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Press Release
The Albanian Helsinki Committee, in collaboration with the Soros
Foundation, organized today on December 3rd, the Conference: “The
Cohabitation of Minorities and Respect for their Rights"
The Albanian Helsinki Committee, in collaboration with the Soros Foundation, organized today on December 3rd, the Conference: “The Cohabitation of Minorities and Respect for their Rights".
The conference sought to highlight the role of the civil society in raising awareness about and protecting the rights of minorities, as well as to emphasize the cohabitation of ethnicities and problems of their rights in the region. As a function of this idea at the conference, participating besides Albanian participants
were also representatives of Helsinki Committees of other countries in the region who brought their experiences with regard to the protection of minorities.
The conference was conducted in three sessions and following the presentations, participants discussed on the presented themes.
Discussions in the first panel focused on the concept of "minorities" and the difficulties of defining this concept, on issues of minorities in Europe as seen from a legal and demographic standpoint. There were discussions also on the division and sub-division of minorities. Legal specialists
talked about the argument of how much Albanian legislation guarantees minority rights in the country and what the albaniani state is doing to improve the protection and guaranteeing of these rights in practice; Albania's international commitments regarding the protection of national minorities as well as obligations in the framework of Albania's integration into the European Union.
The second panel addressed the issues of minorities in the Balkans as seen from a historical viewpoint, the most important developments as well as lessons that the entire Balkan region may draw for building a model of coexistence in the region.
There were also discussions on the idea of whether the demand for peaceful cohabitation of different ethnic, religious or linguistic groups is a relic of some long gone world or a project of the European future, in the circumstances when the Balkan countries have embarked upon the streams of democratic
developments and when there is a broad international presence in the region.
The third panel focused on the role of the civil society in Albania to ensure better respect for the rights of minorities and to sensitizing state bodies and the minorities about the mechanisms for the protection of their rights.
Part of the discussions were the forms and tools that the civil society uses while working in two directions at the same time; exercising pressure on institutions that have an obligation to respect, protect and guarantee the rights of minorities to fulfil this mission; and sensitizing the minorities to express their
concerns with regard to the respect for their rights and their collaboration in accomplishing this in practice.
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