World Report 2024 - Serbia/Kosovo
Independent journalists continued to be subjected to threats and intimidation in 2023. War crimes prosecutions remained slow, inefficient, and marred by delays. Attacks and threats against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and organizations continued. Serbia and Kosovo signed a joint declaration on missing persons in May as part of an EU-brokered normalization process, but relations deteriorated after clashes in northern Kosovo later that month linked to a contested election.
Freedom of Media
Independent journalists remain under pressure with an inadequate state response.
In the first half of the year, the Permanent Group for the Safety of Journalists registered 42 cases of threats against journalists and the Independent Journalists’ Association recorded three attacks by the end of March.
In March, Stevan Dojcinovic, investigative journalist and editor of the independent news portal KRIK, received a death threat on TikTok after a podcast where he mentioned that the price for contract killings had dropped drastically. Authorities were investigating at time of writing.
During a Belgrade protest in March denouncing the European Union’s plan for the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, FoNet news agency reporter Marko Dragoslavić was forcibly hooded and punched in the face when leaving the protest. Dragoslavić reported the attack to the police and the case was under investigation at time of writing.
Journalists remained a target of so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP).
In May, the High Court in Belgrade ruled against KRIK for publishing an article in 2021 listing those who had sued the outlet for defamation, including a police chief and two employees from the Police Unit for Witness Protection. The court ordered the removal of the article and awarded 374,200 Serbian dinars (about US$3,643) in damages to the plaintiffs. KRIK has appealed the decision. By May, KRIK was the target of 12 defamation lawsuits.
In September, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Serbia violated TV channel B92’s freedom of expression when the assistant health minister sued the station over reports alleging she had abused her office in the procurement process for swine flu vaccines. The court held that the B92 had acted in “good faith and with the diligence expected of responsible journalism.”
In March, the retrial of Ratko Romić and Milan Radonjić, two Serbian state security officers accused of participating in the 1999 murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija, started. In April, the Belgrade Appeals Court released the suspects from house arrest, following a European Court of Human Rights decision in early April stating that Serbia had violated their rights by holding them in custody for too long.
Pro-government media continued smear campaigns against independent journalists reporting critically on the government.
Accountability for War Crimes
Between January and August, the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office launched three new war crimes investigations involving seven suspects. As of August, 24 cases against 41 defendants were pending before Serbian courts. Ongoing proceedings were marred by significant delays.
In February, following a retrial, the Belgrade High Court found former Bosnian Serb soldier Dalibor Krstović guilty of crimes against civilians, including rape in Kalinovik, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in August 1992, and sentenced Krstović to nine years’ imprisonment.
In April, the trial against Lazar Murlak, a former Bosnian Serb wartime reserve police officer and member of the Sprsko Gorazde Territorial Defence, started at the Belgrade High Court. Murlak is charged with rape of a Bosniak woman in 1992 in Lozje, BiH.
In February, the Belgrade High Court sentenced four Serbian former fighters to a total of 35 years in prison for participating in the 1993 abduction in Strpci, BiH, of 20 non-Serb train passengers, who were subsequently killed.
In July, the Appeals Court in Belgrade ordered a retrial and overturned the November 2022 conviction of Bosnian Serb Danko Vladičić for the killing of an older man and woman in Brod na Drini, BiH, in 1992.
In May, the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague increased the prison sentences of former head of Serbian state security, Jovica Stanišić, and his deputy, Franko Simatović, from 12 to 15 years. They were convicted for their role in forcibly removing non-Serbs from parts of BiH and Croatia in 1992 and 1995 as well as murders, deportation, inhumane acts, and persecution.
Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Migrants
Between January and September, 1,257 new arrivals registered their intent to seek asylum, but only 150 people lodged asylum applications.
The asylum system remained flawed, with asylum seekers facing difficulties in accessing procedures, low recognition rates, and long delays. Between January and September, Serbia granted refugee status to six people and subsidiary protection to two. Between late February 2022 and late October 2023, Serbia granted temporary protection to 1,387 people, almost exclusively from Ukraine.
By the end of August, 109 unaccompanied migrant children were registered with Serbian authorities. Serbia lacks formal age assessment procedures for unaccompanied children, putting older children at risk of being treated as adults instead of receiving special protection.
