In the period from September until December 2008, the Humanitarian Law Center – Kosovo (HLC-Kosovo) conducted a research on the implementation of the Law on the Promotion and Protection of Rights of Communities and Their Members in the Republic of Kosovo, with special focus on the creation of the Consultative Council for Communities within the Kosovo President’s Cabinet. This law was passed on 13 March 2008 and entered into force on 15 June 2008, while the decree of the President of Kosovo, on establishment of the Consultative Council, was made on 15 September 2008....

This report is the result of systematic monitoring of initiatives in the field of transitional justice in the countries which came into existence following the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. The monitoring has been carried out by human rights organisations, the Humanitarian Law Center (Belgrade) and Documenta (Zagreb). The disintegration of the Yugoslav federation was marked by three high-intensity armed conflicts – in Croatia (1991-95), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-95) and Kosovo (1998-99), where at least 130,000 people lost their lives, millions were forced to flee their homes, while hundreds of thousands of houses were destroyed....

HLC-Kosovo is the only nongovernmental organization monitoring trials of war crimes and ethnically motivated criminal offences in Kosovo. In 2007, HLC-Kosovo monitored 117 main hearings in 21 cases before municipal and district courts, as well as four cases before the Supreme Court of Kosovo. The persons examined in these [monitored] cases included 119 witnesses (two of whom were protected witnesses) and five ballistic experts and neuropsychiatrists. In all cases the indictments were brought and represented by international prosecutors. All the chamber presidents are international judges, with local judges serving as trial chamber members....

This report deals with facing the consequences of war events and crimes committed during the period 1991-99. The report is the product of an initiative of the Humanitarian Law Center (Belgrade), in cooperation with the Research Documentary Center (Sarajevo) and Documenta (Zagreb). It refers to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, – hereinafter: “post-Yugoslav countries”. During the course of 2006 in almost all post-Yugoslav countries trials for war crimes were well under way, while in other areas of transitional justice there were hardly any substantial steps forward compared to the previous period. The authorities took no concrete steps, which would lead to the establishment of a fact finding body, at state and regional level. Very little was done to make those individuals in public positions, or seeking public appointment, face inquiries into their actions during the time of armed conflict. Finally, fulfilling the right to reparation – either as the outcome of laws or by means of court proceedings – is still very difficult to achieve for many victims whose rights were violated in the 1990s....

The report deals discusses processes of transitional justice, including official and unofficial initiatives aiming at establishing the truth about war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, trials for war crimes and reparation-related issues, in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. In addition to the aforementioned initiatives, the report analyses the wider political context, considering factors that obstruct the application of instruments of transitional justice as well as the public opinion which is hostile to war crimes trials and human rights organizations....