The new Kosovo constitution has been published recently and is now freely accessible on the Web (see the full text here).
Some items in this new constitution are rather disturbing while some others will be interesting to see in their application.
The allocation of seats to minorities in parliament (see article 64, paragraph 2 and article 148, paragraph 1). While this is usually seen as a sign of respect and inclusion of minorities, it has actually a contrary effect. It divides the Rroma community into Roma, Ashkali, Egyptians, and it is more than paternalistic. Who in an European country would allocate seats in Parliament to Jews, or to any other minority. Either one is a full member of the country, or one is not.
Kosovo recognises Turkish and Rromanes as official languages (nut not national) at municipal level (Article 5, Paragraph 2). In view of the mere fact of speaking Rromanes in Kosovo results in immediate insults, one can ask oneself how this is going to be applied.
The most interesting article concerns the citizenship. Article 155, paragraph 1 states that all legal resident living in Kosovo at the date of the adoption of the constitution are deemed citizen.
For all others, Kosovo recognises the right to citizenship provided that the person holds the citizenship of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and "habitually" resided in Kosovo as per January 1, 1998. This de facto excludes all refugees who left Kosovo prior to that date, be they Albanians, Rroma, or others. It will be interesting to see the application of this article in the facts, especially for Rroma refugees who left after this date but whose official residency papers no longer exist, as is often the case (many official papers were either destroyed or moved out of Kosovo by the Serbs after the war).