Democratisation of the Security Sector in the Western Balkans Florian QEHAJA, Executive Director of Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) www.qkss.org florian.qehaja@qkss.org

KCSS is an independent and non-partisan think tank based in Kosovo There was a need to establish an organisation which would oversee the build up of the security sector after the independence We cover SSR, Justice, Foreign Affairs and Conflict Prevention KCSS part of regional think tank consortium “Civil Society Capacity Building to Map and Monitor SSR in the Western Balkans” Part of the consortium is: Institute for Democracy and Mediation (Albania); Centre for Security Studies (BiH); Institute for International Relations (Croatia); Analytica (Macedonia); Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (Montenegro) and Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (Serbia). Project coordinated by DCAF Geneva. Funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Consortium We moved “from conflict zone to epistemic communities” Project goals were: Create methodological instrument for measuring SSR from the perspective of civil society Generate and share useful knowledge on the state of democratic governance in the security sector Whole-of-sector approach (holistic approach to security sector) Enhance of civil society’s advocacy potential Increase of capacities of civil society Target: Governments, Parliaments, CSO’s, Academia, International Community

Methodology Name of Criteria Existence of relevant legislation Administrative Capacities Implementation Values Legal State Grades 1-5 General Transparency Financial Transparency Executive Control and Oversight Parliamentary Oversight Control by Ind. Institutions Judicial Oversight Representativeness

The impact of consortium Fostered cooperation between CSO’s and security sector Triggered wide range debate on the good governance issues Contributed towards local ownership (based on maximalist point of view) Serves as a local watchdog to SSR in line with EU Conditionality (applicable solely to Western Balkans) Increased capacities of SSR organisations itself Producing publications for the policy and academic purpose Transmitting experiences to emerging transitions and democracies

KCSS experiences in other countries 1. Expert group on advising the drafting of the National Security Strategy (NSS) of Nepal Transmitting Kosovo experiences (failures of absence of local ownership) Guidance in accordance with the local context Need for a harmonised policy framework 2. Capacity building for former combatants of Lybian revolution DDR process and lessons from Kosovo