Inspired by a profound need to seek transitional justice, reconciliation and right to truth for the victims, and former adversaries of the Kosovo conflict, the Center for Research and Documentation and Publication (CRDP) was founded in 2010 to help heal the scars of warfare and restore the dignity of the victims.
Their central priority involves an inclusive approach in their activities with families of war victims. A Needs Assessment research project is an ongoing endeavor supported by the U.S Embassy in Prishtina. This project studies the challenges and needs of the families of victims and missing persons. They want to examine the barriers to the process of rebuilding civic trust between families of victims and missing persons and the state institutions, and assess the preconditions for integrating them into society (for more information, see this report).
In a two year project supported by MOTT foundation and other donors, CRDP is responsible for improving the understanding of transitional justice in Kosovo and strengthen institutional capacities for implementing Article 2.5 of the Ahtisaari proposal; CRDP has held and developed political-judicial workshops. By working with the local community to participate in Dealing with the Past (DwP), they are working to raise awareness on the various approaches of multi-dimensional transitional justice. This way, CRDP wants to ensure that before they can work together on these serious issues, there is a wider understanding of the DwP concept, and a collective agreement that the past is something that Kosovo must work through.
Since the beginning of their work, CRDP have been primarily engaged in activities with the Coalition for RECOM, a regional group of civil society organizations and individuals who support the proposal for a regional truth commission. RECOM is an initiative concerned with compiling a list of human losses and establishing the gross violations of human rights committed during the wars of the former Yugoslavia between the years 1991 and 2001. As a member of RECOM’s Coalition in Kosovo, CRDP has been responsible for organizing national consultations with civil society stakeholders and victims associations throughout various municipalities in Kosovo. These consultations facilitated interethnic dialogue and allowed members of the public to contribute their own ideas about how to effectively deal with the past in Kosovo.
The publication of thier quarterly newspaper Made in KS, an initiative launched in partnership with Forum ZFD, has been widely disseminated throughout Kosovo, bringing attention to the various issues surrounding DwP in the region. http://dwp-kosovo.info/
In an effort to assist the victims of conflict in Kosovo and to promote peace and stability in Kosovo and the region, the CRDP is currently involved in Monitoring the Law No. 04/L-054 ON THE STATUS AND THE RIGHTS OF THE MARTYRS, INVALIDS, VETERANS, MEMBERS OF KOSOVA LIBERATION ARMY, CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF WAR AND THEIR FAMILIES.
In addition, a two + two year project is on-going on a quantitative and qualitative research, followed by compiling a Human Security Index for Kosovo and countries of the region, which is the next step in implementing the project ‘Cross-border citizen’s network for peace, inter-communal, reconciliation & human security’. This project is supported by the European Commission and implemented by Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, CRDP, London School of Economics (LSE) and other regional partners. http://cn4hs.org/
On behalf of the Kosovo Women Network, CRDP is part of the Women in Black initiative for organizing the first regional Women’s Court – Feminist Approach to Justice and which is to be finalized by 2015.
From September 2014 to December 2015, CRDP with its Belgrade partner SeCons is implementing a research project on informal practices of capturing economic resources by political elites: exploring party patronage in Kosovo and Serbia supported by SDC. This research is in due process under strict research guidance from Fribourg University in Switzerland.
Underlying each of the transitional justice activities that we pursue is a commitment to uphold the rights of the victims with an emphasis on women victims of war, and contribute to the holistic principles of transitional justice.
