Establishment and development of Kosovo Correctional Service during 1999 -2013

Although a new country from the aspect of the establishment and development of Correctional Institutions, yet the Republic of Kosova has a very intensive and interesting flow, commencing from the acts and institutions of former Yugoslavia, Serbia, UN Protectorate and lately after the independence in 2008, it has the new legislation and institutions of Republic of Kosova. The establishment and development of Institutions of Correctional Service of Kosova, in the after war period of 1999, was part of the legislative transition which the Republic of Kosova has undergone during the international administration based on Resolution 1244 of UN Security Council. The process of reformation of the Correctional Institution of Kosova after the war was one of the fields where along with the efforts to build a new concept of the functioning of the Correctional Service of Kosova, there were efforts also to work on unifying the rules of procedure in compliance with the international norms and standards. The development of the Correctional Service of Kosova, from the chronological Aspect has undergone four periods of development under the supervision and support of the international community such as: First period includes the period of interim administration of the Institutions of Kosovo Correctional Service by KFOR, from June- October 1999. Second period begins with UNMIK, taking over from KFOR the authority for the organization and functioning of the Kosovo Correctional Service in October 1999. Third period begins with shifting of the authority from UNMIK to Kosovo Government, respectively from the UNMIK Department of Justice to the Ministry of Justice of the Government of Kosovo, which took place in October 2006. Fourth period begins with the Declaration of Independence of Kosovo in 2008, where the completion of the legal infrastructure and the promulgation of the sublegal acts for the functioning and the work of the correctional institutions in Kosovo. At the end of the war in 1999, Kosovo correctional facilities were destroyed from the aspect of the infrastructure and all other aspects. These institutions were rebuilt initially with the assistance of the international community- UNMIK, and later on with the investments by the Government of Kosova. New facilities were built as well. Now, six years after its independence, Kosova pledged to follow its path towards EU, which enabled the Correctional Institutions to rapidly develop with the purpose of fulfilling international standards for joining EU and other international structures. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n19p50