Article III: President of Kosovo

1. There shall be a President of Kosovo, who shall be elected by the Assembly by vote of a majority of its

members. The President of Kosovo shall serve for a three-year term. No person may serve more than two terms as President of Kosovo.

2. The President of Kosovo shall be responsible for:

(i) Representing Kosovo, including before any international or Federal body or any body of the Republics;

(ii) Proposing to the Assembly candidates for Prime Minister, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, and other Kosovo judicial offices;

(iii) Meeting regularly with the democratically elected representatives of the national communities;

(iv) Conducting foreign relations and concluding agreements within this power consistent with the authorities of Kosovo institutions under this Agreement. Such agreements shall only enter into force upon approval by the Assembly;

(v) Designating a representative to serve on the Joint Commission established by Article I.2 of Chapter 5 of this Agreement;

(vi) Meeting regularly with the Federal and Republic Presidents; and

(vii) other functions specified herein or by law.

Article IV: Government and Administrative Organs

1. Executive power shall be exercised by the Government.

The Government shall be responsible for implementing the laws of Kosovo, and of other government authorities when such responsibilities are devolved by those authorities.

The Government shall also have competence to propose laws to the Assembly.

(a) The Government shall consist of a Prime Minister and Ministers, including at least one person from each national community meeting the threshold specified in paragraph 1(b)(ii) of Article II. Ministers shall head the Administrative Organs of Kosovo.

(b) The candidate for Prime Minister proposed by the President shall put forward a list of Ministers to the Assembly. The Prime Minister, together with the list of Ministers, shall be approved by a majority of those present and voting in the Assembly. In the event that the Prime Minister is not able to obtain a majority for the Government, the President shall propose a new candidate for Prime Minister within ten days.

(c) The Government shall resign if a no confidence motion is adopted by a vote of a majority of the members of the Assembly. If the Prime Minister or the Government resigns, the President shall select a new candidate for Prime Minister who shall seek to form a Government.

(d) The Prime Minister shall call meetings of the Government, represent it as appropriate, and coordinate its work. Decisions of the Government shall require a majority of Ministers present and voting. The Prime Minister shall cast the deciding vote in the event Ministers are equally divided.

The Government shall otherwise decide its own rules of procedure.

2. Administrative organs shall be responsible for assisting the Government in carrying out its duties.

(a) National communities shall be fairly represented at all levels in the Administrative Organs.

(b) Any citizen in Kosovo claiming to have been directly and adversely affected by the decision of an executive or administrative body shall have the right to-judicial review of the legality of that decision after exhausting all avenues for administrative review. The Assembly shall enact a law to regulate this review.

3. There shall be a Chief Prosecutor who shall be responsible for prosecuting individuals who violate the criminal laws of Kosovo. He shall head an Office of the Prosecutor, which shall at all levels have staff representative of the population of Kosovo.

Article V: Judiciary

General

1. Kosovo shall have a Constitutional Court, a Supreme Court, District Courts, and Communal Courts.

2. The Kosovo courts shall have jurisdiction over all matters arising under this Constitution or the laws of Kosovo except as specified in paragraph 3. The Kosovo courts shall also have jurisdiction over questions of federal law, subject to appeal to the Federal courts on these questions after all appeals available under the Kosovo system have been exhausted.

3. Citizens in Kosovo may opt to have civil disputes to which they are party adjudicated by other courts in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which shall apply the law applicable in Kosovo.

4. The following rules will apply to criminal cases:

(a) At the start of criminal proceedings, the defendant is entitled to have his or her trial transferred to another Kosovo court that he or she designates.

(b) In criminal cases in which all defendants and victims are members of the same national community, all members of the judicial council will be from a national community of their choice if any party so requests.

(c) A defendant in a criminal case tried in Kosovo courts is entitled to have at least one member of the judicial council hearing the case to be from his or her national community. Kosovo authorities will consider and allow judges of other courts in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to serve as Kosovo judges for these purposes.

Constitutional Court

5. The Constitutional Court shall consist of nine judges.

There shall be at least one Constitutional Court judge from each national community meeting the threshold specified in paragraph 1(b)(ii) of Article II. Until such time as the Parties agree to discontinue this arrangement, 5 judges of the Constitutional Court shall be selected from a list drawn up by the President of the European Court of Human Rights.

