Requests from Serb judges to return to their posts rejected, after they joined 2022 mass boycott of Kosovo institutions.
Kosovo Judicial Council meeting on August 27, 2026. Photo: Kosovo Judicial Council.
The Kosovo Judicial Council, KJC, on Thursday denied the requests of several Serb judges and court administrative staff to return to their posts, nearly four years after Kosovo Serbs staged a mass resignation from Kosovo institutions in 2022.
The KJC will send the names of the judges to acting President Albulena Haxhiu, who will formally confirm the original resignations.
Haxhiu posted on Facebook that she welcomes
Haxhiu posted on Facebook that she “welcomes the proposal by the Kosovo Judicial Council to relieve the Serbian judges who resigned in 2022 of their duties”, confirming she would “take action to relieve them of their duties”.
The decision follows a similar ruling in July by the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, KPC. It denied requests by several Serb prosecutors to return to the posts from which they had resigned in 2022. Media in Kosovo reported that five prosecutors and 15 administrative staff members had asked to return.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, has warned that Pristina must ensure Serb participation in Kosovo’s juducial institutions. It said the KJC should “promptly fill the vacant positions through transparent, inclusive, and merit-based recruitment,” adding that “a judicial system that reflects the communities it serves is essential to ensuring equal and effective access to justice for all”.
Most Serbs in Kosovo’s four Serb-majority northern municipalities
Most Serbs in Kosovo’s four Serb-majority northern municipalities who were working in Kosovo state institutions resigned on November 5, 2022, in protest at Pristina’s failure to implement EU-mediated agreements between Serbia and Kosovo.
The Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party Srpska Lista coordinated the resignations. The party’s then leader, Goran Rakic, said the boycott would remain in force until Pristina fulfilled its commitment under the 2013 Brussels Agreement to establish an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities.
Kosovo Serb voters also boycotted the extraordinary elections in April 2023, resulting in extremely low turnouts and the election of ethnic Albanian mayors in majority-Serb municipalities. Their installation triggered violence between protesters and members of NATO’s KFOR peacekeeping force who had formed cordons around the municipal buildings. Kosovo authorities also later shut down a number of institutions serving Kosovo Serbs, claiming they were illegal.
Brussels blamed Pristina for inflaming ethnic tensions
Brussels blamed Pristina for inflaming ethnic tensions and imposed sanctions in June 2023. Those measures were not lifted until March this year, following the return of Serb mayors in December 2025.
Ahead of that, Srpska Lista admitted that urging Serbs to abandon Kosovo institutions had been a mistake. It still maintained that the move had successfully attracted the international community’s attention.
Source: balkaninsight.com
