OPINION POLLS RESULTS

JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM ACTIVITY IN KOSOVO

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JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM ACTIVITY IN KOSOVO

The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,226 respondents throughout Kosovo between 08 and 26 August 2005. The objective of the survey was to measure the Kosovo residents' perceptions and knowledge of the justice sector, including specific legal issues, actors and the court system.

The 2005 Kosovo public opinion survey reveals that while there has been a general increase in information about legal and judicial matters, a large segment of the population in Kosovo is still not informed about key elements of the legal and judicial system in the country.

The second report "Measuring and Improving Citizens' Understanding of the Justice System: Survey of Attitudes towards the Judicial System among Court Users in Kosovo" details the findings from a first-of-it's-kind survey of citizens in Kosovo who have filed a case with the country's district or municipal courts. USAID commissioned this survey to gauge court users' attitudes on a variety of issues dealing with the courts specifically and the judicial system more broadly.

Findings in the 2005 survey with court users include: Moderate levels of trust in judicialinstitutions: Court users express a fair amount rather than a great deal of trust in the courts; the police are among the officials most trusted by
court users. There is moderate trust in the legal system to maintain law and order and to protect rights.

Corruption perceived to be common: Most court users believe corruption is at least somewhat common - especially among lawyers and judges and much less so among court registrars. The most cited source of corruption is payments made by ordinary people to push their case in their favor. General lack of knowledge amongcourt users: There are low levels of knowledge about the court system and its basic procedures, including how to register a case or how to appeal a decision.

This survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews between August 2005 and October 2005 with 403 persons who have had experience with Kosovo's court system. More specifically, interviews were conducted with 124 criminal defendants, 36 victims in criminal cases, 25 lawyers who represented victims, 99 civil case defendants and 119 plaintiffs in civil cases.

OPINION POLLS RESULTS

USAID's Justice System Reform Activity in Kosovo has released two reports on opinion polls conducted in 2005, in the period from August – October 2005. The first report "Measuring and Improving Citizens' Understanding of the Justice System: Public Opinion Survey in Kosovo 2005" details the findings from a public opinion survey in Kosovo.

Findings in the 2005 survey include:

* Objectivity of Judicial System: While 85% of Albanians at least somewhat agree that the legal system is unbiased, this figure is 20% among Serbs and 64% among non-Serb minorities. This divide is similar to that observed in the 2004 survey; the figures below show an increase of trust, especially amongst Albanians and non-Serb minorities, toward the judicial system between 2004 and 2005.

* Corruption: Perception of corruption in the judicial system has increased significantly since 2004, from half to about two-thirds of respondents.

JSRAK conducted a similar survey in 2004, and data from the two surveys are compared in this report to identify trends in the opinion environment in Kosovo. The margin of error for the 2005 survey is plus/minus 2.8%.