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Press
Conference
On May 14, 2007, several non-profit
organizations such as the Consumers Protection
Office, the Center for Development and
Democratization of Institutions, the Albanian
Human Rights Group, and the Albanian Helsinki
Committee organized a press conference in order
to make public their views on the law on “Tourism.”
In spite of the intention to improve the tourism
situation in our country, AHC and the other
partner organizations expressed the concern that
the law “On tourism” violates the right to
privacy protected by the Constitution of Albania.
According to article 17 of the
Constitution, the limitation of constitutional
rights and freedoms may only be done by law, for
a public interest, or for the protection of the
rights of others, being in proportion to the
situation that dictated it and may not violate
the essence of freedoms and rights and may in no
case go beyond limitations envisioned in the
European Convention on Human Rights. The
limitation of rights through the law “On tourism”
does not respect constitutional criteria.
According to article 20 of the Constitution,
persons belonging to national minorities have
the right to express freely, without constraint
or force, their ethnic background. The law in
question obliges persons accomodating at a hotel
or similar facility to declare their nationality,
which is in contradiction with the above article
of the Constitution. Furthermore, the law is
also in contradiction with article 8 of the
European Convention on Human Rights, the law “On
the protection of personal data,” and the law
“On state police.”
Considering the importance of the
law and the violation of the constitutional
right to privacy of individuals, the partner
organizations sent a letter to the President of
the Republic of Albania to suggest that he does
not decree the above law and that it be reviewed
in accordance with constitutional principles.
In concrete terms, the definition
of article 34, items 3 and 4, features serious
deficiencies and has nothing to do with the
collection or processing of statistical data,
but in fact, unjustly infringes upon the private
life of tourists or different clients who are
accommodated in hotels in the Republic of
Albania. The violation of this constitutional
right is even more problematic when personal
data of tourists are delivered to the Tourist
Information Office every month and the fact that
they are open to inspections by any ministry
officer. This creates new institutions with the
right to manage personal data of tourists or
hotel clients while, in treating personal data,
only the law “On the protection of personal
data” should be abided by.
On the other hand, AHC, together
with the other partner organizations, expressed
concern that this law, with violations on the
right to privacy, could lead to consequences in
reducing the number of tourists and, as a result,
the country’s economic development. it may also
lead to violations of the private life of many
ordinary citizens who are not part of public
life, thus giving free access to unauthorized
persons to maintain their personal data.
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