In July, the European Court of Human Rights found that Serbia had violated the freedom of movement of a Syrian national to whom Serbia had granted asylum and then denied access to refugee travel documents.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
LGBT people continued to face intolerance, threats, and violence. Between January and September, a domestic LGBT+ support group, Da Se Zna!, recorded 32 incidents of hate-motivated incidents against LGBT people, including seven physical attacks and five threats. In August, President Aleksandar Vučić said that as long as he is president, he will not sign any law recognizing a third gender or same-sex marriage.
In February, unknown assailants attacked three LGBT people in central Belgrade. One victim was stabbed with a knife, and the other two were injured by a broken bottle. The following night, another was injured by security guards at a club.
In May, an unknown person vandalized the Belgrade Pride Info Center by throwing red paint at the Center’s window and the Belgrade Pride logo. It was the 18th attack on the center since 2018.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights
A September report by Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic raised serious concerns about the high prevalence of domestic violence and stressed the need for a coordinated institutional response to protect women and girls from violence and provide immediate and long-term support to survivors.
Disability Rights
Children with disabilities continue to be overrepresented in institutional care. Nearly 75 percent of children in institutions in Serbia are children with disabilities. Despite a legal ban, children under the age of 3 continue to be placed in institutional care, including due to socioeconomic reasons, according to UNICEF. In three out of six institutions for children with disabilities across the country, children with disabilities live with unrelated adults, putting them at a potentially greater risk of violence and abuse.
Almost 30 percent of children with disabilities who live in institutions are not enrolled in school; those who are enrolled attend segregated special schools for children with disabilities.
The number of adults with disabilities living in institutions in Serbia increased compared to previous years. The government continues to invest in institutional care for such adults, including by expanding existing institutions, while support in communities remains limited.
Key International Actors
In March, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro and Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Jan Braathu expressed concerns about the targeting of journalists in Serbia and urged authorities to thoroughly investigate all incidents and hold perpetrators accountable for violence and threats.
Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic in March called on Serbia to increase safety for journalists and to protect women from violence.
The November EU Commission enlargement report on Serbia said that while authorities had started to implement key judicial reforms, more work and political commitment are needed to implement comprehensive rule of law reforms. The Commission remained concerned about media freedom, noting the continuation of threats, intimidation, hate speech, and violence against journalists and an increase in SLAPPs by members of national and local authorities.
Kosovo
Accountability for serious crimes and media freedom continue to be pressing concerns.
Tensions flared up in the north in May when ethnic Albanian mayors took office in municipalities following local elections that were largely boycotted by the ethnic Serb majority. Ensuing protests resulted in NATO forces clashing with protesting ethnic Serbs in the north, injuring at least 50 Serbs and 25 NATO soldiers. In September, a Kosovo police officer was killed by a group of heavily armed Serb gunmen in Banjska who then took shelter inside an Orthodox church. Kosovo security forces shot three of the group dead and arrested at least eight others, and Serbia increased military deployments at its border with Kosovo.
The United Nations failed to apologize and pay individual compensation to Roma, Ashkali, and Balkan Egyptian victims of lead poisoning in contaminated camps for displaced people run by the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in 1999. A 2016 report by the Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP), an independent body established to investigate complaints of abuses by UNMIK, found that the UN should pay individual compensation and apologize to victims.
Accountability for War Crimes
In April, the trial of former Kosovo President and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and three other former senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) officials began in The Hague before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. The accused, who spent almost 2.5 years in pretrial detention, are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in 1998 and 1999. All four men pled not guilty.
In December 2022, the Specialist Chambers sentenced KLA commander Saljih Mustafa to 26 years in prison for war crimes and ordered him to pay €207,000 in reparations to victims. His case was under appeal at time of writing. In February, the Specialist Chambers began the trial of KLA member Pjeter Shala, who is accused of abusing detainees at a metal factory in Kukes, northern Albania, in 1999. Also in February, appeals judges upheld a May 2022 verdict on all but one charge against two members of the KLA War Veterans Association, Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, over revealing the names of potential witnesses in the Thaci et al. trial, reducing their prison sentences of 4.5 years by 3 months. In August, former KLA member Dritan Goxhaj was arrested in Tirana, Albania, for revealing the names of five potential witnesses testifying before the Specialist Chambers. Goxhaj was awaiting extradition to the Netherlands at time of writing.
In June, in a retrial, the basic court in Prizren convicted former KLA fighter Remzi Shala of the 1998 kidnapping of a suspected ethnic Albanian collaborator and sentenced him to 9.5 years in prison.
