The Kosovo Law Institute (KLI) demands institutional and public accountability for the responsibility of state institutions regarding the tragic death of a person on July 27, 2025 in Lake Ujman.
According to a press release, according to the Law on Waters of Kosovo, the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (MMPHI) in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Municipalities and Water Service Companies, by a sub-legal act designates bathing areas. According to Administrative Instruction No. 20/2015 on the criteria for bathing areas, this obligation was to be fulfilled by 2018 at the latest.
“The designation of a designated bathing area, according to this Administrative Instruction, entails the obligation to undertake nine management measures. Regarding this obligation, so far, there has been no public announcement whether the competent institutions have designated Lake Ujman as a bathing area. Furthermore, there are no announcements whether bathing in this area is allowed or prohibited. Meanwhile, the factual situation is that for some time now this lake has been used for bathing by citizens,” the announcement states.
It is further reported that Kosovo institutions, instead of fulfilling their legal obligations regarding the designation of bathing areas and undertaking management measures, as required by Law and Administrative Instruction, have proclaimed the lake as a bathing area.
“Government officials, including MPs and ministers, have personally gone to Lake Ujman and publicly shared images of people bathing in Lake Ujman, presenting it as a place of rest and implying to citizens that this is a bathing area.”
As stated in the announcement, Lake Ujman serves as one of the most important sources of drinking water in Kosovo, supplying drinking water to a significant portion of the population.
“According to Administrative Instruction No. 15/2017 on the criteria for determining sanitary protected areas of water sources [article 9.2], lakes and accumulations are categorized as surface water sources. This Administrative Instruction, in no article of its kind, establishes provisions that allow citizens to bathe. Despite this, institutional representatives have consistently proclaimed Lake Ujman as a permissible place for bathing, while reports were that the Kosovo Police guarded citizens while bathing in Lake Ujman. In this entire situation, given that the Law on Waters and relevant Administrative Instructions are in force, failure to comply with these actions may also imply the responsibility of public institutions in the tragic death of July 27.”
As stated in the announcement, according to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights obliges states not only to refrain from taking life “deliberately”, but also to take the necessary measures to protect the life of persons under their jurisdiction (See case: ECHR, Kalender v. Turkey, 2009, par. 42).
In this specific case, according to the announcement, the failure to fulfill legal obligations by institutions, the promotion of Lake Ujman as a bathing area, the lack of signage prohibiting bathing, and the lack of institutional response could have been factors leading to the tragic death of July 27.
“In the sense of the jurisprudence of the ECHR, these inactions may result in a violation of the right to life in relation to the citizen who tragically lost his life and may result in a general risk to other citizens. In the face of all these circumstances, IKL requests that an institutional investigation be immediately initiated regarding the failure to implement legal obligations and allowing the use of Lake Ujman as a bathing area, which culminated in the tragic death of July 27. IKL also requests that irresponsible public communication by officials who promote bathing or dumping in these areas without risk assessment and without adequate signage be stopped,” the announcement further states.
Meanwhile, the announcement states that on the other hand, the KLI Free Legal Aid Center expresses its full willingness, readiness and commitment to offer free legal aid to the families of the deceased in terms of following legal avenues to ascertain the violation of the right to life of the deceased. /Telegraph/