Language barriers, incorrect translation of laws and insufficient number of interpreters are still the biggest issues affecting the work of the judiciary in the north of Kosovo, six months after implementation of the Agreement on Judiciary, Kontakt plus radio reported.

Taking into consideration that everything started from a scratch, the efficiency is expected at a later stage, given good mutual cooperation.

These remarks were made in a conference organized within Advocacy Centre for Democratic Culture (ACDC) project “Integration of Judiciary,” with the participation of judges, prosecutors, lawyers and legal professionals.

Basic Court in Mitrovica Judge, Ljiljana Stefanovic among the first issues mentioned translation in the court and language barriers.

“We were promised to get adequately translated laws. We all know, it is not the same when you have translated law, then version adopted in the assembly, then Albanian and Serbian versions (…). And often we have problems, because translation is not good, it even contradicts, then Albanian colleagues help us,” Stefanovic said.

She also highlighted an insufficient number of interpreters due to overload of cases.

Member of Kosovo Chamber of Advocates, lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic said a major mistake was made since the laws were not translated by people from the profession, and it lasts for ten years already.

He said lawyers pointed out this issue many times, but unfortunately it remains to be a systematic problem and nothing was done regarding it.

Pantovic also added there is an insufficient number of Serb lawyers.

Chief Prosecutor in Mitrovica Basic Prosecution, Shuqri Sula said the most important is to provide citizens access to justice, adding the rate of criminal acts dropped down since the courts in the north became functional.

Director of the Kosovo Judicial Council Secretariat, Shkelzen Maliqi said there is a will and readiness from both sides to start with the implementation of the Agreement on Judiciary, there is also mutual cooperation and support when it comes to communities working in Mitrovica Basic Court, which gives hope obstacles in the future work would be overcome.

The project “Integration of Judiciary” is supported by USAID/Millennium DPI, Kontakt plus reported.