LGBT Community Parade in Pristina | Photo: Center for Equality and Liberty- CEL Kosovo

Gay activists in Kosovo are calling for same-sex couples to challenge the country’s constitution, which they say is ambiguous and at variance with Kosovo’s stated European values.

They say that if a gay couple wishes to marry in Kosovo, it is not clear if this is possible because while Article 37 of the constitution says that “everyone enjoys the right to marry”, Article 14, of the Law on Family, specifies that those who enter in a marriage should be of different sexes.

“Marriage is a legally registered community of two persons of different sexes, through which they freely decide to live together with the goal of creating a family,” Article 14 reads.

“As the constitution is the most important legal act, this means that the law is unconstitutional,” Rina Braimi, from the Pristina-based Centre for Equality and Liberty, CEL, told BIRN.

Teauta Hoxha, director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, YIHR, says the law on the family needs first to be challenged by a gay couple.

“It is possible for this law to be declared unconstitutional – but for such an act we must have a case to challenge the law, and unfortunately no couple has done this so far,” Hoxha told BIRN.

“Kosovo is one of the most homophobic places in region, so there is a fear about challenging the law and having it declared unconstitutional,” he explained.

Braimi says that while Kosovo officials like to quote Article 37 of the constitution during meetings with the international community as proof of their liberalism, in practice the situation is very different.

“During the visits of international officials, they always present a situation which de facto does not exist,” Braimi claimed.

In 2014, a student asked the former head of the Kosovo Constitutional Court, Enver Hasani, during a lecture at a university in Dallas, Texas, if gay marriage was allowed in Kosovo.

“The way the constitution defines marriage is very obviously that it allows same sex-marriage without any problem,” Hasani answered at the time.

In theory, LGBT rights are amply guaranteed in Kosovo by the Law against Discrimination, which parliament approved in 2004.

However, in reality, members of the LGBT community in Kosovo remain subject to heavy discrimination – more by society than politicians.

NGOs working on LGBT rights routinely organize marches in Pristina that draw support from important political leaders – but the mentality of the majority of the population remains far behind.

Braimi says rights organisations must speak out more forcefully in support of a more coherent policy.

“Each time that we have the possibility of advocacy and giving our recommendations, we lobby for the laws to be in compliance with each other,” Braimi said.