The topic of this Ph.D. dissertation Implementation of Restraining Order in Cases of Violence Against Women in Kosovo is institutional responses and protective measures for ensuring higher safety for the victims of intimate partner violence.
When analyzing the intimate partner violence problem in Kosovo and the relevant legislation, introduced to confine this worldwide problem, our theoretical premises were as follows: the intimate partner violence laws in Kosovo were passed with the support of international organizations that originally came to Kosovo to prevent the armed conflict i.e. the war that begun in 1999. These organizations, with their male dominance per se, and their acts in Kosovo have affected both the occurrence of violence as well as the efforts to tackle it. This is the issue of the so-called hegemonic masculinity that influences and at the same time enables the subordination of women (Connell, 1987). Gramsci (2009), on the other hand, uses the concept of masculine hegemony to point out the concept of cultural hegemony, which gives the upper class (in the context of post-war Kosovo, those were the international organizations and Kosovar leading politicians; author’s note) the opportunity to control and subdue the working class through the social system (Gramsci, 2009). The Kosovar civil society has long been subject to masculine relations. Speaking from the hegemonic point of view, Munn (2008) points out the nationalist discourse boost (Munn, 2008). Violence is therefore seen as the ratio between power and gender-related dominance both within the international community as well as the local authorities.
Introducing and passing the intimate partner violence act in Kosovo was based on best practices and foreign legislation; however, not all specific cultural Kosovar framework was taken into account. Due to the masculine environment and the all-present patriarchal social relations, a thorough legislation implementation is virtually impossible, especially the safeguard measures, including the restraining order against the perpetrator of violence. The patriarchy as a form of social order defines and regulates the power balance from birth on, and through time, it only further evolves and intensifies (Cockburn, 2004). When we acknowledge it within the society that we live in, it shapes our everyday life (Krajnc Starček, 1998). The low number of restraining orders and intimate partner violence sentences in Kosovo implies that the patriarchy has been institutionalized, which only gives the perpetrators more power and control over their victims and decreases the level of the civil society’s trust in the institutions.
How successful the enforcement of the intimate partner violence prevention legislation is, is going to depend on the performance of various institutions and their cooperation, their authority, and the civil society’s trust in their work. The vital institutions that need to respond to intimate partner violence cases are primarily the Police, the Prosecutor’s Office, Courts, Victim Advocacy and Centers for Social Welfare, but the survey shows that their authority and their influence on enforcing the law are quite different.
Due to the temporary interruption of education and social work training after 1999, the development of newer and, above all, better methods and approaches to work, including intimate partner violence, was prevented. According to Škerjanec (2005), the need for strengthening, empowerment and cooperation of the service user call for a different approach to dealing with intimate partner violence, not just the usual procedure where the user receives merely the prescribed package of social care services in accordance with the centralized assessment of their needs. This was observed during the implementation of social work in Kosovo. The Department of Social Work at the University of Pristina re-opened as late as 2012, and has been gradually eliminating the deficiencies. Up until then, the social services employed all sorts of profiles, from lawyers to technical professions; these, however, are not suitable for performing the specific tasks, required of the social care system.
The power and influence of individual institutions in Kosovo depended very much on the help of the international community; however, when the international community wanted to stabilize the country, it focused solely on the general safety of citizens rather than on supporting the measures and provisions of specific aspects of social work that deal with intimate partner violence. Their help was mostly directed toward the police and the rule of law, thus leaving social work sidelined. While some budget was allocated to the training of the Kosovo police, the social workers were completely left out from the Program against Intimate Partner Violence and the Action Plan 2011-2014 Farnsworth, Qosaj Mustafa, Ekonomi, Shima and Dauti Kadriu, 2012). Proper education and continuous training of all key institutions, e.g. the police, the social services, and the judiciary, are what is crucial in order to treat the intimate partner violence more effectively. The quality of the social services performance is, among others, reflected in its weak influence on the society, as well as in its inadequate development and work methods that seem completely out-of-date.
