Thursday, July 3, 2025

Reform of the Kosovo Specialist Chamber: The only way to achieve true justice

An image from a trial involving former Prime Minister and President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci (pictured top left) on 03/04/23.

By Ben Sweeney

On Friday 20 June, I (as part of the Peace Lab course) travelled to The Hague to visit the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) to learn more about the body. The KSC was created in 2017 to judge perpetrators of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s violence from 1998 to 2000. At the KSC we met with a public relations person who gave a presentation about the history of the KSC, how the Chambers works and ongoing trials. Additionally, she answered questions from us students about the KSC.

Coming away from the meeting, I was struck by her view of the goal of the KSC. During the Q&A session, I asked about how the court manages to reconcile its desire to bring justice to victims in Kosovo while directly contributing to political instability in the country through the summoning, arrest and jailing of leaders. Another colleague questioned the lack of Kosovar involvement in the body aside from the Defence's counsel. Both answers shocked me. She made it clear to me that the KSC’s job is not the reconciliation of communities within Kosovo, but rather bringing people to justice. Additionally, her defence of the KSC not employing any Kosovar (or Serbian) national on the staff left myself and others with a sour taste in our mouths – as if the KSC had decided that those communities could not be trusted in bringing alleged war criminals and those accused of heinous crimes to account.  

Over the last three weeks, our studies have focused on how to bring groups together and create a shared identity with the aim of building a sustainable and inclusive peace for Kosovars. We have heard from civil society groups who organise safe spaces for citizens to share their feelings to move towards a less divisive society, alongside political figures such as the Prime Minister who spoke of his goal of establishing an integrated education system within Kosovo to bring majority and non-majority groups together. Their focus has been on making Kosovo better for the next generation and ending the decades of tensions between rival ethnic groups. This is not the feeling I got from the KSC. Their goal of trying alleged criminals is unpopular within both ethnic Serb and ethnic Albanian communities with disagreement over to what extent the KSC should try to attain justice for victims of horrifying acts. However, the KSC does not change its tactics despite its stated commitment to community outreach – continuing its institutionalised actions. This (while having the ironic effect of creating a shared identity of opposition) is not beneficial to Kosovo’s future.
While I see the benefits of putting criminals in jail, I feel there needs to be a significant re-thinking of KSC operations. The body has to emphasise the inclusion of Kosovar communities in the decision making – top-down strategies won’t work in the long-term to create spaces for Kosovars to live in. Instead, I see further engagement with both groups as key – taking on board their views and wishes is the only way to achieve true justice for the communities and end the needless violence which dominated the 20th century in the Balkans.

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