[Prishtina-E] Re: Fwd: Re: Human Right Cente Prishtina-Selection of Director

[Wolfgang Benedek]

Dear colleague,

I was surprised to see You channel a letter of Ms. Kirwin to a number of persons
and organizations, which are partly not involved in this matter. When I have
received the letter of  Ms. Kirwin through Mr. Enver Hoxhaj I asked him in my
capacity of Chairperson of WUS Austria and International Coordinator of the
project from which the position of director and the larger part of the Centre is
funded to provide us all with a full report on the selection procedure. Because
of the holidays this has taken some time, but now it is available. It shows that
nothing spectacular has happened but that Enver Hoxhaj as chair of the selection
committee has changed his mind after its meeting and that the competent Steering
Committee has followed his decision, the reasons for which are made clear in the
report. I'm sorry that the report had to go to so much detail in order to
explain the reasoning and we normally would not share all this information with
this group of people partly unfamiliar with the Centre. But I see no other way
to avoid further damage.

WUS is cooperating well with ABA/CEELI in a number of other places in the
Balcans and therefore we have suggested it for the Board of the Centre. Should
ABA/CEELI in Prishtina want to withdraw which we would regret we would expect a
clear letter to this effect.

With kind regards

Wolfgang Benedek

Chair, WUS Austria


monica tailor wrote:

> >From: Kathleen Kirwin <kdkirwin at yahoo.com>
> >To: WUS Austria - Prishtina Office <pristina at wus-austria.org>, lord at un.org,
> >  sebastian.von-muenchow at omik.org, y.du.pont at academictraining.org,  Zenonas
> >Petrauskas <zenonas.petrauskas at omik.org>,  sandra.horina at univie.ac.at,
> >seci2 at osce.org, b.scholdan at oefse.at,  Zuzana Finger
> ><Zuzana_Finger at hotmail.com>,  "Theodore S. Orlin" <torlin at utica.ucsu.edu>,
> >hrap at utica.ucsu.edu,  ssalvatici at iom.ipko.org, shmaliqi at hotmail.com,
> >rolf.welberts at omik.org,  t.petovar at idea.int, cdhrf at albanian.com, Kari
> >Vanhanen <kvanhane at EUnet.yu>,  Kari Vanhanen <kvanhane at unet.com.mk>,
> >Lindita Tahiri <ltahiri at kfos.org>,  Klaus Kapper <autcoord at eunet.yu>,
> >Ivana Roagna - Boano <coepristina at omik.org>, ivana.roagna-boano at omik.org,
> >ibrahimmakolli at hotmail.com, iberisha at kfos.org,
> >heinzhabertheuer at hotmail.com,  hriegler at compuserve.com,  Walter Hoeflechner
> ><walter.hoeflechner at kfunigraz.ac.at>,  arjetabc at yahoo.co.uk,
> >gregory.fabian at omik.org,  Elisabeth Sorantin <ceepus at ceepus.org>,
> >edvillmoare at yahoo.com,  Robert Busse <wusckosovo at yahoo.ca>, frank at hrk.de,
> >REKTORATI <rektorati at uni-pr.edu>, andreotti at un.org
> >CC: colette.rausche at omik.org, Gjylietam at hotmail.com
> >Subject: Re: Human Right Cente
> >Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 06:40:52 -0800 (PST)
> >
> >
> >
> >Dear Enver:
> >
> >        The purpose of this letter is to inform you and the other members
> >of the Steering Board of the Human Rights Centre at the University of
> >Prishtina of some serious and far-reaching matters regarding the selection
> >of the Director of the Centre last week.
> >
> >        First and foremost, as a duly appointed member of the Commission
> >delegated with the authority to interview and choose said director, I
> >hereby officially protest the rejection of Ms. Gjylieta Mushkolaj as
> >Director of the Centre. My reasons for doing so are as follows.
> >
> >        During the meeting of the Steering Committee on Saturday, December
> >2, 2000, there was considerable discussion regarding the procedure to be
> >utilized in choosing the director. The Steering Committee reached a
> >concensus that the five person interviewing Commission would interview the
> >candidates and, based on those interviews and after otherwise considering
> >their respective resumes, would thereafter make a final recommendation to
> >the Committee at large. It was specifically agreed at the meeting that the
> >ratification of the Commission’s selection would be a “mere formality.”
> >Ironically, there was concomitant discussion regarding the “transparency”
> >of the selection process, followed by discussion concerning specific
> >compliance with the enabling Statute of the Centre in electing the
> >director. As Chair, you personally appealed to the Committee for volunteers
> >to sit on the selection Commission. You specifically asked for
> >internationals to assist. I volunteered my time and energy to sit on the
> >interviewing Commission in order to assist the Human Rights Centre in
> >meeting the severe time constraints it was under to choose a director. I
> >made it known I had previous commitments on the day of the interviews, but
> >would work around them so as to have time to participate in the selection
> >process. I studied the resumes over the weekend as requested so I would be
> >adequately prepared for the interviews. After the first two candidates,
> >Melinda Lord and I were advised by the other members of the Committee that
> >we were asking too many questions of the candidates. But for Ms. Lord and I
> >asking the relevant questions, the interviews would have more been more of
> >a pretense than they apparently already were.
> >
> >        Two days after what I thought would have been the ratification of
> >the selection by the Steering Committee, I found out that the decision we
> >had come to in selecting Ms. Mushkolaj for the position of Director had
> >been unilaterally changed with no notice to me and certainly without the
> >requisite formality of reconvening the Commission for further discussion as
> >would have been called for under any “transparent” and democratic
> >procedure.
> >
> >        It has also been made known to me that you advised Ms. Mushkolaj
> >that the only reason Ms. Lord and I voted for her was based on the fact
> >that she was a woman.You are well aware that is untrue and I am highly
> >insulted that you would impute such a demeaning mindset to me personally
> >and professionally and that you would otherwise use that line of defense in
> >attempting to justify your abuse of your own process in changing the
> >selection of the Director. You know full well that we engaged in lengthy
> >discussions regarding the outstanding qualifications of Ms. Mushkolaj. And
> >I will remind you of what I did say regarding the fact of Ms. Mushkolaj' s
> >gender, and that was, how "far reaching" it would be for this new Human
> >Rights Centre to find such an outstanding candidate in her and that her
> >gender was a "bonus" given the long standing status, or lack thereof, of
> >women in Kosovo. Ironically, I would also remind you that you
> >wholeheartedly agreed with Ms.Lord's and my assessment that the director
> >you have now chosen gave disappointing and inappropriate answers to the
> >questions regarding remedying the status of women in Kosovo, such that it
> >caused you to vote against him.
> >
> >      As a result of all that I have experienced with you and the Human
> >Rights Centre in this regard, I no longer wish to associate myself with it.
> >It is already impaired by biases and prejudices unsuited to a Human Rights
> >Centre. Further, unless this matter is immediately addressed and corrected,
> >I have been advised that Mr. Ed Villmoare is considering withdrawing
> >ABA/CEELI from any further affiliation with the Centre.
> >
> >Sincerely,
> >
> >Kathleen D. Kirwin, Esq.
> >
> >
> >
> >   WUS Austria - Prishtina Office <pristina at wus-austria.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> >Best regards,
> >
> >Enver Hoxhaj > ATTACHMENT part 2 application/msword name=Human Rights
> >Centre.doc
> _________________________________________________________________
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