Help us fight for justice

by Families of Kosovo

Help us fight for justice

by Families of Kosovo
Families of Kosovo
Case Owner
We are families whose loved ones were murdered or were abducted and remain missing in Kosovo. These crimes have never been investigated and the criminals remain at large.
Funded
on 01st September 2017
£10,060
pledged of £20,000 stretch target from 94 pledges
Families of Kosovo
Case Owner
We are families whose loved ones were murdered or were abducted and remain missing in Kosovo. These crimes have never been investigated and the criminals remain at large.

Latest: Sept. 21, 2017

CASE UPDATES

Dear All, 

The crowdjustice campaign will conclude tomorrow morning at 10:00am and it will no longer be possible to make any donations. However, the page will remain live and we will be posting u…

Read more

We are families from Kosovo whose loved ones were abducted and murdered in Kosovo after NATO forces entered the region in June 1999. We are fighting for justice because no proper investigation has been conducted by the responsible authorities - in some cases not even the mortal remains have been located and in every case, the criminals remain at large even though the Special Investigative Task Force of the European Union concluded that a crime against humanity was committed. 

We need your help to fund Court proceedings to secure a remedy for the violation of our human rights by organisations that are founded to uphold the highest human rights standards, the United Nations, the European Union and Member states, whilst governing Kosovo.

In 2013 the Human Rights Advisory Panel of UNMIK, a body established by the United Nations, concluded that the UNMIK had violated our rights protected by ECHR Article 2, the right to life and the right to an effective investigation when life is taken. The Panel also found that UNMIK had violated ECHR Article 3, the right to live free from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment. The Panel recommended that UNMIK provides reparation and damages to the victims and that it urges EULEX to investigate, but no reparation has been made and EULEX, a body established by the European Union, has failed to investigate.  

British forces conducted the initial investigation and between 1 January 2013 and March 2016, the United Kingdom held a key responsibility within EULEX when the Government seconded an FCO employee to the position of Chief Prosecutor of the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of Kosovo, the office responsible for the investigations. But the Government took no measures to ensure our cases were properly investigated, even though Amnesty International highlighted our plight in a Report published in August 2013. 

In November 2015 and October 2016 the Human Rights Review Panel of EULEX concluded that EULEX had violated our rights protected by ECHR Articles 2 and 3. However, like UNMIK's Human Rights Advisory Panel before it, the Human Rights Review Panel cannot provide an effective remedy. It can only make non-binding recommendations. It cannot provide reparation and damages for the human rights violations found. It cannot order an investigation to be carried out or for the mortal remains to located and no action has been by the taken by the United Nations, the United Kingdom and the institutions of the European Union in response to the Panels Opinions.

No-one should have their fundamental rights violated in this way with impunity. The right to an effective remedy is enshrined in ECHR Article 13 and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. 

We are challenging the failure to provide a remedy and the case is before the Court of Appeal in England on technical questions of law. We need financial support to pay for disbursements such as Court fees and for the costs that will be spent by the Defendants legal team in these proceedings, which we estimate to be £15,000. Please help us to raise sufficient funds.

Get updates about this case

Subscribe to receive email updates from the case owner on the latest news about the case.

Be a promoter

Your share on Facebook could raise £26 for the case

I'll share on Facebook
Update 7

Families of Kosovo

Sept. 21, 2017

CASE UPDATES

Dear All, 

The crowdjustice campaign will conclude tomorrow morning at 10:00am and it will no longer be possible to make any donations. However, the page will remain live and we will be posting updates on it to keep people informed of any material developments. 

 We are pleased to confirm that the total amount of pledges and charitable donations received is £18,700. Thank you very much for the generous donations.

If you have any specific questions or wish to contact us directly, please e-mail us on: [email protected]

Thank you very much again on behalf of the families of Kosovo








Update 6

Families of Kosovo

Sept. 7, 2017

Court Deadline Extended

We are pleased to confirm that the Court of Appeal has extended time to comply with the Directions of the Court by 25 September 2017.

Please support this case. Our aim is to end impunity for human rights violations committed by the United Nations, the European Union and their Member states and to secure justice and reparation for the human rights violations found.

Kosovo is the first territory in history to be governed by these bodies. Not making a stand against impunity here, is to agree that the UN, EU and Member states, may violate human rights in any part of the world, where they take on the responsibility of Government, with impunity - now and in the future. 

Thank you for your support to end impunity. 

Update 5

Families of Kosovo

Sept. 3, 2017

5 September deadline approaches

We hope to know tomorrow, 4 September 2017, whether the Court of Appeal will extend the deadline for complying with Directions from 5 September to 25 September. 

If our application is not successful, we will need to confirm our position on 5 September. 

If we have not raised £16,200 by that date, we will need to inform the Court that we cannot proceed. 

If you do wish to donate, please do so now. If you are having difficulty with donating, please write and explain the difficulty to [email protected] 

Thank you for your donations on behalf of the families of kosovo 

Update 4

Families of Kosovo

Sept. 1, 2017

We still need your donations!

Dear All, 

We have exceeded our initial target of £5000! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated. 

