Message of the People`s Advocate

Transcription

REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA
PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE
Address: Bulv: “Dëshmorët e Kombit”. Nr.3,
Tirana, ALBANIA
Tel:+355 4 253 891
Fax:+355 4 226 095
ANNUAL REPORT
2004
March 2005
Message of the People’s Advocate
Honorable Chairman of the Parliament
Honorable Members of the Parliament
I am honored and delighted to provide you with the Fifth Annual
Report of the People’s Advocate, which reflects the activity of the
People’s Advocate Institution. I would like to take this opportunity to
express my gratitude for reelecting me as the People’s Advocate on the
Parliamentary Session on February 17, 2005.
When I decided to run for the first time for the People’s Advocate,
I was motivated by the strong desire to test myself in a very challenged
job, I knew a little. After 5 years of working in that position, I understand
that being the People’s Advocate is not just a job, that it happen to have a
lawyer called Ermir Dobjani, but the experience gained in 5 years make
me believe that this is a very important assignment and responsibility,
some kind of a mission in making myself and others aware of a very
major and crucial issue, as human rights is considered to be. Also, it is a
great investment in a professional way, taking into consideration the
results achieved, which are very touchable for individuals, whose
complaints had been resolved, and in the meantime, unnoticed in the
sense of waiting for hundreds of cases to be solved.
The long-term goal of positively resolved cases from our office,
consists of establishing good administrative practices, which requires not
only the implementation of laws but good ethics, the humanity of our
society and the good functioning of the rule of law state.
I would like to underline that during 5 years of its activity, People’s
Advocate office has recorded approximately 15.000 requests and
complaints and approximately 20% of them had been resolved in favor of
the complainants.
One of the main aspects of the People’s Advocate activity is the
variety and multidisciplinary of the issues he covers. Without mentioning
the competences and the jurisdiction of the People’s Advocate, I feel
confident of stating that in the end of its first mandate, this institution has
established an image of a modern, democratic and transparent institution
acting in compliance with standards of a rule of law state, such as
democracy, separation of powers and check and balance principle.
2
The intervention of the People’s Advocate is enormous, including
an unjustly minor fine issued by an aware police officer, up to the
amelioration of the existing laws or the dismissal of government
decisions by Constitutional Court, initiated by the People’s Advocate.
Also, we would like to highlight the intervention of our office to
ameliorate the public services, the lowering of the fees of energy and
phone services for the citizens, the watchfulness of the state
administration on children’s rights issues, the establishment of good
collaboration with the analogues offices in the Balkans, etc. This has
resulted in rising of the trust of the citizens and the public servants that
the People’s Advocate has a democratic perception of its role to better
serve the interests of the common people.
As I have repeatedly articulated since the very beginning of the
activity of the People’s Advocate, I have signed a contract with people to
protect their rights and freedoms, as a part of the social contract, known
by all and not being implemented by everybody. Every knock on the door
of an official is an awaken bell for the civil servants in low and upper
level of the public administration reminding them of their obligations
toward the citizens.
We have always taken into mind that the complaints have no
political face. People’s problems are so random and at the same time very
crucial on the effects of their lives, on the reality offered to them, on the
desperate humor caused by unemployment, human being trafficking, as
well as the corruption of the state officials. All these phenomena cause
the apathy of social groups seeking for better social politics and lives
more prosperous than yesterday.
As the People’s Advocate, I am very convinced that Albania will
become part of the European Union family in a near future. At the same
time, I am aware of the price that the poor classes should pay. My goal, as
the People’s Advocate, is to lower this price to a minimum and this is
another reason to be devoted and dedicated to the job.
Through exercising his responsibilities to influence good
governance, our new institution, being innovative, has appreciated and
considered every critical viewpoint regardless the background. Our goal
is to resolve the complaints of ordinary people, who are very concerned
on the good administration of the public administration and the rising of
the quality of their lives through services provided by those in power.
As my honored colleague and friend and one of the most
experienced Ombudsmen in the world, Mr. Hans Gammeltoft Hansen, the
Ombudsman of the Kingdom of Denmark for 18 years, stated in his press
conference on January 19, 2005: “An Ombudsman’s job is the art of
keeping the balances. On one side, Ombudsman must be the guardian of
human rights and good governance and should not be afraid of
3
controversial and critical issues. On the other side, it is of great
importance that the Ombudsman should assure the accessibility of the
public administration, subject to his control role. That’s the reason for
calling it the art of keeping the balances. It is the task of the first
Ombudsman to pave the road in the right direction.”
The accomplishment of the mission to facilitate the communication
between citizens and their government has remained a challenge for the
people themselves and this Parliament that represents their will in the
highest state organ.
I am very honored and delighted to be reelected the People’s
Advocate and I would like to thank you again for your trust to continue
this honorable and respectable work, I started 5 years ago.
People’s Advocate
Ermir Dobjani
Tirana, February 20, 2005
4
REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA
PARLIAMENT
Tirana, March 3, 2005
RESOLUTION
On the Assessment of the 2004 Activity of the People’s Advocate
Parliament of Albania,
Recognize and support the activity of the People’s Advocate in
increasing the awareness and transparence of the Albanian Public
Administration activity, including the executive branch of the Judiciary
and the General Prosecutor’s Office. Examining the complaints of the
citizens by resolving them and making recommendations, the People’s
Advocate has been a good influence in good governance of the public
administration toward citizens.
Providing of legal assistance through recommendations and
consultancies in conflict cases between public administration and citizens,
disclosing of wrongdoings of the public administration and state officials,
the pressure for changing of the overwhelmed and ambiguous procedures
of the public administration, creating of the conditions for the citizens to
enjoy their rights in receiving necessary information from the public
administration, increasing of the transparence of the public administration
in the course of exercising their power, the commitment in rising the
quality of the public services have been some of the main tasks of the
People’s Advocate activity in compliance with the appropriate legislation.