6. The Constitutional Court shall have authority to resolve disputes relating to the meaning of this Constitution. That authority shall include, but is not limited to, determining whether laws applicable in Kosovo, decisions or acts of the President, the Assembly, the Government, the Communes, and the national communities are compatible with this Constitution.

(a) Matters may be referred to the Constitutional Court by the President of Kosovo, the President or Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, the Ombudsman, the communal assemblies and councils, and any national community acting according to its democratic procedures.

(b) Any court which finds in the course of adjudicating a matter that the dispute depends on the answer to a question within the Constitutional Court's jurisdiction shall refer the issue to the Constitutional Court for a preliminary decision.

7. Following the exhaustion of other legal remedies, the Constitutional Court shall at the request of any person claiming to be a victim have jurisdiction over complaints that human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rights of members of national communities set forth in this Constitution have been violated by a public authority.

8. The Constitutional Court shall have such other jurisdiction as may be specified elsewhere in this Agreement or by law.

Supreme Court

9. The Supreme Court shall consist of nine judges. There shall be at least one Supreme Court judge from each national community meeting the threshold specified in paragraph 1(b)(ii) of Article II.

10. The Supreme Court shall hear appeals from the District Courts and the Communal Courts. Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the Supreme Court shall be the court of final appeal for all cases arising under law applicable in Kosovo. Its decisions shall be recognized and executed by all authorities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Functioning of the Courts

11. The Assembly shall determine the number of District and Communal Court judges necessary to meet current needs.

12. Judges of all courts in Kosovo shall be distinguished jurists of the highest moral character. They shall be broadly representative of the national communities of Kosovo.

13. Removal of a Kosovo judge shall require the consensus of the judges of the Constitutional Court. A Constitutional Court judge whose removal is in question shall not participate in the decision on his case.

14. The Constitutional Court shall adopt rules for itself and for other courts in Kosovo. The Constitutional and Supreme Courts shall each adopt decisions by majority vote of their members.

15. Except as otherwise specified in their rules, all Kosovo courts shall hold public proceedings. They shall issue published opinions setting forth the reasons for their decisions.

Article VI: Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

1. All authorities in Kosovo shall ensure internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms.

2. The rights and freedoms set forth in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocols shall apply directly in Kosovo. Other internationally recognized human rights instruments enacted into law by the Kosovo Assembly shall also apply. These rights and freedoms shall have priority over all other law.

3. All courts, agencies, governmental institutions, and other public institutions of Kosovo or operating in relation to Kosovo shall conform to these human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Article VII: National Communities

1. National communities and their members shall have additional rights as set forth below in order to preserve and express their national, cultural, religious, and linguistic identities in accordance with international standards and the Helsinki Final Act.

Such rights shall be exercised in conformity with human rights and fundamental freedoms.

2. Each national community may elect, through democratic means and in a manner consistent with the principles of Chapter 3 of this Agreement, institutions to administer its affairs in Kosovo.

3. The national communities shall be subject to the laws applicable in Kosovo, provided that any act or decision concerning national communities must be non-discriminatory. The Assembly shall decide upon a procedure for resolving disputes between national communities.

4. The additional rights of the national communities, acting through their democratically elected institutions, are to:

(a) preserve and protect their national, cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, including by:

(i) inscribing local names of towns and villages, of squares and streets, and of other topographic names in the language and alphabet of the national community in addition to signs in Albanian and Serbian, consistent with decisions about style made by the communal institutions;

(ii) providing information in the language and alphabet of the national community;

(iii) providing for education and establishing educational institutions, in particular for schooling in their own language and alphabet and in national culture and history, for which relevant authorities will provide financial assistance; curricula shall reflect a spirit of tolerance between national communities and respect for the rights of members of all national communities in accordance with international standards;

(iv) enjoying unhindered contacts with representatives of their respective national communities, within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and abroad;

(v) using and displaying national symbols, including symbols of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia;

(vi) protecting national traditions on family law by, if the community decides, arranging rules in the field of inheritance; family and matrimonial relations; tutorship; and adoption;

(vii) the preservation of sites of religious, historical, or cultural importance to the national community in cooperation with other authorities;

(viii) implementing public health and social services on a non-discriminatory basis as to citizens and national communities;

(ix) operating religious institutions in cooperation with religious authorities;and

(x) participating in regional and international non-governmental organizations in accordance with procedures of these organizations;

(b) be guaranteed access to, and representation in, public broadcast media, including provisions for separate programming in relevant languages under the direction of those nominated by the respective national community on a fair and equitable basis; and

(c) finance their activities by collecting contributions the national communities may decide to levy on members of their own communities.

