On 26 April 2020, the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo, organized an online conference entitled “War crimes trial: slow progress”.

Our colleague Paul Flynn, Head of Human Rights and Legal Office, participated as a panelist and spoke about the importance of regular and meaningful legal cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia, which is needed in order to achieve accountability for the war crimes committed.  

Regarding the monitoring of the trials, Flynn spoke about EULEX’s monitoring mandate of selected cases and trials: “As most of you already know, EULEX is now monitoring selected cases and trials in the Kosovo justice system, including war crimes cases. In our latest Justice Monitoring Report, we encouraged the Kosovo authorities to seek ways to improve regional cooperation in the investigation of high-profile war-crimes cases, especially with Serbia, where many suspects and witnesses reside.”  

Further, Flynn talked about the facilitation of information exchange between the Kosovo Police and the Serbian authorities, a part of the Mission’s mandate that is less known to the public.   

“I was surprised to find out that compared to previous years, in 2020, EULEX facilitated a volume of message exchange three times higher than in the past between the Kosovo Police and the Serbian Ministry of Interior. I am mentioning this because I want to stress that the increase of legal cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia is also possible, provided that a constructive atmosphere of trust is built through dialogue.”  

This conference was organized following the publication of the Annual Report on monitoring of the trials in 2020, related to the conflict in Kosovo.