The ninth annual Pride Parade was held today in Pristina, marching from “Skënderbeu” square under the motto “No Step Back.”
The parade was led by foreign diplomats and civil society activists, though not by institutional leaders. Uresa Ahmeti, an activist and part of the “Prishtina Pride 2025” organizing group, stated that this event marks the conclusion of Pride Week.
Civil Code’s Fate and LGBTIQ+ Rights
In the previous legislative session, the Civil Code failed to pass in the Kosovo Assembly. Two provisions within the code address issues concerning the LGBTIQ+ community. Ahmeti remarked that this document “showed that there are many homophobes in the Parliament of Kosovo.”
The Ambassador of Great Britain to Kosovo, Jonathan Hargreaves, expressed support for the Civil Code’s approval in the Assembly. He stated that it will be up to the next government to decide whether it wishes to bring it back for a vote.
The Mayor of the capital, Përparim Rama, said that Pristina is open to all communities. The German Ambassador, Jorn Rohde, also participated in the event.
The Civil Code is a legal act of great importance, aiming to regulate many civil matters and seeking to improve access to justice and strengthen the law. The entire Civil Code has been focused on one provision, two provisions, mainly related to the constitutional rights that the Constitution offers to communities, specifically the LGBTIQ+ community. The most vocal objections to the draft Civil Code are linked to the article that would enable the drafting of a special law, through which the registration of “civil unions” between persons of the same sex would be permitted.
