Three murders shocked Kosovo during the last week alone: one case occurred in Malisheva, while two others took place in Prizren.

At midnight on Thursday, a 15-year-old lost his life after being stabbed by a 17-year-old. However, he was not the only victim that week.

On Monday, a 25-year-old pregnant woman was murdered in Malisheva. Two days later, on Wednesday, an 80-year-old woman was allegedly murdered in Prizren. In both cases, suspicion has fallen on the victims’ husbands.

The latest cases are not the only ones demonstrating the scale of this phenomenon. According to the Kosovo Police, 13 murders were reported between January and June 2026, while the number was 19 throughout 2025.

The police also announced that, regarding murders committed within families from January through August 26, 2026, four female victims had been recorded. This figure also includes the victim in the Prizren case.

Sociologist Genc Xërxa told Tëvë1 that these incidents are caused by a number of factors. According to him, society remains patriarchal, and women are often perceived more as property than as devoted and equal partners in family relationships.

Xërxa emphasized that another problem is the institutional normalization of violence. He said that in some cases even a slap or a conflict between couples is treated as something normal, allowing the violence to recur and later spiral out of control.

Security expert Fatmir Çollaku considers the number of murder cases troubling for society as a whole. He said that, unfortunately, the cases are increasing and that every life lost represents a major loss not only for the victims’ families but also for society.

According to Çollaku, numerous or frequent murders also create a sense of insecurity among other citizens, particularly when the victims are women. For this reason, he called for a response from society as a whole and from the relevant institutions.

Çollaku also raised concerns about the possession of unlicensed weapons. According to him, when a murder is committed with a firearm, prevention should focus on confiscating and collecting illegal weapons in the hands of citizens.

He said that, according to experts on the issue, citizens continue to possess a considerable number of unlicensed weapons, although the figure was much higher 10 or 20 years ago.

To prevent such cases from recurring, Çollaku called on the responsible institutions to take stronger preventive measures.

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The killing of two women within a week has reignited debate over institutional failures to ensure women’s safety and protect their lives. In response to the situation, women’s rights organizations and civil society representatives have called on citizens to gather in the square in protest.

Women’s organizations have described these cases as femicide— the killing of women linked to gender-based violence, RTK reports.

Following the killing of a woman in Malisheva, acting Minister of Justice and National Coordinator for Protection from Domestic Violence, Violence against Women and Gender-Based Violence Donika Gërvalla organized a meeting with representatives of the Police, Prosecution, courts and the Center for Social Work.

The meeting aimed to assess how institutional mechanisms are functioning and examine measures to prevent similar incidents. Gërvalla said that no institution or link in the system should fail.

The figures show the scale of the problem: 11 women have been killed over the past four years, three of them this year alone. Despite legal changes and the establishment of new protection mechanisms, violence against women remains one of the greatest challenges facing Kosovo’s institutions. Since 2010, the number of women killed within their families has reached 62.

For women’s organizations, these incidents cannot be treated as isolated episodes, but as evidence of a systemic problem.

RrGK has documented 155 cases of gender-based violence between 2025 and May 2026, including cases of femicide. Its monitoring has highlighted difficulties in the functioning of the justice system and in the way institutions respond to cases of violence.

Four years ago, Kosovo was shaken by the killing of Hamide Magashi, a pregnant woman who was murdered at QKUK.

Although a protection order was in effect for her, she was killed. Following the incident, legal changes were introduced and around 600,000 euros were invested in an electronic system to monitor people subject to such measures. Nevertheless, the killings of women continue.

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