Albanian Helsinki Committee in its 15th Anniversary

Honoured participants,

Immediately following the foundation of the Democratic Party, on December 19. 1990, the ‘Forum for the Human Rights’ was set up, as the first non-governmental, non-partisan and independent organization. It was the merit of some of our intellectuals that undertook this initiative so indispensable in the conditions of the collapse of the totalitarian regime.

The Document or the first public act of this organization was the appeal to release the convicts and exiled people for political reasons.

Since its launch, the ‘Forum of the Human Rights’ found the support and promotion of the wide social public. Its activity was echoed in the democratic world, it was hailed especially by the other analogous non-governmental organizations that operated in this field. This was the reason why on March of the year 1992, the Albanian forum was accepted as a member of the International Helsinki Federation and was named as the Albanian Helsinki Committee.  AHC operates based on its own statute. Its main mission was and still is the observance of the citizen legal rights and freedoms that are sanctioned in the international instruments and domestic legislation, mainly the provisions of the constitution of the Republic of Albania.

It was not easy for AHC to build the confidence of the people. To this end concrete and balanced and impartial and courageous actions were required.

Over these 15 years, AHC encountered obstacles, and also negative reactions and denigrating assaults were addressed to it. There were cases when constructive opposition was not well-understood on the part of the state bodies, and also partially by any print media. However, AHC neither withdrew, nor was under the influence of politics, despite the rotations of the political power.

AHC has not claimed and doesn’t claim to cover all the areas where the legislation related to the protection of citizen rights and freedoms operates. As a priority domain for AHC there was and still is the monitoring of the periodic elections, the observance of the prisoner and detainee rights, the observance of the national minority rights, the special aspects of the observance of the citizen rights in the judicial system etc.

The decision-making body of AHC is its general meeting that elects the board and the executive director. The activity would be limited with an administrative staff of 5 people. If AHC reached modest achievements in its work, it is thanks to its numerous activists, youngsters, intellectuals and specialists form different fields that have mainly been involved voluntarily in the implementation of the projects.

 In the course of its work, AHC used different approaches: involvement of public reactions, interventions of various types in compliance with the law, the publication of its periodic reports, organizations of seminars and round tables, etc.

Although AHC has identified violations and arbitrary actions, it has not practiced and won’t practice the organization and promotion of rallies and public protests. It keeps distant form political activities. Under this view, AHC has been and still is open to cooperation with the other non-profit organizations, by respecting the specific features sanctioned by the statutes of any organizations.

AHC, while drawing the balance sheet of its 15 year activity, confirms with great pleasure that significant steps have been taken in the field of the observance of citizen human rights and freedoms. Also it is worth highlighting that the concepts on the NPO-s role in a democratic society have changed.

We happily confirm that AHC has had a good cooperation with the state bodies including the parliament and especially with the law, order, State Intelligence Service and human rights commissions.

AHC legal resistance as regards some significant bills has been estimated, and in many cases it has also been considered. We would like to further go on with this cooperation in the future as well.

However, AHC thinks that there are more things to be done in the field of human rights and freedoms. We stress this, based on the fact that this is a significant and sensitive indicator, an indispensable element for the integration of the country in the large European family.

In conclusion, on behalf of AHC, allow me to thank all the participants in this anniversary, the numerous AHC activists, especially the founders of the ‘Forum of the Human Rights’, all those citizens that set us into motion with their complaints and information, but I would also like to thank those that have criticized us with the good will to further enliven the AHC activity.

On behalf of AHC, I avail myself of this opportunity to thank the foreign donors that have assessed the AHC work and have supported it financially, but also with frequent assistance for the upgrading of the quality of various AHC activities in the implementation of its most efficient contemporary practices.

Furthermore, allow me to thank on this occasion the representatives of the print and electronic media that have time and again provided us with the opportunity of the publication of the releases and public statements that reflected the AHC attitude.