We are writing to explain why we still need your donations and what the stretch target on the Crowd Justice website means. The minimum amount of funds we have always required is: £16,200. This is for Court fees (£1,200) and the Ministry of Defence costs for defending the appeal, (£15,000) which we must pay if our appeal does not succeed. Solicitor and Counsel representing the clients in Court, will not get paid anything, unless the case succeeds. If the case does succeed, the Ministry of Defence should pay those fees. 

We set a minimum target of £5000 on Crowd Justice because we have also appealed to the Serbian Government, other organisations and individuals, for donations to achieve the minimum £16,200 required for this case to proceed to trial before the Court of Appeal. 

We have not achieved this target so please don't think that any further donations are unnecessary. They are! 

Crowd Justice has automatically added a stretch target when the initial target is achieved and for £5,000 the stretch target they have set is £50,000. We are not hoping to achieve £50,000, but whatever we receive in donations, beyond the £16,200, will be used for any costs we have not foreseen in this case and to help other Serbian families who have suffered the same fate. Donations given will not be used for any other purpose. This is because the appeal has been on behalf of Serbian families whose loved ones were murdered and abducted in Kosovo after 12 June 1999 and whose cases were never investigated. 

We sincerely hope this case will benefit other families of Kosovo, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, religion or political views, who have suffered the same fate. If we succeed in ending the impunity in our cases, this will, we hope, create a precedent that others can rely on to secure access to justice. 

Please donate as generously as you can. If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail the solicitor with conduct at: [email protected]

Thank you on behalf of the Serbian families of Kosovo represented in this case. 



 



Update 3

Families of Kosovo

Aug. 31, 2017

We are Serbian families from Kosovo - our fight for justice affects all

We are Serbian families from Kosovo and any donation made will fund our fight for justice against NATO/KFOR, UNMIK, EULEX and their Member states, for failure to fulfil their duties in Kosovo after they assumed authority in the region in June 1999 and to date.

Pristina was once home to more than 30,000 Serbs and today it has approximately 30. Not a single criminal has been brought to justice for a single crime committed against the Serb population of Kosovo, however heinous the crime.

The very last case heard by the Human Rights Advisory Panel of UNMIK ("The Panel") concerned the following horrifying facts: On 26 June 1999 Mrs M. was assaulted in her family home by numerous Albanian men, including one wearing the insignia of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The attackers assaulted her, blindfolded her and tied her to a chair, and then within earshot, three of them raped her daughter, Ms. X., who had mental and physical disabilities. Then they killed her daughter by slitting her throat with a razor.

UNMIK failed to investigate even this atrocity and on 18 March 2016, the Panel concluded that UNMIK had violated ECHR Article 2 (the right to life and the right to an effective investigation when life is taken). The Panel also found that UNMIK had subjected the family to treatment that violated ECHR Article 3 (the right to live free from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment). 

We are in the unique historical position where our fundamental human rights have been violated by both the United Nations and the European Union, with impunity,  because the human rights monitoring bodies for UNMIK and EULEX cannot provide a remedy. This is the case even though ECHR Articles 2 and 3 human rights are so fundamental that ECHR Article 15 provides those rights must be protected in times of war or other public emergency, threatening the life of a nation. 

Please help us bring this impunity to an end because if a legal remedy is not found in our case, how can anyone, anywhere in the world, expect justice in any post-war policing operation conducted by NATO, the United Nations and the European Union?

We must inform the Court by 5 September 2017 whether we have sufficient funds to proceed with our appeal, so if you do wish to donate, please do so before this date. 

Thank you for reading this. Any donation, however, small, will be very much appreciated. Thank you again. 



 




Update 2

Families of Kosovo

Aug. 29, 2017

Please take action to end impunity!

Dear All,

The 5 September deadline, for us to inform the Court of Appeal whether we will be able to proceed, is fast approaching and we have nowhere near sufficient funds to pursue this legal challenge, even though the Court of Appeal has granted permission to appeal. 

Please support this action to end impunity - the outcome affects us all and will have far-reaching consequences. 

The Right to Life and the Right to live free from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment is enshrined in all international human rights provisions, as is the right to an effective remedy when those rights are violated. For example:

The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) [Articles 3, 5 and 8]

The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR, 1950) and the Protocols thereto [Articles 2,3 and 13]

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights [Articles 2, 3, 4, 5 and 47]

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR, 1966) and the Protocols thereto, [Articles 2, 4, 6 and 7]

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT, 1984), [Articles 2, 4 and 14]

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD, 1965) [Articles 5 and 6]

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances [Articles 1, 3 and 12]

To accept that these rights may be violated, with impunity, by organs of the United Nations and the European Union, on territory where they exercise jurisdiction, renders the existence of these rights, a mockery.

Please don't allow this dangerous precedent to remain unchallenged. Please support this legal action to end impunity.

Thank you. 





Update 1

Families of Kosovo

Aug. 23, 2017

Amnesty International

For more information about our cases and  UNMIK's failure to deliver justice, please read Amnesty International's Report available on the following link: 

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/EUR70/009/2013/en/

Get updates about this case

Subscribe to receive email updates from the case owner on the latest news about the case.

    There are no public comments on this case page.