The Parliament, after being informed on the 2004 Report on the
Activity of the People’s Advocate Institution, based on the article 26 of
the Law 8454, dated 4.02.1999 “On the People’s Advocate” and article
103, pg. 2 of the Statute of the Parliament, observes as below:
People’s Advocate is a consolidated constitutional institution to
protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Republic of
Albania, acting in compliance with the principles of the impartiality,
confidentiality, professionalism and self-governing. The activity of the
People’s Advocate has resulted in a vast opening to the public, who is
showing more trust and a positive reaction of the public administration
upon its recommendations. The human rights international organizations
5
and the Ombudsmen offices all over the world have expressed their
continuous appreciation for the People’s Advocate Institution.
The Parliament put the emphasize on these objectives for the
People’s Advocate for year 2005:
1. A close cooperation with the Parliament, not only to inform on
the situation of the protection of human rights and the wrongdoings of the
public administration, but to propose changes to the legal framework in
order to make more efficient the work of the People’s Advocate Office.
2. Strengthening of the cooperation between all levels of the
Albanian public administration to increase the standards of good
governance and strengthening of the cooperation with civil society, as an
active and positive opponent to the public administration. This exchange,
together with media collaboration, will bring the work to new levels and
make it more effective.
3. Continuing of the awareness of the citizens and the public
administration on the People’s Advocate mission and role. Organizing of
the open days periodically in different regions of the country and
implementing the new ways to approach citizens.
4. Publishing in a more effective way of the main issues regarding
the violation of the public administration of human rights and asking for
more measures against the responsible officials, according to the existing
laws.
5. Opening of the regional offices and appointment of the local
representatives of the People’s Advocate in a short period of time and the
better functioning of the Subsection for Children’s Rights based on a
preliminary and detailed study.
6. Increasing the quality and quantity of the reporting to the
international organizations. This has to be done not only in state reports
but also in the alternative ones, drafted with civil society.
7. Initiating the legislative process to draft changes to the organic
law “On the People’s Advocate”, in order to ameliorate the powers of the
People’s Advocate.
In this occasion, the Parliament draws the attention of the public
administration including the Judiciary and the General Prosecutor’s
Office and invites them to reflect and pay more attention to the
recommendations of the People’s Advocate.
6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Message of the People's Advocate
3
Resolution of the Parliament of the Republic of Albania
5
Table of Contents
7
Introduction
9
Brief Presentation of Report
10
CHAPTER I
1.
2.
The structure, organigram, and qualities of the People's 11
Advocate staff
The Institution's budget allocated for 2004
16
CHAPTER II
1.
2.
3.
4
Summarizing statistics for 2004
People's Advocate and the Albanian Parliament
General opinions on human rights situation in Albania
The Section of Public Relations
5.
Open Days, an experience to be continued
17
20
21
27
27
28
29
6.
National Conference on: “The Rights of Employees”
30
-
Summary of statistics
The topics of complaints
CHAPTER III
Concrete activity of the People's Advocate targeting the
complaints, requests, and notifications (cases), classified
according to the governmental institutions
1.
Government (Council of Ministers)
31
2.
Ministry of Justice
32
- Complaints against the prisons and the penitentiary
32
-
administration
Complaints against the Bailiff’s Office
7
39
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
People’s Advocate and its relationship with courts and 40
judiciary
Complaints against the General Prosecutor’s Office
41
Ministry of Public Order
43
- Complaints against the maltreatment of citizens
44
- Complaints against other unlawful actions of the police forces 45
- Non-execution of the final court decisions
47
- Recommendation for prevention of torture and other
49
maltreatment forms and violations of law by the police forces
Ministry of Defence
52
Ministry of Local Government and Decentralization
56
- Complaints against communes
58
- Complaints against municipalities
59
- Complaints against prefectures
62
Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
63
- Institute of Social State Insurance
63
- Social welfare
64
Ministry of Territory Regulation and Tourism
65
- Complaints against the ministry itself
65
- Complaints against illegal constructions
66
Ministry of Agriculture and Food
69
- Complaints relating to the Law “On the Land”
69
Ministry of Finance
70
Ministry of Education and Science
72
Ministry of Health
74
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
74
Ministry of Transports and Telecommunications
75
75
- Complaints against Telecom
76
Ministry of Industry and Energy
77
77
- Complaints against the Electric Power Corporation
79
Conclusions on the cases relating to the Albanian Public 81
Administration
CHAPTER IV
1. Follow-up on cases presented in the 2003 Annual Report
2. Cases initiated by the People's Advocate
83
84
APPENDIXES
1. Acknowledgement letters addressed to the People's Advocate
2. Tables & Graphs
8
85
89
INTRODUCTION
The constitutional institution of the People’s Advocate, as a tool
for guarantying of the democracy, was foreseen for the first time in the
Constitution of the Republic of Albania, approved on 28 November 1998,
which in five articles defines the duties, the status and the powers of the
People’s Advocate. In compliance with this regulation, the Parliament
approved the Law No. 8454, dated 04.02.1999, “On the People’s
Advocate”. The Law No. 8600, dated 10.04.2000, has ameliorated the
article 35 of the above law.
The principles of the organizing of the People’s Advocate
institution are self-government, impartiality, professionalism and
confidentiality, as foreseen in the Principles of Paris.
We are confident that we have employed those principles, which
set standards to be met by analogue institutions of the Ombudsman all
around the world. In May 2004, the Chairman of the International
Coordinative Committee of the Human Rights Institutions (ICC), Mr.
Morten Kjaerum, stated that “The People’s Advocate institution in
Albania has awarded the status A of the accreditation” - in other words,
he is a full member of this Committee.
We should be aware that the attitude of the public administration in
regard to the recommendations of the People’s Advocate shows a positive
viewpoint toward the violation of human rights and their willingness to
act in conformity with them. As a result, all political forces in Albania
have supported the activity of our institution. Vested with powers
bestowed by the Constitution and the legislation, proven during 5 years of
working with the public administration, we are persuaded that the
people’s problems expressed in their complaints and requests do not
contain any political nuance.
People’s Advocate will always be an opponent for good
governance, which is the core of the philosophy of functioning of the
institution.
