TIRANA, Dec. 14 – Albanian and UN officials have marked the 60th anniversary of the country’s membership in the United Nations with a ceremony at Foreign Ministry of Albania.
Although a small country, Albania has proved to be a strong voice in the promotion of peace and security in the world, said the new UN resident coordinator in Tirana, Brian J. Williams.
“The country has an unbroken record of service to blue-helmet peacekeeping after the democratic changes in 1990,” Williams said at the event. “Albania has also been at the forefront of regional security cooperation. Although small, the country represents a powerful voice for democracy, equality, peace and development.”
A few months earlier Albania also became a first-time member of the UN Human Rights Council.
“This is a well-deserved recognition of Albania’s commitment to the advance human rights,” Williams added.
For the first four decades of its participation at the UN, Albania was a totalitarian communist state with no major visibility at the UN other than its major role in getting the People’s Republic of China, Albania’s chief ally in the late 1960s and 1970s, to get UN membership and its seat at the UN Security Council.
After the fall of communism in Albania, over the past two decades, Albania’s relations with the UN have evolved and deepened dramatically, developing cooperation and partnerships in a wide variety of areas, including in support of democratic governance and the rule of law, increased civic participation, closing of gender gaps, improved health and labor standards, increased public access to information, environmental protection and disaster preparedness, support for expanded education and the rights of children, and the promotion of human rights in general.
Albania’s foreign minister said at the event despite changes in Albania’s ideologies in the past six decades, the country had shown an unchanged attitude in favor of peace and security.
“It is part of our DNA as a nation, to be in harmony and in peace with others. We have contributed in the UN. We are engaged through the implementation of the One UN model. We are promoters of protection and respect of fundamental freedoms and human rights,” Minister Ditmir Bushati said.
