Prishtina, 20 May, 2024
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, together with the Deputy Prime Minister for Minority Affairs and Human Rights, Emilija Rexhepi, welcomed the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US State Department from the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Nicole Chulick.
Prime Minister Kurti thanked Deputy Assistant Secretary Chulick for decades of support from the US, especially from the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
He emphasized the high commitment of the Republic of Kosovo to the protection and promotion of the rights of communities and the government’s commitment to the rule of law. In this context, Deputy Prime Minister Rexhepi underlined that Kosovo is a multi-ethnic state and the government is committed to empowering non-majority communities.
During the conversation, Prime Minister Kurti announced the government’s policies and support measures for non-majority communities and marginalized groups, among them financial support for learning centers and scholarships for pupils and students from these same communities, the process of verifying University diplomas of North Mitrovica in order to facilitate access to employment opportunities, the special fund for grants for NGOs, farmers and young entrepreneurs from non-majority communities, and employment measures for 2000 residents of four municipalities with a Serbian majority in the north of the country.
Prime Minister Kurti has explained that the Government’s employment measures, including those for women and youth, have contributed to an increase in employment of 20% in three years of government.
Also, Prime Minister Kurti said that democracy and development go hand in hand and in this regard he emphasized the results of the government over the last three years in the field of the rule of law, as confirmed by the Rule of Law Index of the international organization “World Justice Project” ”, which in 2022 has ranked Kosovo second in the world for improvement in the rule of law, then in the fight against corruption, as evidenced by the improvement of 21 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, in progress democratic as evidenced by the V-Dem Institute that ranks us first in the Western Balkans in the index of electoral democracy, as well as progress in civil rights and political freedoms, according to the 2023 Freedom House Report that also ranks us first in the Western Balkans.
Furthermore, he underlined that the government is guided by the principle that law is above politics and that he considers this principle an absolute guide for the Government of the Republic of Kosovo.
In this meeting, he also expressed to the Deputy Assistant Secretary his concern regarding the administrative ethnic cleansing of Albanians that is taking place in the Presheva Valley, Medvegja and Bujanovc by the Serbian authorities.
The Prime Minister thanked Deputy Assistant Secretary Chulick for the visit, the meeting and the continuous support of the United States of America to the Republic of Kosovo.
Last modified: May 21, 2024