5. Members of national communities shall also be individually guaranteed:

(a) the right to enjoy unhindered contacts with members of their respective national communities elsewhere in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and abroad;

(b) equal access to employment in public services at all levels;

(c) the right to use their languages and alphabets;

(d) the right to use and display national community symbols;

(e) the right to participate in democratic institutions that will determine the national community's exercise of the collective rights set forth in this Article; and

(f) the right to establish cultural and religious associations, for which relevant authorities willprovide financial assistance.

6. Each national community and, where appropriate, their members acting individually may exercise these additional rights through Federal institutions and institutions of the Republics, in accordance with the procedures of those institutions and without prejudice to the ability of Kosovo institutions to carry out their responsibilities.

7. Every person shall have the right freely to choose to be treated or not to be treated as belonging to a national community, and no disadvantage shall result from that choice or from the exercise of the rights connected to that choice.

Article VIII: Communes

1. Kosovo shall have the existing communes. Changes may be made to communal boundaries by act of the Kosovo Assembly after consultation with the authorities of the communes concerned.

2. Communes may develop relationships among themselves for their mutual benefit.

3. Each commune shall have an Assembly, an Executive Council, and such administrative bodies as the commune may establish.

(a) Each national community whose membership constitutes at least three percent of the population of the commune shall be represented on the Council in proportion to its share of the communal population or by one member, whichever is greater.

(b) Prior to the completion of a census, disputes over communal population percentages for purposes of this paragraph shall be resolved by reference to declarations of national community membership in the voter registry.

4. The communes shall have responsibility for:

(a) law enforcement, as specified in Chapter 2 of this Agreement;

(b) regulating and, when appropriate, providing child care;

(c) providing education, consistent with the rights and duties of national communities, and in a spirit of tolerance between national communities and respect for the rights of the members of all national communities in accordance with international standards;

(d) protecting the communal environment;

(e) regulating commerce and privately-owned stores;

(f) regulating hunting and fishing;

(g) planning and carrying out public works of communal importance, including roads and water supplies, and participating in the planning and carrying out of Kosovo-wide public works projects in coordination with other communes and Kosovo authorities;

(h) regulating land use, town planning, building regulations, and housing construction-

(i) developing programs for tourism, the hotel industry, catering, and sport;

(j) organizing fairs and local markets;

(k) organizing public services of communal importance, including fire, emergency response, and police consistent with Chapter 2 of this Agreement; and

(1) financing the work of communal institutions, including raising revenues, taxes, and preparing budgets.

5. The communes shall also have responsibility for all other areas within Kosovo’s authority not expressly assigned elsewhere herein, subject to the provisions of Article II.5(b) of this Constitution.

6. Each commune shall conduct its business in public and shall maintain publicly available records of its deliberations and decisions.

Article IX: Representation

l. Citizens in Kosovo shall have the right to participate in the election of:

(a) At least 10 deputies in the House of Citizens of the Federal Assembly; and

(b) At least 20 deputies in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

2.The modalities of elections for the deputies specified in paragraph 1 shall be determined by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia respectively, under procedures to be agreed with the Chief of the Implementation Mission.

3.The Assembly shall have the opportunity to present to the appropriate authorities a list of candidates from which shall be drawn:

(a) At least one citizen in Kosovo to serve in the Federal Government, and at least one citizen in Kosovo to serve in the Government of the Republic of Serbia; and

(b) At least one judge on the Federal Constitutional Court, one judge on the Federal Court, and three judges on the Supreme Court of Serbia.

Article X: Amendment

1. The Assembly may by a majority of two-thirds of its Members, which majority must include a majority of the Members elected from each national community pursuant to Article II.1(b)(ii), adopt amendments to this Constitution.

2. There shall, however, be no amendments to Article I.3-8 or to this Article, nor shall any amendment diminish the rights granted by Articles VI and VII.

Article XI: Entry into Force

This Constitution shall enter into force upon signature of this Agreement.