ECLJ to monitor new Kosovo religious freedoms draft bill

July 05, 2006

(Strasbourg, France)- ECLJ was recently contacted by several concerned Christian groups in the former Yugoslavia regarding Kosovo’s new religious freedoms draft bill. At several plenary sessions, Protestant Christians were excluded from the negotiations regarding the draft bill despite all of the other major religious denominations of Kosovo being present.

The bill is being drafted in preparation for a push for independence from United Nations presence as an autonomous administrative division of Serbia. The European Union has also been active in the drafting of the new religious freedom law; the latest draft of which was concluded recently at an EU sponsored Summit in Vienna, Austria. All religions, including the Protestant minority, are pleased with the EU proposal which consists of 14 articles and grants equality and autonomy to all religions in Kosovo. However, experts worry that once Kosovo gains independence, it will revert back to previous drafts of the bill which highly regulated the administration of minority religions.

ECLJ will keep appraised of the status of the bill and work to ensure the maintenance of the European Convention of Human Rights provisions which Kosovo is signatory to.