Courts in Kosovo to apply detention on remand only as last resort, OSCE Mission report recommends

Courts in Kosovo to apply detention on remand only as last resort, OSCE Mission report recommends 

 

PRISHTINË/PRIŠTINA, 25 October 2023 - Excessive use of detention on remand is a global issue that poses rule of law and human rights concerns, and Kosovo faces similar challenges.

 

Efforts should be made to improve the quality of reasoning in prosecution requests, defence submissions and judicial decisions before ordering this measure, says latest report published today by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo.

 

The report analyses 70 "detention on remand" hearings monitored by the Mission throughout Kosovo in 2022 as well as nine appellate decisions in 2023 for compliance with fair trial and international human rights standards.

 

It notes positive practices in the justice system when compared with the findings in previous OSCE reports, such as meeting procedural deadlines and ensuring all defendants are represented by an attorney at detention on remand hearings. However, the report also notes concerns including a lack of use of alternatives to detention (such as bail), insufficient reasoning in detention decisions, and failure to individualize decisions in multi-defendant cases.

 

"Decisions on detention on remand are challenging. Judges and prosecutors have a duty to uphold the rule of law and also to protect the public. They must make difficult decisions – assessing risk, respecting the rights of the defendant and taking into account considerations of public safety, while ensuring that those who commit crimes are held to account," said Ambassador Michael Davenport, Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo.

 

Albert Zogaj, Chairman of the Kosovo Judicial Council, pledged to address the report findings by working together with the Supreme Court and the Justice Academy to harmonise and improve judicial practice regarding detention on remand, and support needed training of justice officials.

 

The report concludes with specific recommendations targeted to key justice counterparts, especially related to training and expansion of available alternatives to detention at the pretrial stage. 

 

The Mission will follow up release of the report with roundtable discussions with justice counterparts throughout Kosovo to discuss the findings and recommendations.

 

The full report can be accessed here: https://www.osce.org/mission-in-kosovo/556428

 

 

Courts in Kosovo to apply detention on remand only as last resort, OSCE Mission report recommends | OSCE

 

 

OSCE Mission in Kosovo

Office of Political Affairs and Communications                           

 

Tel. +383 38 240 100 ext.1118 / 1342

Mob. +383 49 950 109 / 049 950 163 

OSCEKosovo-comms@osce.org

www.osce.org/kosovo

@oscekosovo

 

SCHEERPOST   Patrick Lawrence: Depleted Ukrainium October 5, 2023 What Comes After Failure?   By Patrick Lawrence    You cannot name the last time you read anything about a parliamentary election in Slovakia, so I won't bother asking. But you are reading about one this week, assuming you still follow mainstream media—if only to understand what you are supposed to think about one or another event, as against what has actually occurred.  In results announced in Bratislava Sunday, a leftist party whose primary platform plank is opposition to the war in Ukraine won 23 percent of the vote. On Monday the Slovakian president, Zuzana Čaputová, formally asked Robert Fico, who leads the SMER party, to form a government. It looks like he will do so in a coalition with either Voice, a social-democratic party that took 15 percent of the vote, or with Progressive Slovakia, a liberal-centrist party that finished with 18 percent of the vote.  Fico is an interesting figure. He has served as prime minister twice over the course of a decade, during which time he proved sufficiently European to bring Slovakia into the euro. To one or another extent, his likely coalition partners favor keeping Slovakia as a card-carrying member of the Western coalition supporting Ukraine. But they did not win the election: Fico did. And Fico is all business in his opposition to Slovakia's support for the U.S. proxy war tearing Ukraine and its people to pieces.  [Continue Reading]