Law on the Use of Languages in Kosovo is a dead letter on paper

The Law on the Use of Languages has existed in Kosovo for years now, however, in most institutions, it is only a dead letter on paper. The majority of ministries do not send out announcements written in Serbian and no interpreters can be seen at press conferences held after Kosovo Assembly sessions, reports Gracanica based news online portal, whose journalists regularly report from Assembly and Government buildings.

If a journalist poses in Serbian or asks something in the same language, he or she will get an answer in Serbian only after the politician in question assesses whether it would be advisable – or not – to actually reply in Serbian, reports Gracanicaonline.

For years, the international donors have distributed significant grants to various NGOs to address the language issue.

However, the organizations hardly produced poor results if any, while even reports to some of them on the language issue failed to be written in standard Serbian language.

Both Albanian and Serbian are official languages of Kosovo, meaning that all institutions and public service providers are required to ensure their equal use in central and local institutions, the justice system, the media, education sector, as well as in public enterprises and the private sector.

At least, that’s what the Law on the Use of Languages says. The law was adopted in 2001 by an UNMIK regulation, after which it was incorporated into the Constitution of Kosovo based on the Ahtisaari Plan. The law was adopted in the Kosovo Assembly in 2007. The constitution and law guarantee the equal use of both languages, and it is worrying that the law is violated by those who passed it.

Gracanica journalists tried to point out only a segment of the problem with a feature story, while appealing for the law to be enforced.

This reportage was supported by KoSSev, IOM and the British Embassy. It does not necessarily reflect the views of donors.

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