Ukshin Hoti was a

Kosovo Albanian The Albanians of Kosovo ( sq, Shqiptarët e Kosovës, ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovar/Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars/Kosovans, constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians belong to the ethnic Albanian sub-gr ...

philosopher and activist. Hoti was a professor of international law and later philosophy at the

University of Pristina The University of Pristina ( sq, Universiteti i Prishtinës) is a public university located in Pristina, Kosovo. It is the institution that emerged after the disestablishment of the University of Pristina (1969–99) as a result of the K ...

and founder of UNIKOMB, a political party of

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. Since 1982 he had been arrested several times by Yugoslav authorities. In 1994 he was convicted to five years in the Dubrava prison. In May 1999, when his sentence ended and he was to be released, guards of the prison relocated him. His whereabouts are unknown and many human rights activists consider him dead.

Life

Ukshin Hoti was born in the village of Krushë e Madhe/Velika Kruša in the Rahovec Municipality at the time part of Italian-occupied

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

. He studied political science at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

and the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-b ...

and had postgraduate studies at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in international relations and political science. From 1975, Hoti taught international law at the

and held an administrative position at the parliament of Kosovo. In 1982 he was sentenced by a Yugoslav court and spent three and a half years in prison for his support to the 1981 protests in Kosovo, although he was not charged with the use or advocacy of violence. In 1983

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

declared him a prisoner of conscience. On 28 September 1994, he was sentenced to five years in the Dubrava penitentiary for "endangering the constitutional order of Serbia". On 16 May 1999, the day he was to be released, he was last seen alive by three inmates. Rather than be released, he was transferred to the prison of

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...

, and from then, he went missing.

Works

Ku është Ukshin Hoti graffiti in Priština

*The Cold War and The Détente (Lufta e ftohtë dhe Detanti) *The Political Philosophy of the Albanian Cause (Filozofia Politike e Çështjes Shqiptare) *Talk through the prison bars (Bisedë përmes hekurash) His works include the treatise, the ''Philosophical Politics of the Albanian Cause'' ( sq, Filozofia politike e ceshtjes shqiptare), published in English in 1998. He was also nominated for the

Sakharov Prize The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought. Named after Russian scientis ...

in 1998. His brother Afrim, a member of

Vetëvendosje Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (, en, Self-determination Movement; LVV) is a centre-left to left-wing political party in Kosovo. It is orientated towards principles of social democracy, populism, and Albanian nationalism. Vetëvendosje was founded in ...

was elected a deputy of Kosovo in the Kosovan parliamentary election, 2010.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoti, Ukshin 1943 births 1990s missing person cases 20th-century Albanian philosophers 21st-century Albanian philosophers Albanian activists Albanian nationalists Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Serbia and Montenegro Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Yugoslavia Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Enforced disappearances Harvard University alumni Kosovan prisoners and detainees Kosovo Albanians Missing people Missing person cases in Europe People from Orahovac Prisoners and detainees of Serbia and Montenegro Prisoners and detainees of Yugoslavia University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy alumni University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Science alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Pristina faculty University of Washington alumni Yugoslav academics Yugoslav people of Albanian descent Yugoslav prisoners and detainees

Life

Works

See also

Sources