Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe MISSION IN KOSOVO Department of Human Rights and Communities Municipal responses to displacement and returns in Kosovo November 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ……………………………………………………… 1 1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………….. 2 2. POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK ………………………... 3 3. MUNICIPAL RESPONSES TO DISPLACEMENT AND RETURN ……... 5 3.1 Municipal strategies for displaced persons and returnees ……………. 5 3.2 Municipal assistance activities for displaced persons and returnees … 11 4. CHALLENGES FACED BY MUNICIPALITIES IN RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF DISPLACED PERSONS AND RETURNEES ……….. 19 5. CONCLUSIONS ……………………………………………………………..... 22 6. RECOMMENDATIONS ……………………………………………………... 23 ANNEX I: Development and adoption of municipal returns strategies …….... 25 ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report reviews the progress made by Kosovo’s municipalities to develop and effectively implement strategies, policies and programmes for displaced persons and returnees in compliance with the normative and policy framework for returns and the protection and promotion of community rights. It also identifies and analyzes the key challenges currently preventing municipal institutions from providing more effective protection and assistance to displaced persons and returnees.1 The report covers the period from January 2009 to June 2010. Findings presented are based on regular monitoring activities by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Mission in Kosovo (OSCE) in the field of promotion and protection of community rights and participation of non-majority communities in public life.2 The report finds that, although municipalities are required to develop and implement annual policies and strategies enabling them to take responsibility for returns and reintegration activities, the progress made in fulfilling their obligations has been limited and uneven. Just over half of the municipalities in Kosovo developed and approved a municipal returns strategy in 2009. In the first six months of 2010, only nine municipalities have approved strategies to guide their work on returns and reintegration. Where municipal returns strategies have been adopted, they are often only partially implemented. Some municipalities have made considerable efforts to support returns and durable solutions for displaced persons. Where there are successful projects for returns and reintegration in the municipalities, they are mainly led and funded by the Ministry of Communities and Returns and international organizations, although municipalities are instrumental in ensuring the success of the projects by supporting and complementing the activity in their area of responsibility. The challenges observed by the OSCE in developing and effectively implementing policies, strategies and programmes for displaced persons and returnees at the local level are numerous. They include weak political commitment to returns by relevant officials, insufficient planning and allocation of financial resources, a lack of co- ordination and co-operation between the central and local level institutions, and limited capacity for policy-making, project planning and project implementation at the municipal level. Other obstacles, such as limited access to property, lack of economic opportunities, and difficulties in accessing health services, social assistance and education opportunities are also relevant to those persons considering return or local integration, and, as such, must be effectively addressed by municipalities in co- operation with relevant stakeholders at the central and local level. This report reaffirms the crucial role of municipalities in creating conditions conducive to returns and community stability at the local level and makes recommendations to municipalities, central institutions and the international community to encourage such conditions. There is a need for effective participation, 1 This report focuses on voluntary returns and reintegration and does not assess the challenges resulting from an increasing number of persons forcibly repatriated to Kosovo from third countries (mainly Western European countries). However, challenges faced by municipalities in responding to the needs of voluntary returnees are also relevant for the reintegration of forcibly repatriated persons. 2 For the purpose of this report, non-majority communities are all those communities who constitute a numerical minority at the municipal level in Kosovo. 1 co-ordination and information sharing between relevant stakeholders at central and local level in all stages of planning and implementation of municipal policies, strategies and projects for displaced persons and returnees; for strengthening institutional mechanisms and capacities to address the needs of displaced persons/returnees; and for allocating sufficient financial resources for the implementation of strategies and programmes to support returns or other durable solutions for displaced persons/returnees. 1. INTRODUCTION More than ten years after the conflict in Kosovo the absence of a sustainable solution for a significant portion of the approximately 220,000 refugees and displaced persons 3 from Kosovo continues to pose a major challenge for all concerned.4 According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), only around 21,000 persons belonging to non-majority communities have voluntarily returned from internal and external displacement within the region since 2000. 5 While the year 2008 saw a significant decline in voluntary returns, the returns process has since picked up with an increasing number of displaced persons returning in 2009 and during the first months of 2010. 6 However, despite the strong public declarations by Kosovo’s institutions in support of returns and renewed efforts to identify and register displaced persons interested in returning to Kosovo, the sustainable return and reintegration of non-majority communities, particularly Kosovo Serb, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities, remains problematic. The main obstacles to sustainable return and reintegration include: lack of employment and socio-economic opportunities, limited access to public services, unresolved housing and property rights issues and, to some extent, security concerns and limited freedom of movement. Kosovo’s central and local level institutions are increasingly responsible for managing the process of return and reintegration of refugees and displaced persons and ensuring their protection and assistance. Since 2006, many of the functions previously carried out by international bodies, including policy-making, standard-setting, co-ordination and implementation of assistance projects, have been gradually handed over to local institutions. 7 The Kosovo government, in close co-operation with the international 3 Mostly Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanian communities’ members. 4 According to UNHCR estimates, approximately 205,000 persons originating from Kosovo are displaced in central Serbia, while around 11,000 remain displaced in Montenegro and 1,500 in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (UNHCR Estimate of Refugees and Displaced Persons still seeking solutions in South-Eastern Europe – As at 30th September 2010). In addition, the number of displaced persons within Kosovo is estimated at 19,000 (UNHCR Office of the Chief of Mission Prishtinë/Priština Statistical Overview – Update as of end of October 2010). 5 UNHCR Office of the Chief of Mission Prishtinë/Priština Statistical Overview – Update as of end of June 2010. 6 The year 2009 saw the return of 1,153 non-majority communities members (including 439 Kosovo Serbs, 214 Kosovo Roma, 281 Kosovo Ashkali and Egyptians, 43 Bosniak, 90 Gorani and 86 Albanians in a minority situation at the municipal level) as compared to 679 in 2008 and 1,816 in 2007. An estimated 1,757,displaced persons voluntary returned to their homes between January and October 2010 (UNHCR Office of the Chief of Mission Prishtinë/Priština Statistical Overview – Update as of end of October 2010). 7 Since its inception in 1999, UNMIK has been carrying out its mandate on returns-related matters to ensure a safe and unimpeded return of all refugees and displaced persons to their homes in Kosovo, as outlined in the United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999). As part of the transfer of competencies from UNMIK to the Kosovo institutions, the returns-related administrative 2 community, has responded to this challenge by strengthening its policies and strategies towards displaced persons and returnees by, for example, simplifying steps for returns and the delivery of assistance to returnees, strengthening participation mechanisms for non-majority communities, and placing a greater focus on development and stabilization of communities in order to create conditions conducive to sustainable returns and reintegration. While the central government is responsible for providing the overall policy framework for the protection of refugees and displaced persons’ rights, as well as the necessary resources for its implementation, municipalities have to ensure proper and timely implementation of these policies and the operational framework for returns on the ground. 8 Municipalities are not only key service providers to all residents but are also responsible for supporting the development of all communities living within their territory, including displaced persons and returnees.9 They play a fundamental role in shaping successful returns and reintegration