After many years of difficulties in accessing Kosovo documents, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo Government has adopted a decision that enables the registration of one’s civil status in the central civil registry of Kosovo based on the birth, death and marriage certificates issued by Serbian institutions. However, the decision recognizes the validity of certificates issued before 14 September 2016. The decision will also limited up to 5 July 2019.
Although reached in July this year, the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that allows citizen update their civil status in the central register of Kosovo citizens was not implemented in northern municipalities until September, neither have there been any official announcements coming from the institutions or the political representatives explaining new possibilities of registering the civil status of an individual. These were the conclusions of a conference organised by NGO LINK on Tuesday.
Milica Andric, who authored the report, on a issues of civil registration in Kosovo, presented by LINK, said that before the last decision, Kosovo authorities only recognised documents issued in by FRY prior to 10 June 1999, or the Kumanovo Agreement.
This caused a lot of issues in civil registration predominantly for the Serb community who even after 1999 continued registering births, deaths and marriages only in Serbian institutions in Kosovo. Although this issue affects all communities in Kosovo, including displaced persons in Serbia, it is most pronounced in northern municipalities where prior to 2013 interactions with Kosovo institutions were almost non-existent.
The Civil Registration offices of the Kosovo system were not formed in municipalities in the north until December 2017. Civil status offices are still not available in the administrative centres of the municipalities of Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok. They are instead located in the Albanian-majority villages of Lipa, Bistrica and Cabra respectively.
In such a context, when it came to Kosovo’s civil registry books, the civil status information of citizens residing in Serb-majority areas was “frozen” back in June 1999, while civil status changes registered in the Serbian system were invisible.
Miljana Scekic, the legal advisor in the regional Office of the Ombudsperson in North Mitrovica welcomed the new decision explaining that it will help a lot of people register their children born after June 1999 using Serbian birth certificates, but also the registration of the death of parents or close relatives will help others initiate procedures for the transfer of property.
Although the decision is not comprehensive as it excludes those who had any changes in the legal status after 14 September 2016, Scekic still finds that the decision is an important step forward.
Non-recognition of Serbian civil registry book certificates had a major impact on access to Kosovo documents, but the most visible problem was that of the non-recognition of marriages conducted in Serbian institutions.
With the new decision a simple procedure is envisaged for the registration of marriages, deaths and births of family members.
The citizens need only present the original Serbian birth certificate of their child and a copy of the ID card of the parents in order to register the birth of the child. Similarly, the original marriage certificate and a copy of the spouses’ ID is required for the registration of a marriage.
Finally, for the registration of the death of a family member, a citizen is required to present only the Serbian death certificate or other proof of death.
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