Born and raised in Vienna, Violeta Demaj has never forgotten her Albanian roots. This ultimately brought her back to Kosovo, a birthplace of her father. 

The political situation in former Yugoslavia forced Violeta’s father to emigrate from Kosovo in the late sixties. As a child, she visited Kosovo from time to time, but she could not have even imagined that she would be living in the Balkans one day. As she grew up, the visits were more sporadic and rare due to the tensions and conflict, but the umbilical cord with Kosovo was kept alive with her father insisting on a bilingual upbringing. “My Albanian has been constantly improving ever since I came here eight years ago, ”Violeta points out.

During law studies in Vienna, Violeta became interested in the field of human rights. Since then, she has decided to devote her professional career to this issue, complementing her academic background with the practical experience. “I got engaged with different NGOs based in Vienna. With Amnesty International I was monitoring the protection of human rights in certain countries. While working for ‘Helping Hands’, I was assisting asylum seekers, ” she says. 

Whilst dealing with Austria’s asylum seekers, Violeta worked with Kosovo immigrants who were turned down for the asylum but could not, due to Austrian law, be repatriated. That was the first time when she got acquainted with Kosovo.

That was just the beginning of getting to know Kosovo’s problems in a greater debt. Violeta proceeded to undertake her doctorate studies at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna. It was not a coincidence that her thesis was focused on Kosovo’s legal status within the Yugoslav constitutional order, especially considering the discrepancies between the theory and practical implementation. 

Based on her analysis, she came up with recommendations as to what Kosovo status should include, from the perspective of the will and aspirations of local population, she explains. In the meantime the political situation changed and Kosovo declared its independence in 2008. Violeta’s PhD thesis changed as a consequence.  There was a moment when Violeta thought that her thesis would never end, as a consequence of an ever changing reality. However,  she continued working on it and managed to finish and publish it.  

As soon as March, 2006 she moved back to Kosovo to work with the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, as a human rights/human dimension officer. “ I’ve been monitoring public institutions at the municipal level regarding the protection of human rights and implementation of respective standards to this end by municipal officials, ” Violeta explains. “My initial contract was for one year, but after the first month I already wanted to go back home immediately, it was so completely different from what I had expected, ”she laughs. “I was coming to Pristina several times before for different projects, but every time it was only for one or two weeks and then I was coming back to Austria. So when I moved here, to the mission area with all these procedures, hand radio, reports to fulfill, I discovered that I did not like it!” she adds.

After a month of living in Kosovo she had some moments of weakness and contemplated asking her seconding authorities to recall her back to Vienna. Violeta was working in Gjakova/Gjakovica, where electricity cuts were very frequent. “It happened quite often when I got back home from work and I started preparing a meal that suddenly in the middle of cooking the electricity was switched off. There was no fixed time when people could expect power outage; the cut could happen at any time of the day. It was so different than in Austria and it was very difficult for me to get used to these new conditions,” she reflects. 

Then she started thinking that Kosovo citizens had to struggle with all the same inconveniences and she decided she should do the same. “I felt ashamed that I wanted to write to my office that I could not stay here because of power cuts. So I took the decision that I want to go through all of it and I want to make the best of it. ” Violeta concludes. In the end, she spent 7 years in Kosovo, holding different posts and working in different municipalities which proved to be an enjoyable experience. Violeta visited many places which otherwise she would have never discovered. 

Having come back to Vienna she decided to apply for a position with EULEX and she suceeded. So she was back in Kosovo and started working with the EULEX Human Rights and Legal Office where she dealt with different legal/human rights issues. “My main task was to draft an answer to inquires of the Human Rights Review Panel (HRRP) which is an independent body that deals with complaints from any person claiming to be the victim of human rights violations by EULEX Kosovo in the conduct of its executive mandate. “Some of these cases were related to property rights and illegal occupation of different premises or real estates.” Violeta points out, adding that her office was advising the Head of EULEX Mission on different matters, whilst also organising trainings on human rights as part of induction sessions for newcomers and for members of the police forces.  

Violeta found property claims particularly interesting so she jumped at the opportunity to apply for the position of the Head of Office of the Kosovo Property Claims Commission, KPCC. Getting this position was a great opportunity for Violeta to become familiar with details of the KPCC and its mass claims procedure, which was something that she lacked in her professional experience. It was also the last chance to see how the KPPC Office was operating since its mandate was coming to an end. Having settled into her new job Violeta found out that she would have a chance to work with the most complicated and complex claims which were left to be decided at the end of the restitution programme operated by Kosovo Property Agency and Kosovo Property Claims Commission.

While working in the KPCC Office, Violeta was not only performing a typical ‘head of office’ work, such as fulfilling reporting obligations or managing staff, she actually participated in deciding legal issues that appeared in claims under consideration, and then in preparing decisions of the Commission. Since she loves direct contact with people, she was very much into attending oral hearings, which occasionally were held by KPCC in some complex cases. It was a unique experience to be an observer of some exceptional situations, which sometimes occurred during some hearings. 

Sometimes people, who were neighbours before the war, were reconciling with each other and you could not detect any hostile feelings between them. It showed how important it was to give people an opportunity to voice their feelings. “Behind each and every claim there seem to be much more than only the documents, namely personal stories of particular individuals,” Violeta notes. 

Violeta knows that she is lucky to speak Albanian. “I don’t need a translator. Being an international, but with Albanian language skills, I could jump into this country and its culture with no problems, ” she adds. It is a huge advantage for her to see direct reactions to her words without them being ‘lost in translation.’

The mandate of KPCC has been completed with all 42,000 claims adjudicated and the KPCC Office is ceasing to exist as of 31 March. But this is not the end of Violeta’s adventure with Kosovo. She will come back again to work with the EULEX Human Rights and Legal Office. She is looking forward to her new assignments with great enthusiasm.