08.04.2004
Albanian Helsinki Committee has continuously been monitoring the respect of the rights of the national minorities in Albania. Apart from monitoring AHC has sensitised the local government organs and also minority representatives in Albania on their rights and the protecting mechanisms. 

Since January 2004, AHC has begun the implementation of the project "The role of the Civil Society for the protection and public sensitisation on the rights of national minorities". The implementation of this project has been possible by the financial support of "SOROS" foundation in Tirana.

Some of the main objectives of this project are:

• A better sensitisation of the public in general and specially of minorities regarding the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

• Putting positive pressure on the Government in order to fulfil the duties resulted from the Framework-Convention for the protection of National Minorities.

• Urging the local government organs to act (in the areas where minorities are concentrated) in order to increase the minority population access to these organs.

• Urging minority representatives to act  for the denunciation of the discrimination cases.

• Monitoring the responsible state organs in the process of reinstatement of the violated rights.

• Urging the Albanian Government and  other responsible actors in order to successfully implementation the national strategy regarding the improvement of the Roma situation.

The activities planned  in the framework of this project are:

• Sporadic monitoring for the verification of the concerns raised from the minorities.

• Different meetings with the central and local authorities.

• Setting up a call line in order to denounce cases of discrimination  from the part of the minority representatives.

• Organizing 4 round-tables from which 3 of them will be at the local level, and one National Conference which will serve as an evaluation on of the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

• Preparing an informative guide in the Albanian, Greek and Macedonian language.

• Giving legal advice  on the improvement and review of the legislation.

Through the implementation of this project, the citizens in general and specially those who belong to a minority, will be more informed about the rights of minorities. Through the concerns and recommendations which will be presented to state authorities, AHC will aim at the improvement of the Albanian legislation and its strict application in practice regarding a letter observance of the minority rights in Albania.