Right after the war in Kosovo, Albina Shabani-Rama applied to enroll at the Faculty of Medicine but was rejected. Experiencing the rejection as an injustice, she pivoted to a new field that gave her a new purpose in life — ensuring justice. Shabani-Rama, now 41 years old, leads Prishtina’s Basic Court.

There are 86 judges working in the court she leads. Of these, 42 are women — nearly exactly equal gender representation.

However, this is not the reality of many other courts in Kosovo.

One of the courts that is still far from gender equality is the Commercial Court. In this court, established in August 2022, only four judges out of 16 are women.

Vice president of the court Saranda Bogaj-Sheremeti is one of these four female judges. Bogaj-Sheremeti recalls 13 years ago, when at the age of 28 she was first appointed as a judge, she felt everyone’s surprise when they saw her on the judge’s bench. This was either due to her young age or because for so many years the final verdict in a courtroom had been delivered by men.

In Kosovo, equal gender representation in all public institutions is required by the Constitution and is regulated by the Law on Gender Equality. The law requires that all legislative, executive and judicial bodies, as well as other public institutions, have 50% representation for each gender. This includes governing and decision-making bodies.

The number of women working in Kosovo’s courts, especially the branches of the basic courts in smaller cities, falls far short.

Towards equal gender representation

The Judicial Council of Kosovo (KGjK), an independent institution that aims to ensure the impartiality of the judicial system, operates seven basic courts in Kosovo (in Prishtina, Mitrovica, Peja, Prizren, Ferizaj, Gjilan and Gjakova).

Each of these seven courts has sub-branches in other cities. These sub-branches are led by supervising judges and function within the respective region’s court.

In addition to the Basic Courts and their sub-branches, the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the Commercial Court also operate within the KGjK.

According to their websites, there are 388 judges working in Kosovo. Out of this, 226 are men and 162 are women.

However, the data on these websites does not seem to have been recently updated, as it still lists the names of judges from North Mitrovica, who resigned in November 2022. This was when many Serbs resigned from positions in public institutions as a sign of dissatisfaction with the government of Kosovo.

K2.0 asked KGjK for the exact number of judges in the courts of Kosovo, including how leadership positions are divided between men and women, but received no response.

According to the data available on the courts’ websites, out of the seven Basic Courts, three are headed by women.

Albina Shabani-Rama, head of the Basic Court in Prishtina, said that although there are many other factors, female judges often feel that they have to prove themselves more in order to compete with male judges for leading positions within the courts.

“During my career, I noticed that being a woman is an obstacle, especially when I started seeking promotions. Today, I think that, as a woman, you need to prove repeatedly that you are able to achieve more than the men you are competing against,” said Shabani-Rama, adding that she had not noticed this during her studies or when exercising her duty as a judge, but only when she decided to pursue bigger roles. “This is not written anywhere, nor is it a condition that must be fulfilled, it is something that is felt.”

‘If I can do it, so can they’

Women in the justice system are trying to pave the way for more women.

Gentiana Paçarizi