The central issue of the Kosovar social work is the education process because it has not been carried out since 1999. The Department of Social Work at Pristina University re-opened as late as 2012. Up until then, the Kosovar Centers for Social Welfare employed people of very different profession, i.e. lawyers, as well as some with upper-secondary technical education, but none of these profiles quite fit the profile of a social worker. The international community’s help was more or less focused on the police and legal matters, thus putting social services on the bench. In reference to this problem, Hughman (1993) discusses all the relations between the disciplines and institutions that cannot equally implement their authority (Hughman, 1993). The power and the influence of individual Kosovar institutions were largely dependent on the international community’s help. For the intimate partner violence to be handled proficiently, the social services must be based upon professional methods, and due to the specifics of such violence (the majority of intimate partner violence victims being women; author’s note), women must be involved in those services; in Kosovo, however, the conditions for that have not been met. If intimate partner violence is to be tackled more efficiently, it is necessary that all the vital institutions, e. g. the Police, Centers for Social Welfare, and the judiciary, are subject to constant learning and training.
A qualitative survey aimed to establish how the restraining order as a form of safeguard measure was accepted in Kosovo, and in what way it was implemented. The fact that the administrative authority was newly established by the international community was taken into consideration. Regarding that, the focus was on the institutional approach to tackling intimate partner violence, the cooperation between individual institutions, and the influence of NGOs on the legislation formation process. In this research, multiple methods i.e. triangulation were used, as numerous studies on intimate partner violence were already carried out in Kosovo and secondary study material was thus available. The qualitative methodology was focused on the research among the less accessible population, working for the Kosovar institutions and international organizations that handle the problem of intimate partner violence. A focus group, consisting of Kosovar institutions employees, served as the foundation for further research. What followed was 34 interviews with people from Kosovar institutions, international organizations working in Kosovo, and people from NGOs. The results were used as a starting point for another focus group of ethnic minorities and collective interviews with social workers who deal with the issue of violence.
The study revealed that the issue of intimate partner violence and, consequently, the restraining order as a safeguard measure in Kosovo is a very complex one, interwoven with numerous factors that prevent its implementation – the stigma, the victims’ economic dependence on the perpetrator, the rigid hegemony and patriarchy, and the weak cooperation between the Kosovar institutions as well as the international community that has been there for over 20 years. The international community has had quite an influence on passing legislation;
however, the good examples of best practices from different countries, especially those countries where all the necessary conditions for its implementation have been met, are far from compatible with the Kosovar cultural and social concept of living, which is based on patriarchy and male dominance. All this results in the breach of people’s trust, especially the victim’s, that the institutions will do their work because all the top positions are filled with men who take risky measures due to their solidarity with the perpetrators, and these measures do not only fail to protect the victims – they sometimes even put their lives in danger.
The intimate partner violence legislation is constantly changing. After the war in Kosovo, the UNSCR 1325 ((S/RES/1325, 2000) and the Istanbul Convention were ratified, and these two documents, together with NGOs, greatly encouraged the international community and Kosovar institutions to actively tackle the issue of intimate partner violence. In 2019, almost 20 years after implementing the first safeguard measures to protect the victims of violence, an additional Article on intimate partner violence was added to the Kosovar Criminal Code, and it abolished the distinction between the civil and criminal procedure regarding intimate partner violence cases, as well as increased the responsibility and participation of relevant institutions. Furthermore, it diminished the role of the victims, as they are no longer solely responsible for dealing with the procedure of intimate violence case and issuing of the restraining order.
20 years after the war in Kosovo, there are some positive shifts toward more thorough proceedings of intimate partner violence; however, the low number of implemented protective measures, restraining orders included, implies a further lack of action of vital institutions and their cooperation in intimate partner violence proceedings. In contrast to the poor institutional treatment of intimate partner violence, Kosovo presents an image that is becoming more and more modern and progressive with each year, of not each day. The international community’s presence certainly helped, but we cannot ignore the rapid development and Kosovar everyday access to digitalization. Kosovo wants to become a member of the EU, and that certainly brings many great challenges, but it seems that Kosovo has a clear purpose and a goal. The high level of education, especially among women, is striking, but the employment rate still fails to satisfy; on the contrary: the unemployment rate in Kosovo is the highest, in comparison to the EU countries. The legal framework generally ensures the protection of human and fundamental rights in accordance with European standars. Kosovo has shown its commitment to addressing the issue of gender inequality. Moreover, there is noticable progress in regard to political stability, foreign policy, neighborly relations and regional cooperation, in judiciary, the fight against organized crime and corruption, the public administration reform, migration control and economic development (European Commission Report, 2022).
This PhD. critically presents the institutional measures for dealing with intimate partner violence, but it should be noticed that Kosovo has been rapidly developing on a daily basis sever since the war. The country sees and has been building its future as a future EU member state with all its values, thereby showing its motivation for social and cultural changes that will lead Kosovo into the European Union.
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