| Project |
“Prison
reform and the role of the civil society in Albania” |
|
Implementation
period: |
March 2004 – December 2004 |
|
Funded by: |
Swedish Helsinki Committee |
Main goal of the project:
Improve
the human rights situation in detention facilities and prisons by improving
legislation in this area and encouraging good management of penitentiary
institutions.
Concrete project objectives
-
Improvement of conditions in detention facilities and prisons
by identifying and reporting violations of convicts’ human rights;
identification of institutional deficiencies leading to these violations, and
preparation of recommendations for relevant state structures;
-
Support for and
facilitation of efforts of the prisons’ administration to improve management
of these institutions through training programs for the senior staff of two
selected pilot prisons, namely the prisons of Rrogozhinë and Peqin;
-
Strenthening of the
AHC role as an important actor of the civil society in promoting human rights
in general and prison reform in particular.
Activities carried out in the context of the project
-
Continuous meetings of representatives of the AHC, the Swedish
Helsinki Committee, Swedish and Dutch experts, state institutions and other
actors active in this field;
-
Development of monitoring missions in eight prisons and 16
detention facilities;
-
Establishment of a dedicated hotline for arrested and detained
persons, and their families to denounce violations of their rights and the
provision of legal counseling;
-
Verification of complaints by arrestees, detainees, or their
families;
-
Organization of three sessions in the Prisons of Rrogozhinë and
Peqin, in support of drafting Internal Regulations for the Prison of Peqin, a
Code of Conduct for prison administration, definition of job descriptions for
main positions in the prison administration, etc.;
-
Publication of a leaflet on the revision of judicial decisions
as well as calendars containing messages for the public in general and
detained or arrested persons in particular;
-
Organization of a meeting to evaluate progess of the project.
Project Results:
Thanks to recommendations and
continued pressure by the AHC in the course of this project’s implementation,
the following results were achieved:
-
The Ministry of Justice took measures to transfer all persons
convicted through final court decisiosn from detention facilities to prisons
(July-December 2004);
-
Transfer of chronically ill persons from detention facilities
to the Prison Hospital;
-
The Ministry of Justice began to review the legal framework in
areas such as: employment for convicts, food, prison conditions, etc.;
-
Better informing of convicts about their rights and an
increasing number of letters and complaints to the AHC is telling;
-
Mediation for different strikes during the period covered by
this report;
-
New principles were introduced in the perception of work to
improve legal infrastructure inside prisons;
-
Incrase of involvement of institutions’ staffs to improve
administration of their institutions;
-
The media was always sensitive to issues involving the rights
of detained and convicted persons and devoted extensive coverage to AHC’s
activities during this period.
|
