[2][3] The flag design emerged from an international competition, organized by an informal group from the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government known as the Kosovo Unity Team, which attracted almost one thousand entries.

[5] It shows six white stars in an arc above a golden map of Kosovo, all on a blue field.

[6] The stars symbolize Kosovo's six major ethnic groups: Albanians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Turks, Romani, and Gorani.

Ethnic Serbs used a red, blue and white tricolor, which also forms the basis of the flag of Serbia.

[22] Flags of Serbia, and Serbian Orthodox Church were used in protests against Kosovo independence and still can be seen in Serb-majority areas in the north.

[23] However, a person was sentenced by a panel of EULEX judges on 19 November 2009, for inciting hatred by raising a Serbian flag on a mosque in the southern part of Mitrovica (among other charges of discord/intolerance and attempted aggravated murder of a police officer).

Before 1969, the only flags that could legally fly over Kosovo (then an autonomous province) were those of SFR Yugoslavia and SR Serbia.

[27] Even without this requirement, the flag of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania at the time had a red star, outlined in gold, above the double headed eagle.

[30] This sentiment culminated in the September 1985's "Petition of the 2016" (the number of Kosovo Serbs who organised it), which called for, among other items, a greater statehood status for Serbia and the removal of all Albanian symbols.

[31] The Serbian side also began to remove the red star from the Yugoslav flag, using it for protests to counterbalance the Albanian population and to promote a Greater Serbia.

In June 1999,[35] with the passing of Resolution 1244 and the establishment of UNMIK, the Republic of Kosova ceased to exist along with the flag.

The Constitutional Framework for Self Government in Kosovo, promulgated in May 2001, allowed institutions to use approved symbols if authorized by UNMIK.

The NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, also used a distinctive flag during this period.

It was occasionally used at cultural and sports events during the UNMIK period and was also used at Rugova's funeral to cover his coffin.