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The
National Conference: “The execution of judicial
decisions
in protection of the rights of the citizens”
Organized
by the Office of Ombudsman in Albanian in collaboration
with
the Albanian Helsinki Committee.
04.02.2004
Taking in consideration the importance of the
observance of human rights and the impact of the judicial system
regarding this issue, on 19 December 2003, the Institution of
Ombudsman in collaboration with the Albanian Helsinki Committee,
organized the National Conference “The execution of judicial
decisions in protection of the individuals rights”. In this
conference participated many representatives of the Albanian
governmental bodies such as Ministry of Justice, Attorney
General’s Office and attorney’s offices in the cities, Ministry
of Public Order, Ministry of Finance, State’s Advocacy, the heads
of the Bailiff’s Office, the heads of the Attorney’s Office, of
courts and public administration and bailiffs.
The
goal of the Conference was to discuss problems
faced during the execution of the judicial decisions and the need to
improve the existing practice in order to respect and protect the
rights of the citizens.
The Office of Ombudsman and the Albanian Helsinki
Committee decided to put in the focus of this Conference the
problems faced in the process of executing the judicial decisions,
the urgent need to solve them having in mind the axiom that late
justice is denied justice. Albanian Helsinki Committee had one more
reason to contribute in this field, because this year, the problem
of the execution of criminal decisions and the respecting of
citizens rights in the judiciary system, the fight against
corruption in this area, have been the priorities of the
Committee’s activities in the framework of the initiatives
undertaken by the Coalition against Corruption where the AHC is
member. Regarding this, AHC has carried out many surveys and a
detailed study of the Albanian legislation, which will be published
soon.
The Conference proceeded in a plenary session and two
panels “The execution of civil judicial decisions and the problems
faced in this process”, and the other panel “ The execution of
criminal judicial decisions”
In the framework of this Conference a study was
undertaken on the problems encountered in the Bailiff’s Office.
The study took place in 9 cities of the country
[1]
and 445 people were interviewed. The interviewers were citizens that
had contacts with the Bailiff’s Office in cases postponed from
previous years or those that were to be executed during 2003[2].
Representatives of AHC presented the conclusions of
the monitoring concerning the access of the public to the
Bailiff’s Office and the evaluation of the work of these offices
in Albania. Some of the main conclusions of this observation were
the following:
By and large, the citizens’ opinion about the way
the Bailiff’s Office functions, wasn’t good.
There is a lack of transparency and information of
the public about the ongoing of the execution process of a decision.
Some of the interviewed people that are in contact with the
Executing Office, had no information on the procedures and the rules
of executing the judicial decisions.
The phenomenon of corruption is evident in the
activity of the public administration and judicial system.
The execution of the judicial decisions was
procrastinated or neglected causing this violation of human rights.
The accomplishment of the tasks and the professional
ethics of the employees of this system, are two very important
features for a good functioning of the judicial system. Ethics must
characterize every single employee of the public administration. One
of the indicators of the evaluation of this report is how the
complaints of the people are treated. The majority of the
complainants have had complaints concerning the way those were
treated.
Based on the problems that were discussed in this
Conference, soon, The Office of Ombudsman and the Albanian Helsinki
Committee will publish the recommendations of this Conference.
In the panel “The execution of criminal judicial
decisions”, AHC presented some conclusions of the study done in
the Attorney’s Office in Tirana and Durrės regarding the
respecting of the rights of the condemned during the execution of
criminal decisions.
This study was realized in the framework of the
initiative of the coalition against corruption with the financial
support of MSI (Management Systems International), and the support
of USAID.
The
problems presented for discussion and the concrete recommendations
of the Conference were good premises for the improvement of the work
done by the Bailiff’s Office and judicial system all over the
country.
[1] The study was carried out
in Tirana, Durrės, Fier, Shkodėr, Kukės, Vlorė, Gjirokastėr,
Elbasan and Korēė. Lawyers and correspondents of AHC in the
cities realized the survey.
[2] The selection of the
interviewed people was done at random among the people that were
waiting for their decision to be executed. The number of the
interviewed people was determined by INSTAT as well as the
elaboration of the data. We would like to thank them for the
very good work they have done.
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