OSCE
Report on the Implementation of Kosovo Assembly Laws
By Andrea
Saula
Political analysts generally agree that UNMIK and the Provisional
Government [PISG] have helped to create a legal framework necessary for the rule
of law to exist here in Kosovo. But a report released by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe says that the legal process is hampered by
the Kosovo Assembly’s drive to pass new legislation – something critics of the
provisional legislature say fails to address the implementation of old laws.
The OSCE report focuses on laws passed in 2002 and 2003.
Michael Schuetz is the Chief of the OSCE's Rule of Law
section, a division of the OSCE responsible for assessing the extent to which
laws passed during this time are now functioning.
Schuetz
“General assessment of the
report is that process of drafting and adoption of subsidiary acts by the
executive branch started with certain delays after which many of the
institutions have managed to gradually overcome the initial difficulties and
currently ha achieved considerable success in the implementation process.”
“Subsidiary” acts of legislation are add-on amendments to laws that are being drafted. The OSCE report is critical of “deficiencies” in the regulation of these ‘subsidiary acts’ because of their inconsistent terminology and because the Assembly has failed to make this legislation part of the public record.
OSCE Rule of Law Chief, Schuetz says a lack of sufficient resources in some legal offices also made it more difficult to implement laws passed in 2002 and 2003.
The report also includes recommendations, such as the establishment
of additional parliamentary oversight over the executive branch of the PISG – a
de facto separation of powers. Diman Dimov, an OSCE democratization officer who
worked on the report.
Dimov
“It is very important to note that in a system of separation
of powers, there is a notion of check and balances where the 3 branches (the
legislative, the executive and the judicial) interact with each other. What we
point out in this report is that there is a need that the Assembly sets an
oversight mechanism in order to monitor the implementation of the laws that the
Assembly has passed by the Government.”
Director of the OSCE Mission's Department of Human Rights
and Rule of Law, Henry McGowen says further subsidiary legislation is needed
for some laws, and the OSCE report recommends ways to insure that laws are
implemented. But, McGowen says: implementation is the responsibility of the
Assembly and of the relevant Ministries, first and foremost.
McGowen
“This is meant to be a working document. It is a picture of
where we are right now in the legislative process. We recognize that Kosovo
Assembly has a very new legislative body and has make great strives since its
beginning back in 2002. It is our hope that this document will help the
legislative process in Kosovo to become even better.”
Representatives of the International Community consistently emphasize
the need for Kosovo’s Assembly to draft new laws, partly to overcome the gaps
between the inherited Yugoslav legal systems and partly to satisfy new demands
of a transitioning political and economic system.
But if the OSCE report is an indication of the weaknesses in
the legal implementation process, much work will need to be done to insure that
these processes are streamlined quickly if Standards are to be seen as
progressing for status discussions in Mid-2005.