9
BRIEF PRESENTATION OF REPORT
According to article 63 of the Constitution of the Republic of
Albania, and article 26 of Law No. 8454, dated 04.02.1999, “On People's
Advocate”, the People's Advocate submits to the Albanian Parliament its
Fifth Annual Report, which reflects the activity of the People’s Advocate
for the year 2004. The report aims to provide full information of the
methods and its approach, accompanied by statistics.
The report contains four chapters and three appendixes.
The first chapter is a brief presentation of the People’s Advocate,
focusing mostly on the cooperation of our institution with its homologues
and the active participation of the institution in various international
events. It includes also briefly the achievements of the institution and its
objectives for the future.
The second chapter deals with the activities regarding the
information and communication of the People’s Advocate. The chapter is
divided in 5 sections; a special place has been granted to human rights
situation and good governance in Albania. A special section treats
relations with Media, which has been considered as an efficient way to
assure the required public access and the establishing of the proper
autonomy of the institution in order to exercise its functions according to
the Constitution and the Law “On the People’s Advocate”.
The third chapter, which occupies the biggest part of the report,
deals with the cases handled by the People’s Advocate, divided by the
competent Ministries and other public administration bodies, the
investigations conducted and the results attained. We have presented here
also the remedies for the classical and repeated cases, which to our
opinion, should serve as precedents to be used by the public
administration bodies in handling similar cases. This chapter contains
also recommendations and proposals for eliminating the violations and
injustices, surfacing during process of considering the complaints by the
The fourth chapter introduces briefly the uncompleted cases
presented on the 2003 Annual Report, which were completed in 2004 and
the cases initiated by the People’s Advocate.
Appendix 1 describes some of thank you and acknowledgement
letters People’s Advocate has received from people.
Appendix 2 encloses graphically the statistics of the institution.
10
The Annual Report submitted by the People's Advocate is one of
the main instruments which contribute to the well-functioning of the rule
of law state, respecting and protecting of the human rights, strengthening
of the democracy, good administration of affairs by the public
administration, likewise formulating of the country's development
policies by the latter.
CHAPTER I
1. The structure, organigram, and qualities of the
People's Advocate staff
According to article 31 of the Law No. 8454, dated 04.02.1999,
“On People’s Advocate”, the People's Advocate office consists of three
specialized sections responsible for the respective complaints and
requests.
Law No. 8600, dated 10.04.2000, “On Some Changes on the Law
No. 8454, dated 04.02.1999, “On People’s Advocate”, entitles the
People’s Advocate to determine the structure, staff number, the specific
qualities and qualifications, while the remuneration is regulated with a
governmental decision.
First Section, responsible for complaints against the central
governmental bodies, local governmental bodies, and third parties
working on their behalf, is headed by Mr. Gezim Lleshi;
Second Section, responsible for complaints against police, secret
intelligence service, prisons, armed forces, and judiciary, is headed by
Mr. Jorgo Dhrami;
Third Section or the general one, handling cases, which are not
included in the first two sections, likewise collaborating with the NGOs.
This section, headed by Mr. Riza Poda, is assigned the task to carry out
researches relevant to the area of human rights and freedoms.
In addition to the three specialized sections, the cabinet comprising
of the Head and the Counselors is the direct arm of the People’s Advocate
in accomplishing his tasks. The complaints registration section, finance
services, staff development, international relations, and the administration
are auxiliary sectors contributing to carrying out the principal tasks
assigned to the Institution. With the exception of the Cabinet, all these
auxiliary bodies are subordinated and managed by the Secretary General
of the Institution.
The Institution of the People's Advocate employs a staff of 47. The
Parliament, in its 2005 budget, has approved a staff of 45 employees. The
People's Advocate himself, subsequent to article 35 of Law "On People's
11
Advocate" has endorsed the total number of employees in 45. Out of
these 45 employees, 15 lawyers, the deputy commissioners, are directly
involved in resolving the complaints. The Head of the Cabinet, two
Counselors, three Commissioners and the People’s Advocate himself are
lawyers too.
The Deputy Commissioners have been hired through a contest in
conformity with the requirements of the Law No. 8549, dated 11.11.1999
“On the Status of Civil Servants”.
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Table 1
STRUCTURE OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE
CABINET
COMMISSIONER for the Section
of Administration Bodies
COMMISSIONER for the Section
of Special Services
COMMISSIONER for the
General Section
SECRETARY GENERAL
Department
of International Relations
Translation and
Library Section
Finance Section
Public Relations Section
Secretary and Archive Section
13
Human Resources
Department
Business Support
Staff
Table 2
STAFF LIST FOR THE INSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE
No.
DENOMINATION
EMPLOYEE
(S)
I
II
PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE
CABINET
Head of Cabinet, Spokesman of People's Advocate
Advisor of People's Advocate
Secretary of People's Advocate
(1)
(5)
1
3
1
III
SECTION OF CENTRAL AND LOCAL
ADMINISTRATION BODIES
Commissioner
Assistant Commissioner (lawyer)
Secretary + Registrar
SECTION OF SPECIAL SERVICES
Commissioner
GENERAL SECTION
Commissioner
SECRETARY GENERAL
DEPARTMENT
OF
INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
Director
Head of Translation and Library Section
HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT
Director
Head of Section
Driver
Office Cleaner
(6)
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
FINANCE SECTION
Head of Section
Senior Accountant, Cashier
Storage - Keeper
X
PUBLIC RELATIONS SECTION
Head of Section
Assistant Commissioner
14
1
4
1
(8)
1
6
1
(6)
1
4
1
(1)
(2)
1
1
(11)
1
1
7
2
(3)
1
1
1
(2)
1
1
XI
SECRETARY AND ARCHIVES SECTION
Head of Section
Archivist + Secretary to General Secretary
The Institution of People's Advocate has a total of 47 employees
15
(2)
1
1
2. The Institution's budget allocated for 2004
The establishing and efficient functioning of a new institution, the
People's Advocate being a case in point, require not only political, institutional,
potential human support, but also financial support.
