It's late Friday afternoon, and the office of the President of Mitrovica Basic Court is bustling with activity. Desk phones are ringing off the hook, criminal judges are shuffling through piles of paper and curious parties are anxiously awaiting news on their own cases. According to the administrative rules, there is only one day a week that this office is open to inquiries such as these, but today is not that day. Nevertheless, due to the high demand for legal services, proactive judges manage to find time and help out interested parties.

Meet Kada Bunjaku, the President of the Mitrovica Basic Court [currently based in Vushtrri] and a Serious Crimes Judge. Her purpose is to deliver justice in Kosovo and she works extremely hard to attain this goal. Kada works closely with local and international teams of legal experts to overcome difficulties of the current justice system in Kosovo.

Nevertheless, despite the goodwill, hard work, and dedication of judges, Kosovo's judicial system still faces major challenges daily. For this reason, the justice system is trying to make itself more responsive to the population; address victims' needs more appropriately; remedy previous wrongful convictions; tackle organized crime; and, ensure that the rule of law institutions share information more effectively.

"I have full confidence in the Kosovo justice system, but we do need improved working conditions that enable us to better do our work," says Kada. According to her, more resources are required to serve the needs of the people living in the Mitrovica region in particular. "A number of trials in this region have been delayed simply due to the lack of judges" she adds. Often times, cases have been postponed due to lack of proper conditions: "We now hold the trials in containers, without even basic working conditions!"

Until now, despite all the problems, Kada has managed to resolve about a thousand cases per year: "Every case has its own difficulties, but when you resolve them successfully it brings relief to all!" says Bunjaku.

According to Kada, Kosovo's young judiciary needs all the help it can get in order to stand on its own feet. "We have really good cooperation with EULEX judges. We exchange opinions and experiences, and speed up the process of the local judiciary in becoming self-sustainable.

Kada cites an old saying, "judges' work is similar to that of miners" because most people are oblivious to the harsh conditions and intense labour required to achieve success. The public does not know the difficulties a judge faces every day to complete their work. Mostly due to the media's spotlight on the shortcomings of the justice system, the general public now has a distorted view of the Kosovo judicial system.

"Media usually pick up on erroneous cases and unfortunately never mention the thousands of cases where justice was achieved," says Kada. When analyzing the output produced by judges like Kada, it is apparent that resolving cases successfully is the norm within the Kosovo judiciary, and not the exception – contrary to popular belief.

"We will work hard to raise the public's confidence in our work, says Kada. "I truly believe that judges' work is fair and neutral and that they enforce the law."

Bunjaku is a key justice figure in Mitrovica. Her knowledge, experience and passion drive the justice system in this region, and help the legal community overcome existing challenges. Nevertheless, simultaneously across other regions of Kosovo, hundreds of other judges just like her work hard every day to resolve the criminal cases of their own area. Yet, very few of these occurrences are communicated to the population through mass media. Unfortunately, one of those thousand cases that does not go well is what makes the news, while the other thousands of resolved cases are known only to those directly affected.