Kosovo 2.0 and CEL

 

By Ida Kuijper

Thursday 10 June was another eventful day at Peace Lab. The plan was to meet with Kosovo 2.0, an independent news organisation, and CEL, the Centre for Equality and Liberty, which stands up for LGBTQ+ rights in Kosovo. Before the actual meeting we had our usual pre-meetings. The pre-meeting for Kosovo 2.0 was held by Rosa, also a Peace Lab student. She gave a great overview of what the organisation does and stands for. This gave us insight into what the organisation does and gave us some inspiration to come up with more questions to ask. 

 

At 11.00 our meeting with the Kosovo 2.0 team started. We met with three members of the team, Jack Butcher, Daniel Petrick and Besa Luci, the co-founder of Kosovo 2.0. They told us about how in 2010, this organisation started as a blogging platform which aimed to transform the mainstream discourse that was present in Kosovo. This mainstream discourse talked about tackling major problems present in Kosovo but excluded minority rights in this. Therefore, Kosovo 2.0 felt the media should be more inclusive as there was a lot that was missing in terms of who and what was being reported. Minorities needed to be included and represented in this discourse in order for true change to happen. 

 

In 2011, they broadened their organisation by publishing paper magazines which introduced the need for more in-depth human stories in journalism. In 2016, the organisation turned to an online magazine and stopped printing the paper magazines. Kosovo 2.0 continues to experiment with multimedia platforms in order to create a hub that brings people together. They emphasized the importance of funds that become available for independent media in order to ensure that in the long run, the important work can continue.  

 

After the team members had given an overview of their organization, it was time for us to ask questions. We talked about the individual stories that had a lasting impact on Jack and Besa. Besa mentioned a story on LGBTQ+ rights, in which a reader had told her that Kosovo 2.0 had helped in informing her brother about these rights and the importance of having them. It showed how the organization could have a great impact on the lives of individuals in Kosovo. Jack mentioned a story on the train that went from Serbia to Kosovo which generated great political tension. In looking into what role Kosovo 2.0 could have in this, he decided it would be best to go to the place where the unrest was and ask the locals, mostly young people, what they thought of the protests. Most were talking about their problems of unemployment which to Jack, showed that the political problems of people higher up was not what drove the people on the ground. The people on the ground just wanted a better life in terms of job prospects. This made him realise the importance of talking to local communities and taking their side of the story. After the round of questions, Kosovo 2.0 asked us some questions about mental health issues and environmental issues from a youth perspective. In this way, we were able to end the meeting with some interesting conversations on these topics. 

After the meeting with Kosovo 2.0, we were scheduled to meet with the Centre for Equality and Liberty (CEL). Dieudonné, also a Peace Lab student, gave a short overview of the organisation before meeting them and told us about how the organisation fights for the LGBTQ+ community in Kosovo. At 15.00 we met with Rina Braimi who described herself as a sociologist and Human Rights activist. She told us the organisation was established in 2013, focussing first on raising awareness of LGBTQ+ rights and non-formal education of these rights. The organisation fights for protection of the people in the community by advocating laws and most importantly, the correct implementation of these laws. 

 

Hate crimes to this day are still very much present in Kosovo. A shocking percentage was introduced as she stated 97 percent of the population is homophobic. She did say that in the last few years Pride was celebrated openly on a square in Pristina. However, when a student asked what the difference was between Pride in Amsterdam, where it is more of a celebration, and Pride in Kosovo, Rina told us there is a lot of tension and anxiety when it comes to Pride in Kosovo. People of the LGBTQ+ community are afraid of attacks and hate crimes and hate speech are still very common. 

 

When another student asked about relations between the community and the police Rina told us that the organisation does provide training for the police to protect the community and deal with hate crimes and hate speech. However, it does sometimes occur that some members of the police themselves engage in some hate crimes. This, however, does not occur often and she stated the organisation tries to ask police officers to remain respectful. 

 

Another interesting component of the organization is that both Kosovo Serbs and Albanians of the LGBTQ+ community come together to fight for human rights and LGBTQ rights. The meeting concluded with Rina’s view on the future of these rights in Kosovo. She stated it would take a lot of time to change the bad perceptions but said it remains important to teach the youth about this community and raise awareness about these rights. This way there is hope that the next generations will change the homophobia still overtly present in the country. 

All in all, it was another very interesting and insightful day. I would like to thank the organizations for taking their time to speak with us and tell us their inspirational stories. I think I can speak for my fellow students as well, when I say we have a lot of respect for the way in which these people work hard to defend the rights of minority and marginalised groups in Kosovo.