Last year, a study based on police data found that the number of women killed by their male family members had increased, from 22 in 2008 to 30 in 2011.
TIRANA, Dec. 2 – Violence in the family, especially against women and children, continues to remain a main issue of concern in the Albanian society.
There seemed to be an increase of the family violence this year, according to the official figures נfrom 23 cases in 2012 to 27 in 2013 while the end of the year has yet to arrive.
Authorities and the civic society are calling for further mechanisms to fight such a phenomenon. There is only one national shelter for the women who seek to escape domestic violence.
These non-governmental organizations have limited capacities and do not get any assistance from the government.
Reintegration of the victims remains a main issue of concern too.
The mentality of the society also makes many affected female victims to withdraw their charges against men, despite the change of the penal code last May which included violence in the family in the grave case file of the penal code.
Some figures show that more than half of the women are exposed to domestic violence. A 2009 official INSTAT study showed that over half of Albanian women had experienced some form of domestic violence; nearly one third of women were physically abused.
Last year, a study based on police data found that the number of women killed by their male family members had increased, from 22 in 2008 to 30 in 2011.
OSCE Ambassador Florian Raunig also called for more efforts to cope with this negative phenomenon, as “When acts of physical and psychological violence in families are not taken seriously, the risk for escalation can be tragic.”
He also said that legal mechanisms can never be successful by themselves and have to be combined with other measures, urging civic education and broad public discussions as one of the most effective mechanisms in the fight against domestic violence.
