Language legislation of Kosovo and Metohija in international protectorate period of 1999-2008

The legal acts of Kosovo adopted in the period of international administration of the region in 1999-2008 regulating the status and aspects of use of languages and alphabets are analysed: both the laws of the region as a whole, and the basic laws - statutes - of all 27 municipalities that existed on the territory controlled by the government of Kosovo during the specified period. These documents define the languages in (official) use, languages of communication of the population with the authorities, languages to be used at meetings of municipal councils, committees and commissions, languages for publishing official documentation, etc. The analysis of the documents regulating the use of languages on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija in the period of international protectorate allows stating the importance and the matter-of-principle character of the problem for the authorities and the population of the region and tracing the distinctions in the relevant provisions fixed in the legal documents of the regional and municipal levels. The laws of Kosovo (Constitutional Framework for Provisional Self-Government; Regulation on Self-Government of Municipalities in Kosovo; Law on the Use Languages), which were developed with direct participation of UN representatives (they saw the need in smoothing of inter-ethnic contradictions as the main reason for the conflict), contained the most detailed regulations on the necessity to use the Albanian and Serbian languages (and the languages of all other national communities of the region: Turkish, Bosnian and Romani, whenever possible) in the official and public spheres of activity. Though these requirements were standardly applicable for the units of local governments, too, the majority of basic laws (statutes) of communities does not show a similar loyalty and tolerance to the use of languages of the minorities on their the territories. For example, documents of five communities do not mention the Serbian language at all. Statutes of three municipalities specify the Albanian language as the only language in the official use. In one community the languages of official communication are the Albanian and English languages. English in various statuses is mentioned in statutes of 16 municipalities of the existing 27. In seven cases when stating languages of the press English is listed before Serbian, but after Albanian. The Serbian language is #1 in the list of languages in use only once. In statements about the languages of meetings of municipal councils and other authorities, 11 cases contain specification that such meetings can take place only in one language, which is against the requirements of Kosovo laws. But for Albanian, English and Serbian, the basic laws of four communities mention the Bosnian and Turkish languages. After the unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February, 2008 all the considered documents of the municipal level became invalid as the communities adopted new statutes.

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