Today, December 10, on International Human Rights Day, many citizens and activists joined the protest to demand institutional responsibility in the protection and guarantee of fundamental human rights and freedoms for all without distinction.

The protest organized by the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN), the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, the Center for Equality and Freedom, the Kosovo Institute for Justice, the Voice of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, and Handikos, began at Zahir Pajaziti Square in Prishtina, continuing with a march in front of the building of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo.

“Throughout the year, we have protested and demanded accountability for all the women who have been killed, raped, harassed, and abused. We have raised our voices against the institutional negligence and the radical patriarchal system, evidence of which was the last case of a sexist verdict of a court.” among others said, Valmira Rashiti, Project Coordinator, KWN.

Rashiti further read the demands of the protest, which are:

1. Gender-based violence to be treated as a national urgency;

2. To monitor, sanction or dismiss judges, prosecutors, police officers who are guilty of neglect of the systematic violence being perpetrated against women;

3. Not to release the perpetrators with due process, and not to re-examine the sentences, when

their crimes contain all the aggravating circumstances, but to be punished in proportion to the Code

Kosovo Criminal Court.

“It’s time to institutionalize the protection of women’s lives, and to hold them accountable. Justice and security for women!” she added.

Among other things, it was requested that institutional and systematic discrimination against persons with disabilities, Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian and Serbian communities, as well as attacks and hate speech against the LGBTI community be urgently addressed by institutions in Kosovo.

KWN, together with the aforementioned civil society organizations, will continue to closely monitor the work of all responsible institutions and will hold them accountable for actions or omissions that violate the rights of Kosovo citizens.

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