Mission to Kosovo

The United Nations’ Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) began its international civil presence in Kosovo under Security Council Resolution 1244 of 10 June 1999. UNMIK was established with a mandate to provide an interim civil administration that included, among other things, responsibility for the protection and promotion of human rights.

A human rights vacuum

The need for a non-state independent human rights accountability mechanism, however, arose because the former Republic of Yugoslavia, the host country of UNMIK, was not a high contracting party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and, therefore, could not be held accountable for alleged human rights violations by UNMIK in its exercise of executive powers. Neither was UNMIK a high contracting party to the ECHR. Accordingly, the people of Kosovo had no recourse to the European Court of Human Rights for alleged human rights violations by UNMIK.

UNMIK had experienced increasing criticism over time by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and other concerned parties because of its failure to resolve this human rights accountability void. The UN Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP) was eventually instituted on 12 November 2007.

Examining HRAP

The mandate of the HRAP was to examine complaints by individuals or groups of individuals who claimed to be victims of human rights violations by UNMIK in the exercise of its executive mandate. The HRAP duly received some 527 complaints over time and found that UNMIK had violated human rights in 335 cases. John Ryan – a solicitor, former army officer and current legal advisor to the Human Rights Review Panel of the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo – reviews the work of this innovative organisation in the Gazette.

• Read the full article in the June 2018 Gazette

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