Additional diplomatic passports are issued for the Chairman of the Constitutional Court and his family
26/05/2010
As we wrote previously on the GAP Monitor 4, until April 31st 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued 177 diplomatic passports.
In the last meeting for the month of May, the Government decided to amend and fulfill the Government decision No. 02/31 dated August 27th 2008, which specifies the category of officials who have the right to be equipped with diplomatic passports, which are issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Article 3.3 of that decision states that diplomatic passports are also issued to the spouses/husbands and children under the age of 18, of the President of the Republic of Kosovo, President of the Assembly, Prime Minister, deputy Prime Ministers; and ministers.
Whereas, according to the last decision of the Government, the article 3.3. of the above mentioned decision must be amended to include the Chairman of the Constitutional Court as well.
Last year, on April 8th 2009, the Government had decided to include the Head of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, in the list of people who have the right to be equipped with diplomatic passports. According to the Law on Travel Documents (Law No. 03/L-037), diplomatic passports are issued to representatives of diplomatic missions and diplomatic personnel as well as to other officials as specified by article 10 of this law, whwereas official passports are given to the technical and administrative personnel of diplomatic missions within embassies and consulates as well as to other officials as specified by article 11 of this Law.
After the completion of the mandate, the diplomatic passports, and after the completition of the official travel, the official passports – are deposited to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If the carrier of a diplomatic or an official passport is discharged from official duty, fired from work or reassigned to a different position, he/she is obliged to submit their diplomatic or official passport. The validity of these type of passports cannot be longer than 5 years. As we wrote previously on GAP Monitor 4, until April 31st 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issues 177 diplomatic passports.
