Participants in the seminar on media work carried out by public prosecutors’ offices in Graçanica
On 6 and 7 December 2017, the IRZ in partnership with the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC) held a second seminar for KPC members, Kosovan Prosecutor Generals, public prosecutors and press officers in Graçanica on “Publicity work and dealing with the media”.
The aim of the consolidation event was to review and discuss the current situation in Kosovo and then follow up the conclusions of the May seminar and discuss and find solutions for the outstanding issues and challenges. The IRZ was supported by the experienced speaker, Prof. Dr. Jan Bergmann, Presiding Judge at the Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg.
The participants dealt with the following topics during the two-day seminar:
Press law,
How an Office of the Public Prosecutor General should deal with the media,
Interpretation of case law in the press,
Process-related PR work: “Litigation PR” and
European and Human Rights provisions for legal press work.
Also discussed were the basic structures, reasons behind and practical advantages of active and professional press work, the requirements of media representatives, the press code and the resulting duties of care. In addition, many crucial court decisions from German and European case law were also presented and lively discussed.
This follow-up seminar was met with a very positive response from all those involved. The participants were very interested and engaged and were able to discuss many practical issues from their daily work with each other and with the German speaker.
Participants in the study visit in front of the Ministry of Justice in Düsseldorf
From 28 to 30 August 2017, a delegation from the Kosovan Ministry of Justice visited various judicial authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia to learn about their press and publicity work.
Within the framework of the twinning project Strengthening policy formulation and legislative drafting, the ministry officials from Kosovo visited the Ministry of Justice in Düsseldorf (see photo), the Higher Regional Court and the Administrative and Local courts in the capital of the North Rhine-Westphalia region.
The Kosovan guests had the opportunity to discuss the methods used in the German judicial authorities’ press and publicity work with the press officers concerned and to enhance their experience through dialogue.
The participants were particularly interested in the potential for electronic communications with citizens. The “Justice Online” project, which focusses in particular on the high value of information for citizens, was very well received by the Kosovan delegation, who appraised it as an outstanding example of good citizen relations worthy of imitation.
The two-year twinning project between the IRZ and the Kosovan Ministry of Justice is due to come to an end at the beginning of October 2018.
From 3 to 6 July 2017, a delegation of eight Kosovans attended expert talks on “Young offenders’ institutions” in Göttingen, Germany.
The prison director and three members of staff from the young offenders’ institution in Lipjan, a member of the prison system department at the Ministry of Justice and Child Protection Officers Afrim Ibrahimi and Ardian Klaiqi from UNICEF Kosovo accepted the invitation from the IRZ to visit Germany.
The main focus of this year’s visit was on an exchange of ideas between practitioners at institutions in Göttingen and Lipjan.
The short but very work-intensive programme began with a visit to the open prison for young offenders and to the juvenile detention facility in Göttingen. The guests were not only taken on informative guided tours of both establishments by prison directors Melanie Hacker and Christel Waßmann and prison officer Gabi Förstling, they were also provided with detailed explanations of the concept behind each establishment.
A young person from the open prison spontaneously offered to accompany visitors on their guided tour. This meant that the foreign guests were given a unique opportunity to find out about everyday life in an open prison from the point of view of a young offender. Siegfried Löprick, Chairman of “Jugendhilfe Göttingen e.V.” (a youth welfare association) and a former member of staff at the open prison for young offenders in Göttingen, accompanied the visitors and was available to answer their questions as an expert adviser.
On the second day, the visitors attended a young offender's trial by a local court judge, Stefan Scherrer, who, following the sentencing, talked in detail about the session and further proceedings. He had sentenced a young person to immediate detention for four weeks.
Kai Jans, a youth probation officer in Göttingen, outlined the fundamental duties of probation officers in juvenile criminal proceedings and Peter Kleinadel from the Verein Jugendhilfe Süd-Niedersachsen e.V., an association providing support for young people in the southern part of the Lower Saxony region, provided an interesting overview of social and educational services for young offenders outside the prison system.
The professional visit was funded by the German Foreign Office. The organisation of the visit and choice of topics for the programme took place in close coordination with UNICEF Kosovo and the Deputy Director of the local court of Göttingen, judge Stefan Scherrer. UNICEF Kosovo supports the Kosovan Ministry of Justice with advice on the reform of young offenders’ institutions. As a youth criminal judge, Stefan Scherrer provided the IRZ with a great deal of expert and practical support with the organisation of this visit.
A return visit by the experts in Göttingen to their Kosovan counterparts in Lipjan is planned for the autumn.
