Protection of the Right to Life in Kosovo: Does the Performance of Public Authorities in Kosovo Meet the Standards Established by the Case-law of the European Court of Human Rights?

The aim of this paper is to elucidate how public authorities in Kosovo discharge their duty to protect the right to life of individuals who are under their jurisdiction. The analysis will be predicated upon the case-law of Constitutional Court of Kosovo and on that basis actions or failure to act of other public authorities will be analyzed as well. The paper shall address questions of protection of individuals from violent actions perpetrated by private persons, protection of individuals who are under custody of public authorities, compensation of victims and temporal jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo. We shall see whether the performance of public authorities in Kosovo in relation to the right to life can withstand the standards set out by the well-established case law of the European Court of Human Rights or is it a rigid performance characterized by excessive formalism.