There is a strategy but domestic violence continues, why is prevention failing in Kosovo?

Domestic violence continued to be a worrying problem in Kosovo during 2025, with numerous cases reported every day. According to Kosovo Police data, from January to October, over 2,400 cases of domestic violence were recorded, with the majority of victims being women.

Although legal measures have been taken, drafting state strategies, where electronic monitoring of protection orders is also functioning, institutions and civil society assess that more commitment is needed to prevent violence, increase safety for victims, and strengthen protective mechanisms.

According to Kosovo Police data, during the first 10 months of 2025, 2,429 cases of domestic violence were reported, with a total of 2,424 victims, of whom 1,897 were women and 527 were men. During this period, two murders occurred as a result of domestic violence, where the victims were one woman and two men.

The Police also announce that since the beginning of 2025, when the implementation of the electronic monitoring system began, a total of 66 electronic links have been established for the supervision of protection orders.

"So far, a total of 66 electronic links have been set up, while 37 protection orders are currently being monitored," the KP's response states.

The Ombudsman, Naim Qelaj, emphasizes that the number of cases of domestic violence remains worrying and requires special treatment.

He tells KosovaPress that although Kosovo has a national strategy for preventing violence, its effectiveness has not been sufficient, while the main problem lies in the awareness of the population and the early education of the new generations.

"The large number of cases of domestic violence remains worrying, what is considered the presence of domestic violence in our families naturally requires special treatment. We have a national strategy for the prevention of domestic violence, but it seems that it has not been able to provide sufficient effect... The problem lies in raising the general awareness of the population, more needs to be done from the early education of the new generations... Fortunately, there has been a decrease in fatal cases this year, there are some that have been really very worrying when we have 2-3 cases of murders within a year, but I believe that this is the result of the good work that segments of society are also doing... However, from the statistics that we have received, it is noticeable that there continues to be a very large number of cases of domestic violence, while this has its good side that awareness has been raised to report cases, trust in institutions has increased, it is a very worrying sign because we have not managed to do enough to prevent this phenomenon", he says Qelaj.

Meanwhile, political advisor at the Ministry of Justice, Vlora Limani-Hajnuni, believes that the strategy for preventing domestic violence has been largely implemented.

However, she acknowledges that there are shortcomings in implementation, especially in the Centers for Social Work, where human capacity is lower than necessary.

"I think that the strategy has been drafted and the time when it was drafted was right and our parameters say that the strategy has been implemented to a very large extent. Of course, there are defects here and there in terms of the implementation of this strategy, especially in the Centers for Social Work where their human capacity is smaller than it should be. But this is an issue that belongs to the municipalities, because the Centers for Social Work are municipal institutions... I think that there are visible achievements, of course they are not sufficient as I said, but they are visible achievements that have both sensitized the public, but have also sensitized the victim himself in this case, because there were many victims who perhaps did not report it, lived in violence but did not report it", declared Hamiti.

Besarta Breznica from the Kosovo Women's Network emphasizes that domestic violence is much more widespread than official figures indicate.

She criticizes the failures of the institutional chain, from the police to the courts, highlighting the lack of risk assessment, insufficient collection of evidence, and light sentences for violators.

"Our fieldwork shows that cases of violence are much higher than those that are reported. In addition, our work with domestic violence cases shows us that when a victim decides to report violence, she has been living in abusive environments for years. The reported cases can never be accurate because there are even more cases of violence.... There is a whole chain of institutional links that fail to handle cases of gender-based violence, specifically in cases of domestic violence, starting from the police and ending in the courts. It is worth mentioning that the police still fail to conduct a risk assessment, in addition, the prosecution fails to collect relevant evidence to convict domestic violence. Undoubtedly, the courts also impose minimal sentences in cases of domestic violence. We have many cases that have been sentenced only with a fine or have been released on bail," she said.

Sociologist Genc Xërxa estimates that violence against women remains a serious social problem, influenced by the patriarchal mentality, gender inequality, and economic dominance of men.

"Recently there has been an expansion or an increase, it happens for various reasons. One could be biological, knowing that the woman is more fragile, weaker, the male side or the masculine side uses force to dominate, possess her, especially if we have in these circumstances or our patriarchal cultural context, then this is in some way justified by the conditions, the backward customs of the old times which do not coincide with today's reality and thus we have a clash of value systems where the woman wants to be the decision-maker at home, then she also has to be in public, to be equal within the family, also to be equal in public spaces, especially in decision-making and in employment, to be affirmed, educated, educated and to be equal as a member of society, as a valuable part of society. If all of these are missing and the world of men prevails, then we have other problems of inequality, where the man with all his economic dominance, in "The inability of women to achieve economic independence can then exert various psychological pressures on them, which, when faced with various family and socio-economic problems, can also manifest itself in violence," declared Xërxa.

According to data from the Agency for Free Legal Aid, within the Ministry of Justice, during the period January-November 2025, a total of 59 citizens benefited from free legal aid in the criminal area of ​​domestic violence, of whom 40 were women and 19 were men, while 60 legal actions were taken in these cases.

Meanwhile, in the civil field, in cases of domestic violence, 121 citizens have benefited from free legal aid, of whom 101 are women and 20 are men, for whom 202 legal actions have been carried out.

Kosovo Police data shows that during 2024, 2,959 cases of domestic violence were reported, while in 2023, 2,639 cases were reported.