Kosovo

Overview

Homosexuality in Kosovo became legal in 1994 while Kosovo was still part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Since its independence in 2008, the Republic of Kosovo has put a great effort in adopting a wide range of laws and measures against discrimination of LGBT, however, it has struggled with implementation. The Kosovo government remains publicly supportive and in 2013 Parliament passed a bill to create an LGBT parliamentary coordination group. This is further regulated through the Anti-Discrimination Law from 2004, amended in 2015 to include nondiscrimination provisions for gender identities. The EU has supported LGBTQ in Kosovo, and in May 2014 it launched a project on Fight Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Kosovo held its first Pride Parade in May 2017, which was attended by the Prime Minister Hashim Tachi. 

• An overview of rights and legal acts by ILGA Europe [in English].
• Country ranking by ILGA Europe [in English].

Resources

Books

• Bilić, B. (2016). LGBT activism and Europeanisation in the post-Yugoslav space: On the rainbow way to Europe. (Palgrave studies in European political sociology). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Pearce, S. C., & Cooper, A. (2014). LGBT movements in southeast Europe: Violence, justice, and international intersections. In Handbook of LGBT Communities, Crime, and Justice (pp. 311-338). New York: Springer.

Periodicals

Selected articles

• Rexhepi, P. (2016). From Orientalism to Homonationalism: Queer Politics, Islamophobia and Europeanization in Kosovo. Southeastern Europe, 40(1), 32-53.
• Fauchier, A. (2013). Kosovo: what does the future hold for LGBT people? Forced Migration Review, (42), 36-39.

Data and statistics

• State-Sponsored Homophobia report - latest edition, includes maps and dataset, ILGA Europe - a world survey of sexual orientation laws + older editions [in English].

Reports

• Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex People in Kosovo covering the period of January to December 2020. ILGA Europe [in English].
• Case Study: The Treatment of LGBTI cases by Kosovo’s Justice System. Center for Social Group Development, 2016 [in English].
• ILGA-Europe's submissions to Progress Reports of the European Union [in English].
• ​LGBTI Rights Public Opinion Poll: Western Balkans. National Democratic Institute, 2015 [in English].
• Life on the Margins: Survey Results of the Experiences of LGBTI People in Southeastern Europe. World Bank Group, September 2018 [in English].
• Reports by the Center for Social Group Development [in English].
• Social Protection and Access to Healthcare for Transgender People in Kosovo. Equal Rights for All Coalition, November 2016 [in English].
• The LGBT Movement. Centre for Equality and Liberty Kosova, 2017 [in English].
• World Report 2020: Serbia/Kosovo. (Online report). Human Rights Watch [in English].

News portals

• BalkanInsight - a website of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, that focuses on news, analysis, commentary and investigative reporting from southeast Europe [in English].
• Kosovo 2.0 - an independent media organization that engages society through print and online magazines, debates and advocacy initiatives, with the focus on the current affairs in Kosovo, the region and beyond. Includes LGBTQ Monographs and In-depth on Kosovo's LGBTQ issues [in English, Albanian, Serbian].

Audio-visual

• Qielli Po Hapet (The Sky is Turning) is a four-part documentary about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in Kosovo. It shows personal stories of acceptance and rejection, to activism and the organization of the first Pride parade. It was produced by the Kosovo 2.0 ​[English subtitles].
  • Episode 1 Stories 
  • Episode 2 Activism 
  • Episode 3 Love 
  • Episode 4 Pride 

Organisations

• Centre for Equality and Liberty [in English, Albanian].
• Centre for Social Group Development (CSGD) [in English, Albanian, Serbian].
• ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey is a Regional Association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer organizations from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. They provide resources on the LGBTQ+ issues published in the Online resource centre. [in English].
• The Kosovar Gender Studies Centre  [in English, Albanian].

Other resources

• ERA - Online Resource Centre [in English].
• Gaylbania - is the first website that was created for Albanian gay community especially those living in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia. This site also offers a gay guide of Pristina. [in Albanian].
• Hoare, Liam. "Everything's Undercover, Everything's Hidden: LGBTQ Life on Europe's Frontier" [in English].