ALBANIA PRESENTS INITIAL TO FOURTH PERIODIC REPORTS TO COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
63rd session
5 August 2003
Morning







The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has concluded its consideration of the initial to fourth periodic reports presented by Albania on how that country implements the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Armand Skapi, Director of the United Nations and International Organizations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania and Head of the Delegation, introducing his country’s reports, said that empowering the mechanisms of human rights protection, through creation of human rights standards, ensured survival of a prosperous democracy. The respect and protection of human rights constituted one of the fundamental pillars upon which the democratic society in the Republic of Albania had been founded on and functioned upon. Albanian legislation recognized and protected the individual and collective rights belonging to national minorities.

The report, he said, outlined the programmes and policies in place to promote non-discrimination and tolerance among the various races and minorities living in Albania. Even though human rights had improved significantly since 1990, the Albanian Government continued to perform its obligations of working for the better protection of vulnerable populations, by a purposeful and expansive interpretation of the existing legal procedures

Committee Experts, including the Country Rapporteur for the reports of Albania, Régis de Gouttes, raised a series of questions including a request for updated ethnographical data; further data on efforts made by the Government to master migratory fluxes; whether Albania considered presenting the Committee with a complaint against Serbia for the massacres that took place against Albanians and the mass graves of these victims recently discovered; the issue of general prejudice against the Roma and the apparent contradictions in the report upon this topic; the participation of minority political parties in local, regional and national elections, the army and the police; subjective definitions of ethnic minority or status and how much these subjective preferences should be indulged; and the acceptance of refugees of several ethnicities during the Kosovo conflict and the acceptance by Albanian society of all these refugees notwithstanding their ethnic origin.

The final concluding remarks of the Committee on the reports of Albania will be issued towards the end of its session which concludes on 22 August. In preliminary remarks, Mr. de Gouttes said the Committee welcomed the considerable progress achieved by Albania in building a state where the rule of law had prevailed ever since the end of the totalitarian regime. The dialogue with the delegation had been of high quality, and the answers provided had been satisfactory. However, there was a need for further information in the next report on several points, including an updating of the statistical data on the population as a whole, as well as details on the ethnic makeup of the country.

Mr. Skapi, in his concluding remarks, said Albania looked forward to presenting its next report and hoped it would be in better shape than the current ones.

Following the conclusion of the discussion on the Albanian reports, held over two meetings, the Chairman informed the Committee of the results of meetings held between representatives of the human rights committees, which were followed by a meeting with the Chairmen of the human rights treaty bodies.

Taking part in the debate were Committee Experts Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, Morten Kjaerum, Patricia Nozipho January-Bardill, Patrick Thornberry, Luis Valencia Rodriguez, Raghavan Vasudevan Pillai, Nourredine Amir, Chengyuan Tang, Mario Jorge Yutzis, Agha Shahi, Jose A. Lindgren Alves, and Ion Diaconu.

Members of the Albanian delegation included Pranvera Goxhi, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Albania, Vice-Head of the Delegation; Artan Naqe, Specialist in the United Nations and International Organizations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Arlinda Gjata, Specialist from the Bureau of National Minorities at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs; Ervin Nina, Specialist in the Direction of the United Nations and International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Miti Koci, Head of the Department of Scientific Research at the Ministry of Education and Science; and Brunilda Emini, Specialist of Social Affairs at the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs.

As one of the 169 States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, Albania must present periodic reports to the Committee on efforts to eradicate such bias.

Before concluding the meeting on Monday afternoon, the Chairman announced that a report had been received from Surinam, and therefore the situation in Surinam would not be considered during this session under the Committee’s review procedure for seriously overdue reports. The report would be considered at the Committee’s March session next year.

Alexei S. Avtonomov, the newly elected Expert from the Russian Federation, was sworn in on Tuesday morning and took his place on the Committee formally.

When the Committee reconvenes on Tuesday, 5 August at 3 p.m., it will consider the third to the twelfth periodic reports of the Republic of Cap Verde.


