with the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates
Kosovo Property Claims Commission
Establishment
The Kosovo Property Claims Commission (KPCC) is the quasi-judicial decision-making body within the Kosovo Property Agency (KPA) which was established pursuant to UNMIK Regulation 2006/10 ‘On the Resolution of Claims Relating to Private Immoveable Property, including Agricultural and Commercial Property’ (as amended). EULEX has deployed a total of 8 local and international staff to support the KPCC, including both international Property Claims Commissioners.
The KPA/KPCC operates as a mass claims processing mechanism in the field of post-conflict property restitution with the objective of facilitating the exercise of property rights by persons displaced by the armed conflict in Kosovo in 1998-1999 irrespective of their ethnicity. Similar mass claims facilities have been created in other post-conflict situations, including in Bosnia. One of the aims of the EULEX mission is to support the resolution of conflict-related property claims in an equitable, objective and transparent manner with due respect to applicable law. Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights confirms the basic human right to the enjoyment of possessions, including private property.
Mandate
The mandate of the KPCC is to resolve conflict-related ownership and use rights claims with respect to private immoveable property involving circumstances directly related to or resulting from the armed conflict that occurred between 27 February 1998 and 20 June 1999 where the claimant is not now able to exercise such property rights.
Claims involving property disputes unrelated to the 1998-1999 conflict fall outside of the mandate of the KPCC and will continue to be resolved through the local court system. Similarly, claims not involving private immoveable property fall outside of the KPCC mandate.
The KPCC is authorized to confirm ownership and use rights claimed by parties, make orders for possession of the property, including eviction orders in relation to unlawful occupants, and grant, refuse or dismiss claims.
Operations
The KPCC conducts sessions every two months for the resolution of claims presented to it for adjudication by the Executive Secretariat of the KPA. KPCC decisions are subject to the right of appeal only to the Supreme Court of Kosovo, KPA Appeals Panel. The KPCC consists of two international Commissioners and one local Commissioner.
Over 38,000 claims were registered with the KPA up until the claim intake deadline on 3 December 2007.
For further information about the KPCC, the commissioners, press releases, statistics, and decisions, please visit the Kosovo Property Claims Commission page at http://www.kpaonline.org/kpcc.asp