Britain tells Albania to better

TIRANA, March 29 – The Annual Report on Human Rights 2008 published by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom was issued last week urged Albania to better apply legislation, fight corruption and human trafficking, pay greater attention to holding free and fair elections, deepen the judicial reform and avoid efforts to censor the media.
Although party to several international agreements on human rights, Albania continues to have difficulty implementing legislation and reform in some areas. Respect for human rights is a core principle of Albania’s Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union.
Corruption remains a serious issue in Albania and presents one of the most serious obstacles to human rights in the country. The UK funds a number of projects to help tackle this problem, including work to increase transparency and accountability in the property registration process.
Albania received an invitation to join NATO at the Bucharest Summit in April. Albania’s progress against its Membership Action Plan commitments, which include respect for human rights, was recognized. In 2008, Albania ratified Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights concerning abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances and has revised its Military Code accordingly.
The Albanian government has made some progress on electoral reform in preparation for general elections due to be held in the summer of 2009, but much remains to be done if free and fair elections are to be guaranteed. In April, the government and opposition parties agreed on constitutional changes establishing a new electoral system.
Despite further difficulties, the new Electoral Code was passed with wide consensus in November. The early adoption of the new Code is essential for free and fair elections in 2009. The UK has provided funds to establish regular, independent opinion polling in the months leading up to elections, to increase transparency in electoral campaigning.
Judicial reform has made less progress. Most notably, some government measures – and particularly a new draft law on the Prosecutor General – have brought the independence of the Prosecution and other independent institutions into question. The responsibility of national authorities to guarantee the right to life has been brought into the spotlight by a series of explosions at a munitions storage faculty in Gerdec in March, where 26 people, including some children, were killed. The Gerdec incident also raised issues of child labor, labor laws and health and safety standards. The Prosecutor General’s office continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding this tragedy, and the results of this will be watched closely. Human trafficking remains a problem, and recent international reports suggest there is more the government could be doing to tackle it.
There have been further complaints of the government attempting to censor the media. The UK provides scholarships and shorter fellowships to build capacity in areas that support human rights in Albanian, including the media. Freedom of religion is generally guaranteed, and inter-faith relations are positive and tolerant. However, religious communities continue to complain about the government’s lack of restitution with regard to property and land taken from the religious communities during the communist regime.