Reports of Albania

The initial to fourth periodic reports of Albania, contained in one document (CERD/C/397/Add.1) describe progress in the field of human rights and in particular in the fight against racial discrimination. The reports emphasize that the Albanian population is ethnically homogenous, with only 2 percent of the population of different nationalities: Greek, Macedonian and Montenegrin, and that two religions coexisted peacefully: Islam and Christianity.

The report states that the Republic of Albania condemns racial discrimination and is undertaking all necessary legislative, judicial and executive measures in order to eliminate practices of racial discrimination. Albanian laws prohibit all policies and practices that could create disadvantages for the members of minority and racial groups in all spheres of life. National minorities are considered an integral part of Albanian society.

Albania attaches special importance to good relations, tolerance, cooperation, cohabitation and understanding between the Albanians and the national minorities living in its territory. During its past and present history, Albanian society has not encountered any ethnic, racial or religious problem or conflict. This is a fact acknowledged by international organizations as well. There are no cases of intolerance, hatred or ethnic discord, but on the contrary there is a good tradition of understanding and tolerance between the majority of the population and the minorities. This is reflected in the mutual respect, the relations of cooperation and the peaceful existence between them not only in the areas and villages with ethnically mixed population, but also nationally.


Introduction of Reports

ARMAND SKAPI, Director of the United Nations and International Organizations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania and Head of the Delegation, introducing the report, said the evolution of human rights and freedoms in Albania had followed a very difficult path in the recent 13 years from the collapse of the communist regime. From that particular and very important moment in Albanian modern history, after nearly five decades of totalitarianism, the aspirations of the people of Albania had been that Albania become a developed country in the economic context, with a democratic society where the rule of law was established. Empowering the mechanisms of human rights protection through creation of human rights standards ensured the survival of a prosperous democracy. This was the vision of Albania in preparing for the challenge of integration into the European Union.

The Albanian Constitution, Mr. Skapi said, enshrined one of the basic principles of democracy that every citizen had the right to live with dignity in freedom; every citizen had the right to aspire to a better life, and the availability of a large number of opportunities to resort to just and fair means in order to attain that dignity. Like religious moderation and tolerance, hospitality had long been a part of Albania’s make-up, and altogether this had created a region where inter-marriages had long been one of its distinct characteristics, and which represented an excellent example for the countries of the Balkan region and beyond.

During the 1990’s, a tremendous amount of work had been done to set up new democratic legislation, said Mr. Skapi. The human rights legislation was a very important and indeed an integral part of the overall legislation system in Albania, including the Constitution, which was approved in 1998. The respect and protection of human rights constituted one of the fundamental pillars upon which the democratic society in the Republic of Albania had been founded on and functioned upon. Respected and protected through law was religious freedom of the individual. Albanian legislation recognized and protected the individual and collective rights belonging to national minorities. Of course, in this area, there were still unresolved problems, which in large part were linked to the real capacities of the Albanian Government to deal with them.

Albania had taken its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination very seriously, he said, and was committed to protecting and advancing human rights not just in domestic and regional policies, but also widely through international actions. The Governmental view was that racial discrimination could not be tackled by Government policies only, but by extensive consultation and involvement of the broader community.

The report, he said, outlined the programmes and policies in place to promote non-discrimination and tolerance among the various races and minorities living in Albania. Even though human rights had improved significantly since 1990, it was obvious that legal acts and the overall conditions of particular racial and minority groups in Albanian society required extensive improvements, and being aware of this fact, the Albanian Government continued to perform its obligations of working for the better protection of vulnerable populations, by a purposeful and expansive interpretation of the existing legal procedures. Albania therefore welcomed the suggestions and general recommendations which would be made by the Committee, which would provide useful ground in the direction of furthering and improving the situation of racial groups and minorities.

