Constitutional Court

KI37/19, Applicant: Kosovo Taekwondo Federation, Constitutional review of non-enforcement of Judgment [A. No. 870/2016] of the Basic Court in Prishtina of 20 February 2018 in conjunction with Decision No. 29/2018 of 11 April 2018 of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport

 KI37/19, Resolution on Inadmissibility of 11 December 2019, published on 10 January 2020

Keywords: individual referral, manifestly ill-founded referral, non-exhaustion of legal remedies

The Applicant submitted the Referral to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS) requesting the licensing of the Taekwondo Federation, and the MCYS did not respond. Due to the silence on the part of the MCYS, the Applicant filed a claim with the regular courts. The Basic Court by the Judgment decided to oblige the MCYS to render a decision within 30 days upon the request of the Applicant.

Accordingly, the relevant MCYS commission recommended the licensing of the Applicant and on 11 April 2018, the MCYS issued the license number [29/2018] by which it licensed the Applicant (Kosovo Taekwondo Federation) to carry out its activity in 2018-2020.

The Applicant, dissatisfied with the actions of the MCYS, filed a complaint with the latter alleging, inter alia, a violation of Articles 3, 46 and 49 of the Constitution, stating that although the license was granted “no right deriving from this the document has been recognized either to [the Applicant] as a federation, nor to its official representatives”.

The Applicant consequently challenged before the Constitutional Court the non-enforcement of Judgment [A. No. 870/2016] of the Basic Court in Prishtina of 20 February 2018 with respect to Decision [No. 29/2018] of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of 11 April 2018.

In essence, the Applicant’s allegations before the Constitutional Court were divided into two categories: i) alleged violations of Articles 3, 24, 31, 46 and 49 of the Constitution and Article 6 of the ECHR for non-enforcement of Judgment [A. No. 870/2016] of the Basic Court in Prishtina of 20 February 2018, ii) alleged violations of other rights which the Applicant considers to fall under Decision No. 29/2018 of 11 April 2018 of the MCYS, as a licensed entity at the time of obtaining the license.

The Constitutional Court, after examining the Applicant’s allegations, decided as it follows:

i) Regarding the first category of allegations related to Judgment [A. No. 870/2016] the Basic Court in Prishtina of 20 February 2018, decided that they should be rejected as manifestly ill-founded in accordance with Rule 39 (2) of the Rules of Procedure.

ii) Regarding the second category of allegations concerning the rights which the Applicant claims to belong with obtaining a license, must be rejected on the ground of non-exhaustion of all legal remedies, in accordance with Article 113.7 of the Constitution, Article 47 of the Law as well as Rule 39 (1) (b) of the           Rules of Procedure.