The Albanian Government has had accurate and correct concepts in this
respect in view of the fact that it allocated and endorsed a budget amounting to
85.500.000 lekë or 855.000 USD for year 2004, which has been used to the
extent of 93.4%, referring to the reporting period, respectively:
Account
No.
Denomination
600
601
602
605
231
Salaries
Social Insurance
Operative Expenses
Membership fees
Investments
Total
Planned in Expenditures Realization
in Albanian %
Albanian
Lek
Lek
43.000.000
41.819.213
97 %
7.000.000
7.000.000
100 %
27.700.000
27.609.046
100 %
210.000
167.500
80 %
7.590.000
3.238.680
43 %
85.500.000
79.923.439
93.4 %
As regards the budget expenses, they have been mainly utilized to pay the
employees' salaries, per diems allocated for travels within Albania and abroad,
purchases of stationery, work materials and tools, fuels, electricity expenses,
overheads, receptions for foreign delegations, etc.
In addition, we have paid the membership fees to the Ombudsmen's
European Institute, the Ombudsmen's International Institute, and the
Association of Francophone Ombudsmen.
16
CHAPTER II
1. Summarizing statistics for 2004
(Cases classified according to the respective areas, and the solutions
provided)
During the period of January 1 to December 31, 2004, the People’s
Advocate Office handled 3840 complaints, requests and notices (the complaints
and requests handled by the complaints and public relations office included) of
which 513 had been carried over from year 2003, hence reported as such in the
Annual Report pertinent to year 2003.
Therefore in 2004, 2520 complaints, requests and notifications had been
envisaged from our institution, of which 408 complaints or 16% should be
considered in the year 2005.
Referring to the process of handling the complaints submitted, it should
be pointed out that 553 of them, or 52% were beyond the jurisdiction, therefore
the citizens have been advised as regards the ways they have to pursue to have
their problem resolved. 395 complaints or 38% are solved in favor of the
complainants, of which 90% have been recommended for further handling to
public authorities, with a view to enhancing public administration, thereby
safeguarding, and ensuring the standards of good governance.
For the rest of complaints, an understanding has been achieved during the
stage of receiving the necessary explanations or orally mediating with the public
administration authorities, which finally realized their mistakes, hence giving up
their initial negative attitudes. It is clearly evident that correct and just policies
require good information basis, which has been paid due attention by the
People's Advocate in the course of administrating the above-mentioned data.
In this Annual Report we will present the cases treated by the People’s
Advocate Office, classified according to the respective Ministries, and the other
bodies or entities of the Albanian Public Administration subordinated to them,
against which the complaint or request has been submitted.
The number of complaints, requests and notifications dealt with by the
Institution of the People's Advocate during year 2004, has been as follows:
17
1. Council of Ministers
Government itself
a- Supervisory Group for the Pyramid
Schemes
b- Tangible Properties Registration
Offices
c- Commissions for Ownership Restoration
and Compensation
d- Institute of Integration for the Former
Politically Persecuted Individuals
- 128, of which
- 13
-
7
- 69
- 33
-
6
2. Ministry of Justice
Ministry itself
a- Prisons
b- Bailiff's Office
- 391, of which
- 22
- 177
- 192
3. Judiciary
a- Courts
- 252
4. Prosecutor's Office
- 159
5. Ministry of Public Order
- 169
6. Ministry of Defense
- 69
7. Ministry of Local Government and
Decentralization
Ministry Itself
- 402, of which
- 25
8. Local Governmental Bodies
a. Commune
b. Municipality
c. Prefecture
- 64
- 287
- 17
9. Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs - 241, of which
Ministry itself
- 9
a- Institute of Social Insurance
- 209
b- State Social Services
- 28
18
9. Ministry of Territory Regulation
and Tourism
Ministry itself
a. Illegal Construction
b. Water pipeline, canalization
- 142, of which
- 22
- 117
- 3
10. Ministry of Economy
-
11. Ministry of Agriculture and Food
- 63
12. Ministry of Finance
Ministry itself
a. National Agency for Privatization
- 35, of which
- 27
- 8
13. Ministry of Education and Science
- 64
14. Ministry of Health
- 33
15. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- 13
16. Ministry of Transports and
Telecommunications
a. Ministry itself
b. Telecom
- 38, of which
- 15
- 23
3
17. Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports - 10
18. Ministry of Environment
- 4
19. Ministry of Industry and Energy
Ministry itself
b. Electric Power Corporation
- 63, of which
- 16
- 47
20. Secret Services
Others
- 12
- 229
TOTAL
- 2520 complaints
During 2004, different public administration bodies have shown
a good will to solve the problems that People’s Advocate has posed
19
before them and accepted the recommendations of our office. During
5 years of its activity, People’s Advocate has met with representatives
from local and central administration to explain them of their
responsibilities in resolving the issues citizens complain at our office
and has drawn their attention in different issues that need changes and
ameliorations.
2. People's Advocate and the Albanian Parliament
During 2004, the People’s Advocate Office on several occasions has
informed the Presidency of the Parliament as well as several Parliamentary
Commissions regarding his activity and/or special cases. In addition, we have
been very active in several discussions on different draft laws and have sent
recommendations to be considered by the deputies during the discussions in the
Parliamentary Commissions.
During 2004 we have submitted to the Parliament the recommendations
as follows:
1- Recommendation to ameliorate the Electoral Code regarding the right
to vote of the incarcerated people at the place of incarceration and not at their
residence. We submitted this recommendation to the bipartisan commission
who drafted the Electoral Code during 2003. The recommendation was not
included into the code even though they verbally agreed on the proposal.
2- Recommendation to the Human Right Commission to take into
consideration and take appropriate measures of the requirement of the article 57
of the Penal Code which count one day in pre-prison equal to one and a half
days in prison when the incarcerate has exceeded the pre-prison time after the
court decision has been into effect. The Commission approved the
recommendation in principle and sent it to the Ministry of Justice to include it in
the package contains changes to the penal law, completed in 2004.
Unfortunately, there is no project from the part of the ministry up to date, which
has put many prisoners unfairly sentenced in a discriminatory position. We are
going to represent the recommendation in order to get a group of
parliamentarians to initiate the draft-law.
