Kosovo’s culture and society are profoundly affected by corruption that is rooted in powerful family associations and allegiances and fuelled by financial coercion. That cultural context enables serious and organised crime, including people trafficking and money laundering to flourish, without significant impediment, despite the investment of vast donor resources to intervene. This has caused deep public mistrust of the justice system, consistently polling the lowest levels of public trust, less even than the political system, and its ability to deliver fair and transparent outcomes.
In a state of transition, not only from its accession from Serbia and the former Yugoslavia, but also from brutal armed conflict, Kosovo remains particularly susceptible to corruption, serious and organised crime and ultimately instability. Agencia has a long track record of working in Kosovo since 2012 and this has enabled us to have a good understanding of the context in which we are working.
Most recently, in October 2018, working with partners, Axiom International, Agencia undertook an in-depth analysis to identify the root causes of corruption within the Kosovo justice system. This extended to how judges and prosecutors have their backgrounds checked before being appointed, the process for appointing and promoting judges and prosecutors, how their performance is appraised, the effectiveness of disciplinary processes, the role of civil society organisations in holding judicial institutions to account and the role of the Judicial and Prosecutorial Councils in improving performance, particularly in relations to corruption, organised crime and money laundering.
The analysis took six months and led to the production of a report setting out a pathway for institutional change. The recommendations were agreed by the Ministry of Justice and a programme of delivery commenced in April 2019. The focus of that programme was to;
A judicial appointments process that focussed on assessing managerial skills was introduced and used for the selection of all new Chief Prosecutors. New regulations on performance appraisal of prosecutors were passed by the Prosecutorial Council and implemented from January 2021. A judgement by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo created a separation of the administrative functions of the judicial institutions from those of the Civil Service and the project created the blueprint for a reformed Prosecutorial Administration.
Three judges and three prosecutors completed a mentoring programme that that enabled them to interact regularly with senior judges and prosecutors from the UK and to receive in-country training sessions on a wide range of subjects that would help them transform the way justice would be delivered in the future and strengthen the capability of the justice system to tackle corruption, organised crime and money laundering.
All these combined helped to transform a justice system into one that was led by people with good leadership and managerial skills and one that afforded equal access to all citizens so that they could contribute towards the effective delivery of justice in their country. A system in which the performance of individuals was based on an objective and evidence-based assessment and in which people achieved success based on merit, and a system that was seen by citizens as being more effective in tackling the corruption and organised crime that blights the lives of every citizen in Kosovo.
Location: Kosovo
Date: October 2018 to March 2021
Client: UK Government (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
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