human Rights for Roma, Ashkaelia and Egyptian Communities in Kosovo; Access
to property rights”
The Civil Rights Program – Kosovo (CRP/K) has rebroadcasted the documentary on “Social
Inclusion and Access to Human Rights for Roma, Ashkaelia and Egyptian Communities
in Kosovo; Access to property rights”, from 8 June – 17 June 2010 in the television
networks Kosovo-wide. This documentary is part of the European Commission IPA project,
financed by the European Commission and co-financed by the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Cooperation, Visits, New Projects
CRP/K Executive Director visited some of the CRP/K partners in the region during
the period 6-10 November 2006. First he visited CRP Sisak –
Croatia
and met with the Project Manager. Both sides expressed readiness for further mutual
cooperation. The second visit of the CRP/K ED was to the NGO “Vasa Prava” in
Sarajevo
- B&H. He had meetings with senior officials, as well as the responsible person
for public information. Finally, CRP/K ED visited the NGO Humanitarian
Law
Center
(HLO) in Podgorica –
Montenegro
and met with the Director of this organization. The main topic of mutual discussions
was related to the civil sub-registration of the persons displaced from Kosovo to
Montenegro
.
CRP/K submitted a project proposal to Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
(SHC) on 18 September 2006. The project applied for is: “Information, Counseling
and Free Legal Assistance for IDPs and Refugees”. On October 13, Programme Officer
of SHC – Mr. Peter Oholm notified CRP/K that the project was approved. Following
the approval of this project proposal, CRP/K Executive Director met with the Mr.
Oholm on 23rd of October and discussed
about the newly established cooperation and further mutual support.
During September, CRP/K
established cooperation with the NGO Humanitarian Law Center (HLO) in Podgorica -
Montenegro
.
The cooperation would be on case by case basis, while the role of CRP/K would
be to provide free legal assistance to IDPs from Kosovo displaced in
Montenegro
. The work based on this agreement has already started and is still continuing.
A new project
between CRP/K and DRC/Praxis was signed on 16 May 2006, based on the Agreement between
Association of Citizens Praxis and Civil Rights Program Kosovo and this Agreement
shall be valid from April 1 – December 31, 2006. It is based on the grounds of the
Subcontracting Agreement (506-539/PRAXIS/SA/01) concluded between Praxis and the
Danish Refugee Council in
Belgrade
on April 03, 2006. The role of CRP/K was to provide basic civil documents for IDPs
from Kosovo displaced in
Serbia
.
The project is about to be finished.
Campaign of Civil Registration and Sub-registration
According to the UNHCR assessment,
out of 35,000 RAE community members currently residing in Kosovo, an estimate of
20 - 40% are not registered. This was the reason for UNHCR to address the CRP/K
and requested to complete this significant task.
Preparations of all CRP/K
Field Offices for this important undertaking started in October 2006, while the
process of civil (sub)-registration of unregistered RAE community members is ongoing.
Such task imposed increased advocacy work to the relevant institutions dealing with
civil registration, aiming to overcome difficulties and obstacles, such as different
practices of Kosovo municipalities in applying relevant law provisions. In order
to facilitate the process of civil registration itself, CRP/K reached agreements
and signed Memorandums of Understanding with the Presidents of Kosovo Municipal
Assemblies. So far, the MoU’s are signed with the following municipalities: Peja/Pec,
Shtime/Stimlje, Lypjan/Lipljane, Obiliq/c, Podujeve/o, Pris(h)tina and Fushe Kosovë/Kosovo
Polje. According to these agreements,
the requests submitted by CRP/K which are related to the civil (sub)-registration
of the above mentioned category will be prioritized, while the CRP/K clients will
be exempted from the payment of administrative fees.
CRP/K Staffing
CRP/K managing structures
are finally completed. In October 2006, CRP/K re-advertised the vacancy for the
position of Legal Manager. In mid of October, the
second round of the interview was held and the CRP/K Legal Manager was elected.
On the 1st
of November, CRP/K Legal Manager started with regular completion of his duties. Earlier, on the 1st of June,
the new CRP/K ED was appointed
after the second round of interviews and he started to work on 01 June 2006.
CRP/K Assembly Meeting
CRP/K held the Meeting of its Assembly on the 8th
of September 2006. The present members unanimously elected the new President of
CRP/K Assembly – Mr. Hil Nrecaj – Head of CRP/K Mitrovica Office. In this meeting,
the previous
CRP/K employees’ representative in CRP/K Board of Directors, who meanwhile left
CRP/K was discharged and with
majority of votes, Mr. Shqipdon Fazliu – Head of CRP/K Gjilan/Gnjilane Office was
elected to represent CRP/K employees in CRP/K Board of Directors. The place of the
CRP/K BD member – representative of Kosovo minority
communities was also filled. The CRP/K Assembly members unanimously voted for Ms.
Bjelica in this position. Finally the
mandate of Kristin Griffith as a member of CRP/K Board of Directors was confirmed
and unanimously voted by the CRP/K Assembly members.
Seminar for RAE children in the Roma Camp “Osterode”
CRP/K organized a Seminar
on Children’s Rights on the 6th of July 2006. This Seminar was held in
Roma Camp “Osterode”. The lecturers were CRP/K ED and CRP/K LM. The seminar was
attended by 60 participants, while the targeted population were children between
7 – 14 years of age. Among invitees in this event were representatives of KPS, UNHCR,
NCA, Management of Osterode Camp, TV Most from north part of Mitrovica, Radio Contact,
as well as representatives of Mitrovica MCO.
The aim of this seminar was
to raise awareness of the children on their basic rights, trying thus to integrate
them into the Kosovo society.
Seminar for the habitants
of Plemetina Camp
CRP/K Pris(h)tina Office, in cooperation with Kosovo
National Institute for Public Health, on 15 March 2006 organized a lecture
with the topic “Consequences of infection with HIV/AIDS and other contagious diseases;
Access to health facilities and services”.
The lecturer was an expert from the
mentioned Institute, while the participants of the lecture were habitants of Plemetina
camp with their representative, as well as representatives of UNHCR,
Obiliq municipality (MCO, LCO), “Mother Teresa” organization, and KPS. The lecture
was given in a way acceptable to the audience. The role of CRP/K in this case was
to mediate in obtaining all necessary documentation, in order that its beneficiaries
could have access to health facilities and services, and at the same time, to advocate
for prioritization of cases submitted by CRP/K to these institutions.
Auditing
During the period 26-28 April 2006, Experts from German Auditing firm Fabel Werner Schnitke,
performed annual auditing of CRP/K at the CRP/K HQ premises. The front
page of the final auditing report is enclosed below:
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