3- We submitted a proposal to ameliorate the articles of the Electoral
Code concerning the counting of the ballots. First, the ballots should not be
counted at the precincts but at the electoral zonal commissions. This
recommendation has been reflected on the changes made to the Electoral Code
entered into power in January 2005. Second, instead of counting of the ballots
by the members of the commissions as militants of the political parties, a group
20
of three judges should be appointed for each electoral zone in order to guarantee
the impartiality and impede the delay of the electoral process. The Parliament
approved the version presented by the OSCE Office Presence in Albania, which
delegate the counting process to special groups set up according to the
dispositions of the Electoral Code.
It is our duty to provide more information to the Albanian Parliament
concerning our activity, the situation of legitimacy, and the implementation of
human rights by the Albanian public administration. Apart from that, we should
be making best use of the opportunity to make direct recommendations to the
Parliamentary committees from the deputies by using their legislative initiative
to the interest of protecting of the fundamental human rights and freedoms.
2. General Opinions on Human Rights Situation in Albania
The 1998 Albanian Constitution, in article 15.1 foresees: “The fundamental
human rights and freedoms are indivisible, inalienable, and inviolable and stand
at the basis of the entire juridical order”, while paragraph 2: “The organs of
public power, in fulfillment of their duties, shall respect the fundamental rights
and freedoms, as well as contribute to their realization”. The limitation of the
rights and freedoms provided for in the Constitution may be established only by
law for the public interest or for the protection of the rights of others. These
limitations may not infringe on the essence of the rights and freedoms and in no
case may exceed the limitations provided for in the European Convention on
Human Rights and the European Union Human Rights Charter (Nice
Convention.)
It must be highlighted that the legislation related to human rights in
Albania is modern in character thanks to the merging of the entire set of
international standards on human rights. The Albanian Constitution envisages
that the norms and principles recognized by international law, and the
international agreements recognized by Albania, are an integral part of the
Albanian legal system, likewise these norms are a priority as compared to the
Albanian legislation applicable. However, there is still much to be done on the
part of the judiciary and the public administration as regards the implementation
of the international standards associated with the genuine protection of human
rights in Albania.
The People’s Advocate avails himself of the opportunity to offer special
considerations on the human rights issue. In this report, in the section focusing
on certain areas, we have expressed our opinions about the situation of human
rights and freedoms in Albania. Whereas, as regards the problems we are
21
introducing in the following, we have relied not only on the complaints
submitted to our Institution, but also in the information, and surveys published
in the Albanian media, whose credibility is, of course, of average degree.
Naturally, even the reports focusing on Albania, submitted by the prestigious
bodies and institutions, such as the Council of Europe, European Union, US
State Department, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, various
Human Rights Committees of the United Nations Organization, Albanian
Helsinki Committee, etc.
- The right to life was the main focus of the National Conference
organized by the People’s Advocate in December 2001. The Conference aimed
at initiating a joint national strategy by all the state bodies and NGOs, as regards
the imperative and sustainable preventive measures in defence of the right to
life, especially targeting the phenomenon of blood feud. The conclusions and
Recommendations drawn by the Conference have been published. To our
knowledge, the Ministry of Public Order, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social
Affairs, Ministry of Local Government and Decentralization and Ministry of
Education and Science have been responsive to our recommendations. The
President of the Republic on several occasions has addressed to appropriate
state bodies to get involved more in blood feud phenomenon. In 2004, there was
a positive development toward blood feud. Ministry of Public Order has set up a
task force in Shkoder and the Central Directory of the State Police. A project is
under way to have the confined children together attending school education.
Another project, to establish a “city” to have all families menaced by blood feud
is under consideration. We are of the opinion that all the public administration
bodies should be very active and take actions to abolish this “wound” that put
Albania into an inferior position and not compatible for membership into
European family.
The right to life, as one of the fundamental human rights, remains in
danger, as long as weapons stay in hands of people out of control, who use them
everyday to take other people’s lives. As we have mentioned in the previous
report, the law on collecting weapons hasn’t been effective and the structures
have failed to put it into implementation. Although police has successfully
busted some weapon trafficking places and the implementation of the law on
illegal weapons has had better results, the number of the illegal weapons
possessed by citizens is still high.
- It is common knowledge that the situation of individual freedoms and
rights, such as freedom of expression, press, media and television, freedom of
conscience and religion, individual freedom, inviolability of habitat, freedom of
privacy and correspondence are guaranteed by law. There are and will be
complaints, or their defence through the judicial processes organised, but in our
22
opinion, the individual rights and freedoms have been respected. Therefore, the
violators of human rights and freedoms have been punished, in cases where the
individuals whose rights have been violated have proven such violations.
- However, with respect to freedom of press, media, and television, it
should be admitted that such freedom has been exceeded in several instances.
Various journalists have failed to take into consideration what is foreseen in No.
8517, dated 22.07.1999, “On Protecting Personal Data Confidentiality". Not
infrequently have our Media provided detailed personal data, which violates the
right of privacy according to the aforementioned law. This phenomenon is far
more pronounced in cases of charges on criminal offences, even more in cases
when the children (minors) have been accused and inflicted detriments or cases
involving trafficking in women.
Quite often, the journalists have run to take photos or interviews and
provide the whole identity of the abused children or trafficking women and
ignoring that such actions cause irreparable damages to the abused victims. We
have observed that there are journalists that are attached to the police and get
the information in the first place.
-Law guarantees political freedoms and rights, such as the right of
election, organization and assembly; hence they are generally respected. We
have implemented and strongly relied on the principle of impartiality, so as not
to compromise us in the natural unhappiness of politics, which is always
associative of competitions to power. Therefore, the People's Advocate would
like to state the view that he completely agrees with the respective evaluations.
In addition, everyone involved should contribute towards implementing the
ODIHR Recommendations, with a view to respecting the fundamental right of
free vote for every citizen of the Republic of Albania.
The People’s Advocate submitted two recommendations regarding the
election for the local governmental bodies held on October 12, 2003.
