The Ministry for Local Government Administration, MAPL, is preventing four women who were appointed to the Committee for Communities from becoming representatives in this governing body.

BIRN has discovered that MAPL is requesting the revocation of a municipal assembly decision taken on January 24, 2018, through which five members of the Committee for Communities were selected.

“The decision No. 60/01 – 178/2018, which determined the composition of the Committee for Communities, is in violation of the Law on Gender Equality because of ‘the unequal representation of men in this assisting body to the assembly’s work,’” reads MAPL’s decision, taken on February 1, 2018, and obtained by BIRN.

The committee, which was selected in late January, was supposed to be composed of Lirije Lata from PDK, Kaltrina Latifi from Vetevendosje, Nazife Krasniqi from LDK, Elmihane Krasniqi-Malsiu from HANDIKOS, and Shemsedin Abazi from the Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms, KMDLNJ. MAPL promptly demanded the municipal assembly and Kacanik Mayor Besim Ilazi to take immediate measures against the decision.

“MAPL demands that the municipal assembly/the Mayor take concrete measures so that the municipal act is harmonized with legal dispositions in force within 30 days from the date of reception of the request for the review of the act,” the MAPL decision reads.

Contacted by BIRN, Kacanik Mayor Ilazi said that this issue would be fixed in the municipal assembly’s next meeting.

“In the next meeting of the assembly in February we will fix this. The members can remain the same, but we might change one of them since now the only open issue is gender equality, which has not been fulfilled. So, we shall appoint another male member,” Ilazi said.

MAPL’s decision assesses that equal gender representation in all legislative, executive and judicial bodies is only achieved with 50 per cent representation of each gender. The decision is based on Kosovo’s Law on Gender Equality.  

Most municipal governments and assemblies do violate the law on gender equality, especially when it comes to appointing directors. So far, only Drenas Mayor Ramiz Lladrovci has appointed five women as directors in municipal departments.