Regardless if they are active in formal or informal groups, women are the largest and safest resource for peacebuilding, concluded participants at the regional conference “The role of women in peacebuilding processes in the Mitrovica region," Radio kontakt plus reported.

Representatives of institutions, international and non-governmental organizations spoke about women’s leadership in peace and trust building, the impact of conflict on women, encouraged their participation at all levels, and about women’s involvement in conflict prevention and resolution.

The government of Kosovo has approved an administrative instruction on taking special measures to enable couples to register property under shared ownership. Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said the instruction will encourage people to share ownership of their property and make more women co-owners.

Kosovo Centre for Gender Studies organized on Tuesday a conference titled "Law on Trade Associations and the Gender Quota", aimed at informing the public opinion and all stakeholders on the conclusions that could be considered in the next stage of the law’s discussion at the Assembly of Kosovo.  Last month, Kosovo Assembly approved amendment to the Law on Trade Associations regarding inclusion of women in boards of shareholding associations with a quota of 40 percent.

A recent report published by the Democracy for Development (D4D) think tank has found that Kosovo has the highest percentage of inactive women in the labour market compared to countries in the region. D4D director, Shpend Emini, said the report sheds light into reasons why 80 percent of women in Kosovo don’t seek employment. He said that there should be conditions in place to encourage women to apply for work.

RTK and Telegrafi both carry a statement issued by the Prizren-based initiative for women’s rights, FEMaktiv, saying that gender equality was overshadowed in local elections while the entire campaign was dominated by men. “In 2013 local elections only 9 of 224 mayoral candidates were women. In 2017 elections, only 8 of 204 candidates were women. Despite many initiatives undertaken by the civil society regarding gender equality, they were not reflected in reality,” FEMaktiv said.

A study carried out by the Kosovo-based Institute for Advanced Studies (GAP) found that women are underrepresented in leading posts of public enterprises, with only 15 percent of them being members of boards. “In 31 public enterprises we looked into, of 159 members of boards only 24 are women. Only five boards are chaired by women. We identified 5,000 posts in public enterprises where 85 percent of managerial posts are held by men,” said Jeton Mehmeti from GAP.

The equal participation of men and women in public life cannot be seen separately from both genders having equal treatment and opportunities in all spheres of law. The current Law on Gender Equality clearly demands the equal representation of 50 per cent women and 50 per cent men within every body and level of decision-making in political and public life.