First, removing of the dead from the list of voters. This recommendation
has been considered and it is being implanted.
Second, not including as members of electoral commissions from the
Central Electoral Commission, persons that had been involved in falsifications
or showing behaviours that implicate the image of the electoral process. This
recommendation has to be considered by the proper authorities; electoral
subjects and the Central Electoral Commission.
We have suggested that, apart from creating an accurate voters’ register,
the Electoral Code needs to be changed and amended and the judges should be
appointed to monitor the counting of votes and the publication of results, with
participation of the commissioners from different electoral subjects (mentioned
above).
23
Let’s hope that the 2005 Parliamentary election should meet the
international standards and the electoral process should be incontestable from
the international organizations.
There is a positive development on the controlling of the borders during
these last years. The illegal immigration to Italy has been reduced and transit
countries, like Croatia have been used. There were some cases of the trafficking
on children and a National Strategy on the Children has been drafted by the
Government.
- It has been rightly observed that several other rights and freedoms have
been violated or failed to be realised. The International Conference on the
trafficking of children, held in Tirana on January 19, 2004, with the initiative of
the Council of Europe and The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs,
emphasized that, even though Albania has ratified the UN Convention “On the
Child’s Rights” since 1992, trafficking of Albanian children remain a very
critical issue. Trafficking on children is a known worldwide phenomenon,
especially for the former dictatorship countries. While Albania is a transit
country for other forms of trafficking, as drugs, prostitution and illegal
immigrants, she is a source of trafficking for children.
The People’s Advocate during the examination of each case has
considered the obligations issued by international conventions and internal laws.
As a result, People’s Advocate has informed the competent authorities to take
proper measures. Some cases are made public and we have seen positive results.
In 2004 we submitted recommendations to the Ministry of Justice and Ministry
of Public Order in order to alert them about the importance of the issue and to
remind them to take complete control of their structures in achieving the
obligations emanated from international and Albanian laws protecting the rights
of children.
Also, we have recommended that there be solid grounds for a dynamic
and effective cooperation between the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs,
Ministry of Education and other governmental and non-governmental bodies, as
mentioned in the Strategy of Government on Children, but are far from being
enforced.
In April 2004, our office through a joint agreement with Save the
Children, established the Subsection for Children’s Rights, dealing specifically
with children issues. Albania, in the current situation, needs a strong state
structure, which will promote and protect children rights from abusive
behaviour of state authorities and individuals. This requires political and
financial commitment and a legislative reform as well.
24
Ministry of Justice has drafted a package law on juvenile justice, which
includes the establishment of a separate penitentiary judiciary system for
children, a centre of rehabilitation for minors and a prison for children.
- Women's rights violations are really serious and grave. Even though the
trafficking on women has been lowered these last years, mainly from the
awareness campaign of women NGO’s on Media, schools and universities, the
women's trafficking for prostitution remains to be a serious problem, treated in
terms of organised crime, is even trans-national in character. However, it seems
as if the burden of success or failure has been shifted to the law enforcement
bodies, police, prosecutor's office, court of justice, etc. Even the regional
initiatives in this respect have no chances to offer final solutions for the
phenomenon concerned, since the reasons leading to it, are of political, social,
cultural, economic nature, and so on.
It is important to strengthen legislation, adopt programmes and policies,
even monitoring this process by the respective bodies assigned by the
governmental structures to carry out this task specifically. “The Committee for
Equal Opportunities”, now being a part of the Ministry of Labour and Social
Affairs, having the same number of staff and experts (13) as the People’s
Advocate, seems to be focused on doing studies and outlining policies. We
think its reorganization will help in being more concrete and effective in
protecting and promoting women’s rights in Albania. The approval of the
family code should be used to create new opportunities to ameliorate the status
of women in family and Albanian society.
- Treatment of prisoners and detainees remains very problematic even
though there have been some successes over the years. Low health care is a
significant problem for several handicapped persons. Treating the mentally sick
persons in our mental hospitals is a great concern as well. The Albanian press
has been often dealing with the problem of grave hygiene, food, heating,
accommodation conditions, etc. The CPT (European Committee for the
Prevention of Torture) and Council of Europe inspections during 1998 and 2001
continuously have presented the situation as desperately grave. We deeply
welcome publishing of the above reports from the Albanian Government and
express our conviction, that Parliament and the Government will take measures
to comply with the CPT recommendations. The pre-detention has not been yet
transferred to the Ministry of Justice. In their final recommendations, the
Committee on the Human Rights considering the initial report of Albania on the
implementation of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights
on November 1, 2004 stated:
“16. The committee is concerned about the non-human conditions of the
pre-detention centres, i.e. pre-detention at the police stations, the number of
25
people arrested and the pre-detention conditions, the conditions of the women
and children in the pre-detention centres, as well as the lack of the
compensation for unfairly arrests or pre-detentions.
The Member State is being asked to ameliorate the pre-detention
conditions for both the arrested and persons put into pre-detention centres.
The Albanian Government, even though has issued some decisions
according to the recommendations above, should strengthen its control role on
the justice institutions, police and health institutions in order to put those
recommendations into practice.
We are aware that even though the ameliorations in the treatment of the
prisoners in detention centres at the police stations, there are many complaints
and requests.
- Health care, aid, and social assistance stay at poor levels for lack of
financial resources as well as corruptive and abusive behaviours. We welcome
the ratification from Albania of “The Revised European Charter”; thereby its
implementation requiring concrete steps by authorities.
It is understandable that not all the economic and social aspects can be
fully guaranteed. However, the government should take steps forward not
backward in terms of accomplishing them. Although it might be difficult for
everyone to be employed, the government should make maximum efforts to
offer employment opportunities, equal chances, and an adequate working
environment. In this respect, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs should
develop strategies, which should have accurate figures concerning the capable
labour force, periodically informing the government of the real situation,
thereby proposing concrete measures to overcome this situation.
- Corruption is a widespread phenomenon both in the administration and
judiciary.
