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The
third report on Albania drawn up by the European Commission against
Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)
was made public in Strasburg
15.06.2005
The
third report on Albania drawn up by the European Commission against
Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)
was made public on 14 June 2005, in Strasburg. The report covers the
situation as of 17 December 2004 with regard to ECRI’s
main recommendations from previous reports and their observance and
implementation on issues such as the
rights of minorities and other groups, foreign migrants and asylum
seekers as well as other special issues related to the treatment of
Roma minority, Egyptian community, their participation in the
public, political life and other sectors.
This
report is a result of analyses based on a great deal of information
gathered from a wide variety of national and international written
sources. The in site
visit allows for meeting directly the concerned circles
(governmental and non-governmental) with a view to gathering
detailed information. The
process of confidential dialogue with the national authorities
allows the latter to propose, if they consider it necessary,
amendments to the draft report, with a view to correcting any
possible factual errors which the report might contain. At the end
of the dialogue, the national authorities may request, if they so
wish, that their viewpoints be appended to the final report of ECRI.
In the executive summary of the third report of ECRI on
Albania it is stated « Since
the publication of ECRI’s second report on Albania on 3 April
2001, progress has been made in a number of the fields highlighted
in the report. A “National Strategy for the Improvement of Living
Conditions of the Roma” has been developed that sets out to
eliminate discrimination towards Roma in different fields of life.
A Special State Committee on Minorities has been established
and mandated to make recommendations to the government with respect
to the promotion of the rights of minorities.
Furthermore a pre-screening procedure has been put in place
in order to determine the status of non-citizens
caught in the country in an illegal situation and ensure that
persons who are trafficked, asylum seekers and those seeking
repatriation are each treated in the manner appropriate to their
situation. A National Strategy to Combat Trafficking has also been
adopted. Moreover
police at all levels have been provided with training in human
rights.»
Alongside
the positive developments, in this report ECRI highlights some
problems too which have not found the adequate solutions. According
to this report « a
number of recommendations made in ECRI’s second report have not
been implemented or have only been partially implemented.
»
In particular, ECRI is concerned about
the representation and participation of persons belonging to
minority groups in public life; there have been few detectable
improvements in the situation of Roma and Egyptians; the
reportedly disproportionate
number of Roma and Egyptian children who are victims of trafficking;
a nation-wide census including information on national,
ethnic and religious belonging has still not been carried out. ECRI
also raises a number of issues relating to the legal framework for
combating direct and indirect discrimination, minority language
education, promotion of cultural values, tradition and tolerance,
registration of Roma population in the civil register and their
housing problems etc.
ECRI
recommends in this report that the Albanian authorities take further action in a number of fields such
as:
-
Improving
the participation and representation of members of some
minority groups in political decision-making bodies and
political processes at national and local level;
-
Taking
measures to ensure the full inclusion of Roma and Egyptians in all
aspects of social, economic and political life at all levels;
-
Taking
further measures to combat the trafficking of Roma and Egyptian
children;
-
Ensuring that
Roma are consistently involved in all aspects of the implementation
and evaluation of the “National Strategy for the Improvement of
Living Conditions of the Roma” at national and local level and
that Egyptians do not experience discrimination with respect to
their participation and access to State institutions;
-
Drafting
a specific National Strategy aimed at improving the situation of
Egyptians in Albania;
-
The
collection of data enabling the situation of different minority
groups in the country to be assessed;
-
Taking
further measures to ensure the thorough investigation of allegations
of ill-treatment by police and to ensure that the rights of asylum
seekers and migrants coming in Albania continue to be guaranteed;
Albanian
Helsinki Committee (AHC)highly appreciates this report of ECRI. In
general, the analysis provided to the problems is objective and
multi-faceted. Recommendations of this body are useful and should
urge the state bodies and civil society actors in their further
efforts to reach international standards related to the combat of
direct or indirect manifestations of intolerance and racism in the
country and the region.
AHC
considers positively the measures taken by the Albanian
Government during
these years in the improvement of the legislation and its
enforcement in practice in preventing and
combating open and hidden forms of discrimination.
AHC
appreciates the
efforts made by the Albanian state, non-for-profit organizations and
other native and foreign organisms in their programs
supporting specific groups such as: Roma, Egyptians, asylum seekers
etc., as well as their
capacity building programs of specialists or even those of the
beneficiary groups.
Nevertheless,
AHC calls on different state actors to continue
in their efforts to take further measures for a better observance of
the rights of special groups of the society especially Roma
and Egyptians, for the implementation of approved strategies in the
area of reducing poverty, trafficking of human beings, and of the
improvement of the living conditions of the Roma and Egyptian
communities.
AHC
calls
on organizations, representatives of the interests of minorities and
communities in Albania to increase their participation in the
process of the implementation of the national strategy as well as in
its monitoring process.
Taking
into consideration the role of the print and electronic media, AHC
recommends the
increase of the access of the national minorities and other groups
to the media, to cover even more extensively the culture,
tradition and customs of the minorities and other communities and
their values in the Albanian society, as well as to cover in a
broader way problems that these groups face in area like:
participation in political, economical, social and cultural life.
Being
in the pre-electoral process, AHC
calls on the political parties that their programs include concrete
and supporting measures regarding the increase of the participation
and representation of the national minorities and other communities
in the political,
economical and social life, to increase the access of these specific
groups to the society, especially that of Roma and Egyptians in
specific aspects of the electoral process.
AHC
will
continue to contribute to the monitoring of the measures and
initiatives to be taken by the Albanian government in regard with
the further improvement of the observance of the rights of
minorities and communities in Albania, in preventing
discrimination, in each and every of its form, as well as in better
highlighting the values and harmony which exists between minorities
and communities in Albania.
For
more information please contact:
Vasilika
Hysi
Executive
Director of the Albanian Helsinki Committee, Tirana, Albania
Member
of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)
St:
Gjin Bue Shpata, Pall 5/1, ap. 4
P.O
box: 1752
Tel/fax:
++ 355 4 23 36 71
E-mail:
office@ahc.org.al
Web
site: www.ahc.org.al
And
you can contact the following address:
Secretariat
of ECRI
Directorate
General of Human Rights – DG II
Council
of Europe
F
- 67075 STRASBOURG Cedex
Tel.:
+33 (0) 3 88 41 29 64
Fax:
+33 (0) 3 88 41 39 87
E-mail:
combat.racism@coe.int
Web:
www.coe.int/ecri
_________________________________________________________
Shortly
on the European Commission against Racism and
Intolerance (ECRI)
The
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) was
established by the Council of Europe. It is an independent human rights monitoring body specialised
in questions relating to racism and intolerance.
It is composed of independent and impartial members, who are
appointed on the basis of their moral authority and recognised
expertise in dealing with racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and
intolerance.
One
of the pillars of ECRI’s work programme is its country-by-country
approach, whereby it analyses the situation as regards racism and
intolerance in each of the member States of the Council of Europe
and makes suggestions and proposals as to how to tackle the problems
identified.
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