Paper short abstract:

The paper shall reveal the contradiction between normative provisions of international rulers in Kosovo for rights’ protection and the factual contradictive implementation of such protection, especially within its own (EU-) territories. We will focus on refugees’ property relations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will focus on refugees/returnees' property relations at home as a significant field of reproduction of social inequalities within the power nexus of the local post-war society and the (inter)national politics.

Drawing on field research data from the Kosovar post-war society, the paper shall reveal the contradiction between normative provisions of international rulers in Kosovo for the protection of rights and the factual implementation of such protection. Although the 'international community' proclaims an active engagement for the rights of refugees and minorities in Kosovo, its restrictive policies against the same people within its own (west-European) territories indicate a lack of factual commitment to those rights. Adding to that, on the local level a plurality of non-compatible legal systems and traditions - including pre-and post-war regulations - fuel generalised confusion and arbitrary use of law by those local actors endorsed with power. As a result, social inequalities are reproduced and refugees/returnees turn out to be the primary losers of these processes.

The paper will discuss two indicative cases of refugees/returnees: Roma Internal Displaced Persons in North Mitrovica and -from Germany- deported Ashkali migrants in Fush Kosova/Kosovopolje. Their strategies, discourses and means shall be conceived in the context of their struggle to re-appropriate lost rights in a plurality of orders extending from local frames to international legal systems and political intentions.