Kosovo applies to join Council of Europe

Kosovo will apply for membership of the Council of Europe, the Balkan country’s government has said. The human rights organisation, which has 46 member nations, already has an office in Kosovo to assist with democratic reform. On Thursday, the Kosovan government said it had ratified the relevant conventions for joining the Council. “Human rights and elementary freedom are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo,” it said. More than 13,000 people were killed in the conflict between Serbia and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, then a Serbian province, in 1998 and 1999. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move recognised by 117 countries.