Human Rights in Albania 2007
Human Rights in Albania 2007
This report represents the situation of human rights in Albania during year 2007. The respect o:0 human rights remains a challenge for the Albanian government and society. The Government generally respected human rights, but still many branches of public institutions, especially law enforcement agencies remain largely unaware of the application of human rights in practice. Albania even during year 2007 remained a country in transition. Although there has been a generally positive economical prosperity, the fight and lack of communication between two major political parties keeps on hold the civic and political development of the country. Corruption, poverty, lack of government transparency and of an independent judiciary are among the biggest challenges that Albania faces in its road towards Nato membership and EU integration. This report was prepared during the period January-March 2007 and is mainly based on data and information provided by different institutions and organisations such as European Commission Progress Report 2007 on Albania, US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices 2007 - Albania, Albanian Helsinki Committee, Albanian Human Rights Group, Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania and Ombudsman Office in Albania. All these report focus on positive and negative aspects of the respect of human rights in Albania during 2007 and they are a valuable tool of information and awareness for the improvement of situation. The role of civil society and human rights organisations as a watch-dog in review of the actions of the government towards its citizens serves not only to protect the people's rights, but at the same time to strengthen the ability of citizens to report the abuse of their rights by people vested with power that hold a public office. Nonetheless there seem to be a general perception at the international community that human rights in Albania are generally respected by the Government. This in itself has been working against the respect of human rights, since the perception largely undermines the real human rights practices in the country. Major human rights organisations often are faced with lack of funding, which limits their ability to monitor, report and follow up human rights violations and complaints. If there is not a major challenge to such perception many human rights violations will go unreported. Moreover the report analyses the constitutional context that human rights take a central role, while providing more information on legislation and practices on specific aspects such as education of human rights, minorities or marginalised groups, the organisation and functioning of independent institutions such as Ombudsman Office (known as People's Advocate in Albania).
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