ARTAN NAQE, Specialist in the United Nations and International Organizations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania, made further introductory remarks. Anti-discriminatory provisions had been provided in almost every law enacted after the fall of communism, he said. What remained to be paid attention to was more the implementation of the existing provisions than the enactment of new ones, since although Albania aimed at promoting an image of society which reduced the scope and possibilities for discrimination, at the same time there was a need to strengthen the mechanisms to deal with it when some isolated discriminatory act unfortunately occurred. It could be clearly noted that Albanian society had almost never encouraged prejudices and/or discrimination, however, the fact was that as Albanian society and culture was changing very rapidly, there was a need to act rapidly to adjust the legal and social infrastructure in a way that reflected the changing society of today.


Discussion

REGIS DE GOUTTES, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur for the reports of Albania, said Albania had succeeded, over the last few years, in its important efforts to implement the main international conventions on human rights, and it was to be congratulated for its success and encouraged in its efforts to progressively implement the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Some of the data contained in the document was most useful, Mr. de Gouttes said, however, some ethnographical data required updating. It would be a good plan for complementary efforts to be undertaken by the Albanian authorities to ensure a better dissemination of the International Convention and of the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Could the delegation, he asked, assure the Committee that national minorities were recognized and protected on the entire territory of the Republic, without referral to a geographical criteria, and that the rights of people belonging to national minorities living outside of the “minority zones” were not restricted. Further details were also required with regard to the efforts made by the Government to master migratory fluxes, to reinforce management of maritime and land borders, and to fight against the corruption of the governmental agents implicated in those fields and others. More details on racial discrimination against women in particular were also requested.

Further, he suggested, in the next report it would be necessary for Albania to make efforts to provide the Committee, as far as possible, with statistical information on the complaints, judicial procedures and judgments delivered in the case of acts of racial or ethnic discrimination, as well as concrete examples illustrating this information, since the Committee did not believe that the absence of complaints and judicial procedures on racial discrimination in a country was necessarily a positive thing. The next report, he said, would undoubtedly allow the Committee to measure once again the progress achieved.

Other members of the Committee also raised questions. They asked, among other things, for details on the “Egyptian minority” in Albania; ethnographical data on Albanians living abroad and the reason for their departure; the ethnic origin of the Albanian language, which was unique; reasons for the decrease in population; whether Albania considered presenting the Committee with a complaint against Serbia under the context of Article 11 of the International Convention for the massacres that took place against Albanians and the mass graves of these victims recently discovered; the issue of general prejudice against the Roma and the apparent contradictions in the report upon this topic; whether minorities had been given the right to open minority schools both inside and outside the minority zones; whether mixed-marriage parents had the right to choose a minority education for their children both inside and outside the minority zones; the participation of minority political parties in local, regional and national elections, the army and the police; the restitution of religious property to minorities; how legal instruments against racial discrimination were implemented; how procedures against racial discrimination were assessed; the training of public servants on issues of racial discrimination; whether there was a relationship between the levels of poverty and infant mortality and discrimination; self-identification as a member of a minority and whether this right existed; whether anti-racist education was a part of human rights education provided to school-children; and what was the reason for establishing a difference between national minorities and other forms of minorities including linguistic minorities.

The Committee also urged Albania to accede to article 14 of the International Convention, and congratulated the Government for having a concrete policy on the Roma ethnic minority, as well as on the quality and richness of the reports submitted.

Responding to the questions posed by the Committee, the delegation said its members were grateful for the comments and suggestions made by the Committee. Albania was committed to continuing its overall reforms with the consolidation of democracy, strengthening human rights and eliminating corruption and trafficking.

Poverty and racial discrimination were related to each other, and the Government was working on the implementation of a national strategy on social and economic development, which had been formulated two years ago, the delegation said. There was belief that the coming elections would have no negative effect on the economic situation in the country, and therefore no impact on minorities. There were still problems remaining with public awareness of the International Convention, but the Government was working on this from an institutional angle, and in cooperation with civil society, for example the International Convention was now part of the school curriculum.

