Setting Kosovo Free: Remaining Challenges

Kosovo deserves to celebrate the 10 September 2012 as the international community converts the 'supervised independence' it achieved four years ago to full independence, but it must also do more to guarantee full protection of minority rights, especially those of the country’s Serb population.

Setting Kosovo Free: Remaining Challenges, a report from the International Crisis Group, describes how much of the Ahtisaari Plan – the blueprint for Kosovo’s independence with extensive rights for Serbs and other minorities – has been implemented in areas under government control. The government has devolved powers to six Serb-majority municipalities where local Serbs are increasingly participating in public life. But these achievements are threatened by the tense Kosovo-Serbia relationship, declining Serb numbers, and Pristina’s frustration and inability to extend its sovereignty to the Serb-majority northern areas and to achieve full international recognition.

ESO: Background information: Kosovo's independence does not end its problems http://www.europeansources.info/record/kosovos-independence-does-not-end-its-problems/

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