In July, Kosovo’s Special Prosecution filed two separate indictments regarding war crimes. The first indictment charged a former member of the Serbian armed forces with expelling ethnic Albanians and looting and burning their property during the 1998-1999 war. The second charged a former member of the Serbian armed forces with crimes against humanity for his involvement in murder, raids, beatings, mistreatment, torture, and the deportation of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Reznik during the war.
In June, Kosovo’s Special Prosecution charged a former Serbian policeman with war crimes against civilians for his participation in the May 1999 shooting of 19 ethnic Albanians in the village of Ozdrim.
Freedom of Media
Journalists continued to be subjected to physical attacks, threats, and obstructions in their work. Between January and September 2023, the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AGK), recorded 60 incidents against journalists, including 16 attacks and 22 threats.
In early June, AGK recorded six separate attacks by protesters on ethnic Albanian journalists on the same day in the ethnic Serb majority town Leposavic in north Kosovo. The journalists were in Leposavic to report on increased tensions and protests by ethnic Serbs following local municipal elections in the north in May. One journalist suffered a broken arm and others were hit by stones to the head and legs. Police were investigating the attacks at time of writing.
In May, journalist Burim Zarici was attacked in Zvecan while filming an attack on a Kosovo Police car. The perpetrator was convicted.
Also in May, RTV21 cameraman Berat Bahtiri and journalist Lirie Dibrani were attacked by protesters in North Mitrovica while covering tensions between Kosovo Serbs and Albanians in the north. Bahtiri lost his equipment. Police were investigating the case at time of writing.
In March, RTV editor and journalist Alban Selimi’s garage was set on fire. A suspect was arrested, tried, and convicted of arson. Selimi believes the attack is linked to a 2021 story he wrote alleging the perpetrator’s relatives were involved in usurping land.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Threats and acts of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people (LGBT) continue. According to the local LGBT organization CEL, many LGBT people faced threats, intimidation, and violence from family members in 2023, with poor responses from state authorities when they reported any abuse. CEL itself regularly receives threats and hateful comments on its social media accounts.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights
The government in January decided to extend the deadline for survivors of sexual violence during the Kosovo war to register and receive special welfare benefits. The special commission to recognize and verify such survivors was set up in 2018 and was set to finish registrations in February. Of an estimated 20,000 wartime rape victims, fewer than 2,000 have applied to the commission.
The Kosovo Agency of Statistics showed that only 20 percent of women participated in the labor force and called for more reforms for women to contribute toward the economy and prosperity.
Survivors of domestic violence continue to face obstacles accessing justice and support when leaving abusive environments.
Asylum Seekers and Displaced Persons
Between January and August, the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs registered 292 forced returns to Kosovo, the majority from Germany. Sixteen were children. Of those forcibly returned, nine were Roma, two Ashkali, one Serb, and rest ethnic Albanian. During the same reporting period, the ministry registered 28 voluntary returns to Kosovo. The ministry claimed to have no data on the ethnicity of those who voluntarily returned. By mid-August, Kosovo had registered six asylum seekers from Ukraine.
Accountability of International Institutions
In a July report, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence recommended that the UN provide full and effective reparations, including a fully funded reparation program, to Roma, Ashkali, and Balkan Egyptian victims of lead poisoning who had resided in contaminated camps for displaced people run by UNMIK. A 2016 report by the Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP), an independent body established to investigate complaints of abuses by UNMIK, recommended the UN pay individual compensation and apologize to victims. The UN has yet to comply with the recommendations at time of writing.
Key International Actors
Concluding that Kosovo had failed to reduce tensions in the north, as asked on June 3 by 27 European Union member states, the EU implemented a range of punitive measures later that month. These included Kosovo’s exclusion from high-level meetings and the suspension until 2024 of pre-accession funds to Kosovo. At time of writing, the measures were still in place.
In May, the United States Ambassador called on Prime Minister Albin Kurti to take concrete steps to de-escalate the situation in the north.
The November European Commission’s enlargement report on Kosovo said that while some legislative achievements were made, more needed to be done on justice reforms and the rule of law, stressing the strengthening of the integrity, accountability, independence, and efficiency of the justice system. The Commission also noted the lack of progress on freedom of expression and remained concerned about physical attacks and threats against journalists, public smear campaigns, and hate speech.
