Balkan Legal News

The following media round up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 22 July to 28 July 2022.

Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates with a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia . Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.

Albania – 22 July 2022

MPs in Tirana voted to adopt a resolution proposed by the ruling Socialist Party condemning Swiss senator Dick Marty’s 2011 report for the Council of Europe, which made allegations of war crimes against senior Kosovo Liberation Army officers. The full article can be found here.

Kosovo – 25 July 2022

Important files, photographs and witness records that illuminate the history of the Kosovo war are being kept separately by human rights groups, amateur archivists and the State Archives, as the authorities haven’t managed to establish a proper central archive. The full article can be found here.

North Macedonia – 26 July 2022

North Macedonia’s Justice Ministry is proposing to criminalise the violation of freedom of opinion and expression as part of planned changes to the country’s criminal code. The full article can be found here.

Serbia – 26 July 2022

Serbia's police broke up a people-smuggling gang near the border with Hungary and found various weapons and hundreds of passports and other documents taken from migrants trying to reach Western Europe, officials said. The full article can be found here.

Bosnia and Herzegovina – 27 July 2022

Schmidt offers to postpone use of so-called ‘Bonn’ powers to impose change and give party leaders last chance to come up with own changes to the election law. The full article can be found here.

Montenegro – 27 July 2022

Montenegro’s Foreign Ministry said that authorities froze the properties of an unnamed Russian citizen and a Russian politician in line with European Union sanctions on Russia related to its war on Ukraine. The full article can be found here.

North Macedonia – 27 July 2022

Three people have been charged with causing public danger after ten months of investigation into the September 2021 fire in the modular COVID-19 hospital in North Macedonia. The full article can be found here.

Montenegro – 28 July 2022

The Montenegrin parliament is planning to vote on a resolution condemning World War Two massacres of Serbs by Nazi troops in the villages of Velika and Piva as genocide. The full article can be found here.