We would like to cite our Prime Minister’s speech held on January 26,
2004 during the assessment of the government activity for the year 2003:
“Rendering justice from the courts is still a torment for citizens and
institutions, even though the previous year marked a positive step toward the
enforcement of the court decisions, which has increased the trust of people in
the courts but not in the justice system. As a result, the self-justice remains an
open door for committing crimes by citizens”.
Therefore, we recommend that we need to continue to improve the legal
framework, e.g. the legislative techniques in all levels; fighting the corruption
inside the judiciary; the need for improvement in the activity of the Inspectorate
of High Council of Justice; the approaching of the national legislation with the
international standards and mechanisms, especially on issues like money
laundering, corruption, terrorism and protection of witnesses; improvement of
26
the relations between General Prosecutor’s Office, Police and Courts; and
fighting organized crime.
In conclusion, it should be emphasised that the Parliament and the
Government in Albania are responsible for the situation of the fundamental
human rights and freedoms. In this framework, aware of his role, the People's
Advocate has a clear vision of his responsibility and duties in protecting the
fundamental human rights and freedoms of citizens.
4. The Section of Public Relations
1. Summary of statistics
Taking into the account the high number of complaints and the variety of
the problematic, we would like to give more details on the Section of People’s
Complaints. During year 2004, the Section of the People’s Complaints received
1941 complaints and requests. In the table below, we have displayed the
complaints monthly and those within our jurisdiction.
Month
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Total
Complaints
Accepted
141
143
194
186
204
177
185
51
198
168
162
132
33
43
71
51
51
55
54
28
71
64
54
46
1940
621
During year 2004, out of 1940 complaints or requests, our institution
examined 621 or 32%; while 1633 or 76% even were not within our
jurisdiction, our office has provided them with the relevant information and help
to address to the right authority. Out of them, 611 or 46% were beyond the
27
jurisdiction of the People’s Advocate and 709 or 54% needed consultations,
legal aid for problems other than the scope of People’s Advocate.
2. The topics of complaints
Referring the first category of complaints, those beyond our jurisdiction,
we have noticed that most of them complain against the court decisions of all
levels as unjust, unfair, prejudiced and a huge disappointment. Through facts
presented on their complaints, the citizens seem to have lost the trust to the
judiciary. Also, we have received a lot of complaints toward advocates who,
instead of representing the clients’ rights in the court, act as intermediary in
bribing the judges and prosecutors. We have had complaints for advocates that
have not represented their clients throughout the whole process or have not
returned the money for an unfinished job. These phenomena speak for elements
of corruption, low job performance of ethics and professionalism and illegal
interests. We need to establish an effective cooperation with the High Council
of Justice and the Ministry of Justice.
Another phenomenon quite different and spoken with protest and half
voice regards the procedures of application for foreign visas of Albanian
citizens and the discrimination that Albanians face abroad from foreign
authorities. From all the complaints we have received, we have recognized that
especially Italian and Greek Embassies treat Albanian citizens without respect
and dignity that a human being deserves. Moreover, they deny the visa without
any explanations and there is no way that they can complain because there is no
such foreign competent authority in Albania. Besides, no legal aid is provided
by state or private entities to help people in these situations. The same situation
exists with the extradition of Albanians from other countries. The procedures
foreseen by foreign countries are too short and they can’t physically protect
themselves before the foreign authorities. Also, we have had complaints about
the brutal and inhuman treatment of Albanian at the border checkpoints and
prisons from Greek police. The cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
should be strengthened for this matter.
Another group of complaints beyond the jurisdiction of the People’s
Advocate, which have been considered and given the right suggestions to
citizens are those relating to the family conflicts and conflicts between the
citizens and the private judicial subjects, mostly the dismissal of employees, the
lack of job contracts, failure from the private companies to pay the prime of
insurance for their employees, failure to pay the salaries and other payments for
a long time, and failure to respect the status of the disposed people by the
28
construction companies. In those cases we have advised the citizens to address
to the competent authority (such as the State Inspectorate of Labour) to receive
the necessary legal aid. We have made it clear to the citizens that the People’s
Advocate can use his powers to intervene only when there is a failure from the
competent state authorities to solve the problems.
In conclusion, after more than three years of the activity of the Office of
the People’s Complaints, we are aware of other ways of communicating with
the public can be implemented and we are drafting strategies to make relations
with the citizens easier, more intensive and continuous, finding goodunderstanding from the citizens during considering and solving of their
problems.
5. Open Days, an experience to be continued
As we have reported in the previous reports, in 2003 we started to
implement a new experience, so called “Open Days” as a way to a direct
communication with the public. This form reflects a new vision we took to help
citizens in need. Under the new circumstances, emerged by the decentralization
of local government, the People’s Advocate thinks that the problems should be
given a solution at the place where they appeared. Every local representative,
during his/her election and later on, promises to make the village, commune or
city a better place to live, where the good governance will prevail.
In June-July 2004, People’s Advocate Institution, organized “Open Days” in
38 cities all around the country. During those days, we received 443 complaints
from the citizens, out of which, 197 were further considered by our office and
246 were out of jurisdiction of the People’s Advocate. These data don’t include
the legal consultancies for various problems we gave to many citizens by
directing them to the right authorities. The “Open Days” were anticipated by
several local television shows where experts from our office explained the
powers and the role of the People’s Advocate, in order to become more useful
for the citizens. During the meetings with citizens it resulted that most of the
complaints were related to social problems, such as employment, housing and
social welfare, the non-execution of the court decisions, the procedures applied
by the Offices for the Registration of the Real Estates, job related conflicts and
different kind of pensions.
As we have stated in the previous reports, it is our goal to extend our
services to 5 isolated far-away cities in the country. To this purpose, we have
drafted a project, but we have not been able to implement it because of the lack
of financial resources.
29
Nevertheless, we are aiming to make it a regional project, through the
cooperation of our office with the respective offices in the Balkans, such as
Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro.
