On December 18, Justice Today, a platform of the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) organized a Press Conference to present the results of the 7th Edition of the Rule of Law Performance Index in Kosovo (RoLPIK). The performance index of rule of law institutions in Kosovo (RoLPIK) is a monitoring mechanism designed to assess the performance of institutions, with a particular focus on the justice system in Kosovo.

RoLPIK serves as an open access platform, accessible to the general public, where each year the performance of the justice system institutions in Kosovo is analyzed and reflected over years. This index contains indicators that provide data about the perceptions and experiences of Kosovo citizens with the rule of law institutions, as well as structural data that provide the reasons that condition efficient and independent functioning of these institutions.

This report is based on primary data such as public perception and those secondary official reports from the responsible and managing bodies of the justice system in Kosovo. On the other hand, structural indicators reflect the capacities and resources of the prosecution offices and courts to carry out their duties, thereby enabling assessment of the efficiency of their work. Since the new structure of the judiciary has come into force in January 2013, the indicators are based on data from the last six years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

It is concerning that the majority of citizens of Kosovo hold the belief that persons with political influence are less likely to be punished by law. The survey results show that about 60 % of citizens answered in the affirmative to the question “Do you think that people with political influence are less likely to be punished by law?”. On the other hand, only 31.4% of respondents think that regardless of their political position or influence, these people are likely to get punished by provisions of the law. Whereas, 8.7% of the respondents said that they do not know or have chosen not to answer at all regarding this issue.

In addition, citizens believe that justice institutions continue to be affected by the phenomenon of bribery. From the results of the 2021 polls, the data show that 39.8% of respondents think that employees and officials of rule of law institutions accept and require bribes. Compared to the previous year the percentage has decreased by 8.3 percentage points, but the negative perception remains by the majority of respondents. However, there is a positive trend in the perception of citizens about whether employees or officials that enforce the law receive or require bribes, because 42.3% of respondents believe that they do not, compared to last year’s results 29.4%. It is worth noting that the citizens’ trust has increased these last few years.

Citizens of Kosovo, this year as well, rank the Kosovo Police as the most effective institution in the fight against corruption, at 38.2% which has decreased by 9.9 percentage points compared to last year. Regarding the fight against corruption by the Courts and Prosecutions, the respondents think that the Prosecution is more effective in the fight against criminal cases than the Courts. Regarding this index, in the previous edition, citizens put the Prosecution with a lower percentage at 4.8%, while this year this has doubled in percentage points. Hence, this means that there is an increase in citizens’ trust about the institution of the Prosecution regarding the fight against corruption.

For more information, please read the full report here.

The Project “Monitoring the Judicial and Prosecutorial System in Kosovo” is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office through the British Embassy in Pristina. The contents of RoLPIK publications are the sole responsibility of the Group for Legal and Political Studies and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.