Are women in Kosova equal, safe and free yet?. Cornelia Maier

Kosova has ratified CEDAW on the constitutional level and there are plans to include domestic violence under the penal code (http://www.womensnetwork.org/?FaqeID=1&n=668). However, of course, there is often times a huge difference between having a right as a natural birthright in terms of human rights and realizing that very right in actual fact. Patriarchy is particularly alive and (un)well in rural areas where old customs and traditions often make life extremely difficult for women. They are still frequently oppressed (see for example, also Patricia Evans on patriarchy and oppression in general in Patricia Evans 1996: The Verbally Abusive Relationship). All too often, there is little awareness that women’s rights are human rights. Victim blaming is viral and rampant and many women have internalized such notions and have come to collaborate with their own oppression and alas, with the suppression of other women and girls, too as they subscribe to the very dehumanizing ideas they actually suffer from on the other hand, too. The situation is alarming (cf., for example Kosova Women’s Network: Security begins at home / http://www.womensnetwork.org/documents/20130120165404373.pdf). As Teuta Sahatqija stated once during a talk she gave: “If a woman is able to respect herself first, she is able to respect other women. If she will not respect herself, how will she see another woman, parliamentarian, or director or other [sic]?” (http://nr.onu.edu/node/5365) It’s a vicious circle as abuse and violence in turn diminish and often destroy self-esteem (see for example, Patricia Evans 1993: Verbal Abuse Survivors Speak Out). That widespread basic lack of women’s positive self-concepts goes together with a frequent shortage of formal, professional and academic education. On average, it’s much more difficult for women who have other ideas than leading a traditional life-style in non-urban areas (even though I personally know of some positive examples from outside Prishtina as well, of course). But even if women who were abused or who are threatened by (more severe) domestic violence do get away from the countryside and flee to Prishtina, the capital of Kosova, the situation will prove extremely hard for women over there without sufficient money. Unemployment is very high and welfare is completely insufficient (Kosovo: Situation of single women in Pristina, including their ability to access employment, housing, and social services; whether Catholic Albanian women would face particular challenges accessing housing, employment and social services when relocating to Pristina from a different area of Kosovo (2013) / https://www.refworld.org/docid/5188f45d4.html). That’s why it’s so difficult for women to get free from domestic violence and abusive situations in general and why the State of Kosova can’t protect them yet properly from domestic violence (and other grievous abuse).

      The adoption of the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence has been a milestone in the feminist history of the land (which will still have to be written yet, of course) and it is also relevant within the framework of EU standard harmonization.

      On top of being a freelance translator, I am also a feminist political scientist and therefore, I worked personally on elaborating the bill. After having read on the website of the Kosova Women’s Network (KWN) that a new law against domestic violence would be drawn up, I got in touch by email with Ms. Shqipe Krasniqi, who was then CEO of the Gender Equality Agency in the Office of the Prime Minister (now Ms. Edi Gusia is in this position after Ms. Edona Hajrullahu succeeded Shqipe) and offered my contributions as a volunteer. After emailing several times back and forth, we talked for the first time on the phone. I was so happy on that day. The world seemed wide open and full of unlimited possibilities. It was absolutely a highlight for me when we discussed our plans for the first time. I emailed her my recommendations for the draft law over in English, which were all made part of the bill including the following: The law is worded in gender-neutral language. Survivors can obtain protection orders also with regard to offenders who are family members (also from their families of origin), not just with respect to husbands and in-laws. Emotional abuse and intimidation and duress and coercive control are grounds for protection orders as well. It is possible for survivors to file for emergency protection orders, too. And it’s illegal under penal law to offend against a protection order. The police needs to advise survivors of their rights and help them get their stuff out of the house / apartment and take abused women to a shelter (Law No.03/L 182

      ON PROTECTION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE / http://www.assembly-kosova.org/common/docs/ligjet/2010-182-eng.pdf). The problem lies with the implementation of the law. Above all, there should be done more to support survivors in terms of public assistance as soon as better welfare will be established. Actually, when I was working on the law against domestic violence in Kosova, I encouraged Shqipe to make sure that a provision like Article 27 of the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence be included for subsequent legislation so that something would be done to provide survivors with assistance in the future. That would have to be done later on since otherwise, the law wouldn’t even have been adopted in the first place. Unfortunately, nothing has been achieved on that front so far for several years yet. As the Ombudsperson Institution also wrote, "there is a pressing need to elaborate survivors' rights under" this Article (Ombudsperson Institution 2016: Sexual and reproductive rights in Kosovo: A Reality beyond the Law?) and that’s where matters still stand. I will deal with the grave consequences of that more in detail in the chapter on insufficient implementation.