Recommendations
1) General recommendations for the accession to international agreements and conventions.
In order to actively begin the reformation of its national policy Albania has to join the two fundamental international human rights regulations: The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), which are vital for reaching the European level of regulating issues related to discrimination prevention and protecting the rights of ethnic minorities.
2) General recommendations for adjustments to the legal framework.
Albania is recommended to remove the section defending discrimination in cases when “it is objective and justified” from the Constitution. Revoking the Constitutional Court’s decision to exclude the “ethnicity” category from the population census and allowing people to decide for themselves whether or not they want to disclose this information would also be a step in the right direction.
Introducing amendments to the Criminal Code that would ensure that racism and other forms of prejudice are treated as aggravating circumstances in cases when they served as motive for a crime is also absolutely vital.
3) General recommendations for the executive bodies in the field of law enforcement and human rights.
The Albanian authorities should abolish the “non-recognition of minorities outside of Minority Zones” policy inherited from E. Hoxha’s totalitarian regime (especially with regards to questions of language and education).
Another important step that ought to be taken is releasing the hate crime statistics to the public – including clearance rates – thus making it possible for international organisations to accurately assess the situation in the country and to make sure that adequate amount of effort is put into preventing such incidents, as well as other discriminatory practices, from happening.
It is also possible to direct the activity of the Commissioner for Protection against Discrimination’s towards the mistreatment of Roma people from Balkan-Egyptian ethnic minority with regards to employment, health services, education, and housing. This would require providing the Commissioner with appropriate resources.
It is essential to develop a set of regulations that would ensure that Roma, as well as other socially unprotected groups, are entitled to receiving either social housing, or subsidies that would help cover the costs of private housing. Finally, it would also seem appropriate to introduce legislation that would prevent people from being forcefully evicted into the streets.
