The participation of victims and survivors in the design of transitional justice policies should not be done superficially. Therefore, participation should not only be evident in the design, but also before the design, the first draft, the approval and the implementation of all relevant measures.
Kushtrim Gashi
Since the end of the war, dealing with the past and pursuing transitional justice has been an unsustainable process, lacking a strategic vision, genuine involvement of affected groups, and institutional sustainability.
Kosovo has not yet managed to draft a Transitional Justice Strategy precisely due to the lack of political will and continuity of government policies, as well as agreement among national and international stakeholders.
For over two decades in our country, international and national authorities, as well as civil society, have pursued their own transitional justice initiatives, without any vision or strategy.
While victims and survivors in Kosovo continue to seek justice, war criminals are running for election in Serbia. Not only that, but former Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, in a statement to the media, was irritated with some Serbian citizens who pointed out where Albanians were buried throughout Serbia.
"Leave the Americans, the Germans, the Turks, what can we do with the Serbs? They tell you Albanians, Croats, they talk all kinds of nonsense, they tell you where Albanians are buried all over Serbia," said Dacic. Even the President of Serbia in December 2019 emphasized that "the crime in Recak was fabricated, where everything was falsified by that world swindler, thief and vagabond William Walker." So hiding or denying crimes during the war is an insult to the victims, and Serbia is constantly doing this, which neither recognizes Kosovo as a state, nor has it apologized for the crimes committed, nor has it offered reparations, nor has it given formal guarantees for the non-repetition of past crimes.
Knowing the truth and accepting it are essential to ensure a confrontation with the past and to move forward. What victims need most is the search for the truth through finding responsibility, individual, collective, institutional, but also command, so the right to learn includes the individual and collective right.
Creating an official narrative that everyone agrees on would prevent the political class from manipulating events from the past to further their political agendas. The truth allows victims to seek access to justice.
To achieve a shared vision for transitional justice, the following elements should be promoted: victim-centeredness, especially victims of sexual violence, survivor-centeredness, and depoliticization and de-ethnicization of transitional justice initiatives.
That Kosovo needs to draft a Transitional Justice Strategy is now clear and necessary because the strategy helps create sustainable institutional policies.
The need to draft a transitional justice strategy arises as a necessity to pave the way for social dialogue, peacebuilding, as an integral part of statebuilding and peace. Therefore, it should also be included in the efforts of institutional and non-institutional actors, in a comprehensive and long-term approach to transitional justice, with the aim of combating impunity.
The need for a comprehensive Transitional Justice Strategy to address the past, the validity of data on human and material damage, and institutional and social reform is also mentioned in the European Commission's 2020 Progress Report for Kosovo.
As a result, the State Strategy for Transitional Justice is also foreseen in the program of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo 2021 - 2025. A Working Group has also been established to draft the Strategy for Transitional Justice.
Undoubtedly, part of the Strategy should include, among other things, a proposal for new institutional policies that would address the economic crimes, corruption, and plunder that Serbia has committed in Kosovo for decades.
This approach provides recognition and compensation for victims, fosters trust, strengthens the rule of law, and contributes to reconciliation and non-repetition.
The purpose of Transitional Justice Strategies is to help correct injustices and heal the traumas caused by war. Through the development of comprehensive transitional justice strategies, a sustainable platform is created to establish facts about the past, provide redress for war-related injustices and traumas, protect individual and collective memory, reform and regain trust in institutions.
The drafting of a Strategy should be done through an open and inclusive consultation process, from citizens, civil society to institutions from all levels of government.
The Transitional Justice Strategy should include the four pillars of transitional justice: the right to information, the right to redress or compensation, guarantees of non-repetition, and institutional reform.
The issue of drafting and implementing a Transitional Justice Strategy should respond to societal needs, and few countries have attempted to incorporate citizens’ needs, comments, and opinions into such a strategy. State-level awareness campaigns on the importance and necessity of drafting a strategy should be conducted before the first draft is drafted, as NGOs do not always represent the interests of victims and citizens. A typical example is the experience of Liberia, where in 2013 it proposed a ‘Strategic Guide for National Healing, Peacebuilding, and Reconciliation’, which was drafted by international experts and civil society, but victims and survivors were overlooked, leading to a collapse of support from citizens.
Therefore, the participation of victims and survivors in the design of transitional justice policies should not be done superficially. So, participation should not only be evident in the design, but also before the design, the first draft, the approval and the implementation of all relevant measures.
edition
t7 live