With regard to the lack of statistical data on minorities, data referred to the census of 1989, when nationality had not been included for technical reasons. With regard to updated data on minorities, in 2002 as part of a national strategy, the Statistical Institution of Albania had organised a questionnaire that included a question on nationality. The data gleaned from this questionnaire would be available soon.


Concerning the recognition of Roma and Aromanians as national minorities, the status of linguistic or cultural minorities did not have a negative or discriminating effect. The recognition of linguistic minority status to these groups was based on the fact that Vlachs and Roma did not have a motherland. In the legal situation where a definition of national minority was missing, Albania based the process of national minorities recognition on the criteria developed by the international conventions respecting the objective factor and the subjective one. With regard to the “Egyptians”, there was little knowledge about this problem, since their origin was questionable. They were totally integrated into Albanian society, and their distinction from other Albanians was the racial distinction, such as skin colour. In no legal act of current Albanian legislation was the term “minority zone” mentioned, and the rights of national minorities were recognised in the entire territory of Albania, with no prejudice based on geographical criteria.

With regard to all forms of trafficking, in implementing the programme of the Albanian Government against all forms of trafficking, since August 2002 it had been noted that there had been no case of trafficking of human beings to the countries of the European Union.

Delegation members then responded to other questions, saying that in 2000 an Office for Minorities had been established at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Office had as one of its fundamental duties to follow the fulfilment of international obligations and commitments in the field of the rights of national minorities. A Sector for Minorities had been established. The Albanian Government, through these structures, aimed at fostering a sustainable and transparent official dialogue with minorities that would be both institutional and constructive. The Office for Minorities had also drafted a Draft Platform on “The Albanian Government’s Policy concerning the Minority Demands”, which reflected the attitude of the Government concerning the minority demands, their present status, the scope of the Government’s policies, and the responsible institutions for dealing with the above.

With regard to the fight against terrorism, the Albanian Government had taken serious actions against this phenomenon, and was fully complying with the relevant Security Council resolutions, as well as other international acts. The actions taken by the Government had had no negative implication with regard to the implementation of the International Convention.

Persons belonging to minorities were entitled to be elected either individually in local elections, or as independent candidates, or as representing various parties of the whole political spectrum. Bearing in mind other needs, the Albanian authorities were considering the possibility of supporting and subsidising some initiatives concerning the increase of timing in the television and radio broadcasts related to minorities, but this referred only to public media.

Religious tolerance in Albania had deep roots, and was slightly related to the prohibition of religion for about 20 years. This was basically related to the open character of Albanian society, and there was no linkage between the exercise of religious freedoms and ethnic belonging. Religious propaganda was only prohibited on the basis that any propaganda inciting racial or ethnic hatred, turmoil or distortion of public order was prohibited.

Concerning the self-identification of persons, as related to recommendation number eight of the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Constitution of the Republic of Albania sanctioned the right of each person to express freely his or her own ethnic identity, but this freedom could not be only subjective free of other considerations; the subjective choice was indivisibly and closely linked with some respective objective criteria of the person’s. One of the criteria used to define a national minority was the one that persons should exhibit ethnic, cultural, religious and language characteristics that were distinctive from the rest of the population.

Committee members then asked further questions and made more comments upon such varied topics as minorities lacking a motherland, for example in the context of the Roma, and whether the distinction between linguistic and national minorities was tenable; subjective definitions of ethnic minority or status and how much these subjective preferences should be indulged; the absence of demographical data and its importance in Governmental planning; the need for further communication on the issue of trafficking in human beings and for the work combating it to continue; whether there were cases of public discrimination against minorities; the acceptance of refugees of several ethnicities during the Kosovo conflict and the acceptance by Albanian society of all these refugees notwithstanding their ethnic origin; concerns for the possible integration and assimilation of minorities into mainstream society in the context of rendering them more acceptable to society and whether this was taking place; why if there was no difference between linguistic and national minorities was the distinction made at all; and the difference between Governmental and independent assessments of the number of persons belonging to minorities.

