This year's celebration of International Women's Day is the first within the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are confidently asserted in that Agenda as intrinsic to progress.
The Kosovo government continues to play two cards when it comes to cooperating with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Last year, the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs tried to give UNMIK a role in speeding up the application procedures for Kosovo’s eventual membership of the UNESCO. The paper has learned that the position of heads of Kosovo institutions is to avoid meetings with UNMIK officials as much as possible. “However, only in February, UNMIK chief [Zahir Tanin] has met three ministers of the Kosovo government.
In an opinion piece today, publicist Veton Surroi writes that the election of the president of Kosovo was a crucial moment for both the government and the opposition. For the government, the successful election of the president means that the ruling parties will remain in power and there will be no early elections. The successful election of the president also implies that the political crisis is over as the opposition’s goal to bring down the government and hold early elections has obviously failed.
Columnist Lumir Abdixhiku writes today that the possible election of Hashim Thaci - the man responsible for lack of progress and even regress in Kosovo - as president of Kosovo, will cause a loss of all respect for the institution of the president of Kosovo, or rather what is left of it.
The paper’s columnist Enver Robelli writes in an opinion piece today that the Vetevendosje Movement is hampering hopes for positive change in Kosovo with their confidence in the fact that their arguments represent the truth, whereas those of others are not worthy. "The Vetevendosje MPs so desperately insist that they represent the people, but then deny others to claim this. Any journalist who does not agree with the opinions of Vetevendosje is labeled as an "embassies’ journalist" by activists of this party.
In his weekly column for the paper, Enver Robelli writes that faced with the increasing revolt of the people of Kosovo against corruption, the ruling coalition between the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) hatched a “fictitious affair” to accuse the opposition and civil society of being behind a petition asking for the removal of the US Ambassador Greg Delawie from Kosovo. “The aim was to use this cold weapon to stab the political rivals in the back, as is the tradition of many PDK leaders,” writes Robelli.
In an opinion piece today, referring to US Ambassador Greg Delawie's statements about opposition parties, the paper’s Brussels-based correspondent Augustin Palokaj writes that it shouldn't be a problem that international ambassadors in Kosovo criticize the behavior of opposition parties in the Assembly. “It is not difficult to agree with these statements. But the problem is when the ambassadors remain silent about mistakes made by the government.
The paper’s Brussels-based columnist Augustin Palokaj writes in an opinion piece that Bosnia-Herzegovina’s application for membership in the EU means that Kosovo is now the only isolated country in the region. According to Palokaj, Kosovo will remain isolated for a long time because chances of being recognized by all EU member states at present are not realistic.
KTV’s editor-in-chief Adriatik Kelmendi in an opinion piece today commends the citizens for the peaceful protest held yesterday in Pristina. “The biggest day in the history of Kosovo was used for two actions complementary to each other – to celebrate and protest. There are many reasons to celebrate the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. But at the same time, there are many reasons to protest against the stagnation of Kosovo," Kelmendi writes.
The paper’s columnist Enver Robelli writes in an opinion piece today that every call by the foreign ambassadors in Kosovo for combating corruption and crime sounds funny for as long as the same establish political alliance with politicians involved in crime and corruption affairs. “It is clear that foreign diplomats have identified the problem of Kosovo society, which is corruption, but unfortunately there is a big difference between identifying a problem and combating it.