Responding, the delegation said all comments would be brought to the attention of the higher authorities in Albania. In Albania there were no reported cases of limitation of public access for minorities by the public. The division between linguistic and national minorities was due to an attempt to reach EU standards, and this distinction was applied in EU member countries.

With regard to provisions prohibiting various organizations from inciting or pursuing racial discrimination, the civil code of Albania stated that any type of association had to apply to the court for legalisation, at which point its statutes were examined and verified for its conformity with the law on racial discrimination. Should an association subsequently violate this, it was then prosecuted. The delegation also explained that where no answer had been provided to a question posed by an Expert, this was due to technical issues or to a lack of information available, and hoped for the understanding of the Committee.

One Expert noted that the application of EU standards was irrelevant, since the standards of the International Convention were more important.


Preliminary Remarks

Concluding, Mr. de Gouttes, the Expert functioning as Country Rapporteur, said the Committee welcomed the considerable progress achieved by Albania in building a state where the rule of law had prevailed ever since the end of the totalitarian regime. The dialogue with the delegation had been of high quality, and the answers provided had been satisfactory. The acknowledgement of the delegation of the strict correlation between poverty and racial discrimination was noted, and the measures adopted to combat organised crime, corruption and trafficking were also appreciated. Religious freedom in Albania, the national strategy on the Roma and efforts made in teaching freedom and educational rights of minorities were also noted. The announcement of the Foreign Ministry on the possibility of studying article 14 for further implementation was appreciated. However, there was a need for further information in the next report on several points, including an updating of the statistical data on the population as a whole, as well as for details on the ethnic makeup of the country. Some clarifications were also essential on the review of the criteria on which the distinction of national minorities and cultural and linguistic minorities were made. Information was also expected on a more comprehensive implementation of article 4 of the International Convention.

There was also a need for more information on the criminalisation of organizations involved in racial discrimination and violent acts against minorities for racial or ethnic reasons, and on the punishment undergone by such organizations. Some work needed to be done on the implementation of article 6, since it was essential for the Government to make an effort to come forward with data on prosecution and penalties for racist acts, including concrete examples. The absence of any complaints, investigations or prosecution in the field of racism was not necessarily a good thing, since it could be due to a lack of information or indeed to many other factors. On article 7 of the Convention, the delegation should provide additional information on general training, awareness and tolerance at all levels, including the media, public officials, and school children.


Concluding Remark by Delegation

Concluding, the Head of the delegation said he was grateful for all the questions and comments made by the Committee, which would be considered. Albania looked forward to presenting its next report and hoped it would be in better shape than the current ones.


Other Issues

The Chairman, ION DIACONU, then informed the Committee of the results of meetings held between representatives of the human rights committees, which were followed by a meeting with the Chairmen of the human rights treaty bodies. These included issues related to the submission of several joint reports, the harmonisation of guidelines on the submission of reports, the need for focussed periodic reports, and capacity building for states in the context of the formulation of reports. Other issues of relevance to the Committee were that a certain level of consistency should be observed by all the Member States, and in order for this to happen, the Committee should be provided with a certain basic level of information before the discussion of the report began, and this would include information from regional organizations on human rights. Further, the Committee should take note of comments made by other Committees as appropriate. Other suggestions had also been made including the strengthening of the treaty bodies in terms of resources. A recommendation had also been made for each treaty body to strengthen the clarity and credibility of the press releases issuing from their meetings.

Experts then further questioned the Chairman on the topic of these meetings, including whether the suggestions that had come from the meeting were instructions or recommendations. Further comments were made upon the single report, the advantages of having communication between the different Committees, the link between national systems and institutions and the treaty body system, the advisability of the Committees not necessarily following the same system, model and format, reform of the treaty bodies, the idea of a summary of information prepared by the Secretariat for Experts to ensure better consistency between the work done by the various Committees, the need for more female Experts on the Committee, and the proposals of the Secretary-General with regard to the evolution of the treaty bodies.



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