6. National Conference on “The Rights of Employees”
Based on article 30, Law No. 8454, dated 02.04.1999 “On People’s Advocate”,
our institution together with other independent organizations has to organize, at least
once a year, national warnings in regard to the situation of fundamental freedoms and
human rights in the Albanian Republic. Carrying out this obligation, on December 17,
2004, the National Conference on “The Rights of Employees” was organized. In
preparation for this conference, we worked diligently during the year 2003. We started
by reviewing all the complaints regarding the rights of the employees and all the
problems that they presented vis-à-vis the current legislation and its implementation.
The outcome and the recommendations of the conference were sent to the
President of the Republic, Prime Minister, The Presidency of the Parliament, the
Parliamentarian Commissions of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Labour, Social and
Women and all the ministers as well.
The goal of the conference was to raise the awareness of the state institutions for
carrying out the constitutional obligation for executing of the decisions of the courts,
giving recommendations for a better legislation and higher professional standards for
the state employees in regard to this matter.
We are optimistic that the above recommendations are going to be considered
seriously and fulfilled from all the competent institutions. We will publish all the
recommendations in a special publication.
30
CHAPTER THREE
Current activity of the People’s Advocate on complaints, requests and
notifications (cases), categorized according to Government institutions.
1. Government (Council of Ministers)
During 2004, we sent officially to the Council of Ministers, headed by the
Prime Minister Fatos Nano, the following recommendations, proposals and
notifications:
1. The notification to Regulator Entity of the Energy (ERE) to low the
rates of the electricity, approved by ERE decision, dated 30.12.2003 (sent on
12.02.2004).
As we all know, the recommendation was not taken into consideration to
low the rates of the electricity, nevertheless it affected the amelioration of the
transparency of work of the Electroenergy Corporation and inciting the process
of the installation of the electricity apparatus.
2. The request to promote the change and amelioration of the Decision of
the Council of Ministers No. 552, dated 27.11.1999 “On the economic and
financial treatment of the families of policeman killed on duty (dated
16.02.2004), from 1991 until January 1, 1999. We have raised this problem for
the third year consequently and have not received any response yet.
3. The proposal to declare null the Order of the Minister of Public Order
No. 1661, dated 09.04.2002 “On the Communication with Media (dated
29.03.2004). This proposal has been submitted because while the Prime
Minister with Order No. 157, dated 12.11.2003 has revokes its previous Order
No. 226, dated 20.08.2002 “On the Communication with Written and Electronic
Media”, as it is confirmed with the Decision of the Constitutional Court No. 34,
dated 08.12.2003, the Minister of the Public Order, without any grounds,
doesn’t revoke its anti-constitutional order. We have no answer up to date.
4. Recommendation to eliminate the service rate issued by the Directorate
of the Governmental Services to owners of the houses neighboring the
governmental residences (dated 02.06.2004). In this recommendation we have
argued that the fee of 1000 lek for entry permission for each family member that
owns property in the residential zones is not a competence of the Directorate of
Governmental Services, because no power has been vested by law to this body
to issue such a fee. We have been informed that the Directory of Governmental
Services has been advised to accept the recommendation.
31
5. Recommendation to include on the list of officials that benefit
supplementary pensions, the employees of the Civil Servants Commission and
the People’s Advocate institution (dated 08.07.2004). This recommendation
aims to give to the civil servants all the benefits that emerge from their status
and other public administration officials. No steps have been taken from the
authority.
6. The request to the Prime Minister to intervene at the Ministry of Public
Order and the State Police in regard to executing the court decisions. In the
recommendation we argue the anti-constitutionality of the Ministry of Public
Order behavior toward the court decisions. The recommendation has been
passed over to the Ministry of Public Order for execution.
7. Recommendation for revoking the decision of the KRRTRSH, dated
11.09.2004 in favor of the association “TID” shpk, because the case with the
“Rexhepi” shpk association is in the court (dated 22.10.2004). The
recommendation is under review from the authority.
2. Ministry of Justice
During 2004 we reviewed a total of 391 requests related to authorities
under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, and concretely with the General
Directory of Prisons and the General Directory of Bailiff’s Offices.
Even during 2004 the collaboration with this ministry has been qualitative
and effective.
a. Complaints
administration
against
the
prisons
and
the
penitentiary
There were many complains coming in relation to prisons and the
penitentiary administration, totaling 177. Prisons are still closed institutions and
the freedom of expression is limited, thus making it easier for the violation of
prisoners’ rights. As a result, our institution has provided a particular attention
to the complaints from these individuals.
During 2004, the personnel of the People’s Advocate has visited almost
all the prisons in service and the isolation rooms of the police stations in the
districts, where convicts with a court decision finally disposed and detainees
waiting to appear to the court, are kept.
Up to the end of 2004, there were 2321 prisoners kept in prison and 189
convicts kept in isolation rooms of the police stations. 1144 were under
investigation, as their verdicts were not yet announced. There are 533 persons
32
in pre-detention centers of the Tirana and Vlora prisons. Thus a total of 4487
persons were deprived of freedom, out of which 3200 were by the end of 2003.
During the visits in these institutions, we met personally with 248
prisoners and/or detainees. In 115 cases, the complaints of the convicts were in
a written form. A total of 177 persons complained, including prisoners, their
family members or prisons’ administrative personnel who have brought to our
attention their cases relating to the judicial administration, prosecutors’ office
and the prisons administration.
As a characteristic for prisons during 2004, we highlight the organization
of several inspections in the prisons, isolation rooms, and psychiatric
institutions. This fact shows that the public’s trust is increasingly growing in the
protection of the rights and freedoms of prisoners, detainees, mentally ill
persons and others. During 2004 assistance was offered via tall free telephone
08001111 to make complains and verify their cases. This means of
communication has resulted as efficient. In some cases (included in the total
amount), the prisoners reported their complaints via telephone lines, placed at
their disposal. This indicates a greater openness of the Albanian prisons and is a
high achievement of the People’s Advocate institution. Phone calls were
received from prisoners kept in Greece.
In relation to the status of completion, the complaints are described as
below:
From 165 received complaints, 177 complaints are resolved, while 12 are
under investigation. Out of 9 pending complaints from 2003, 8 have been
completed, 4 are solved in favor, 1 is out of jurisdiction, 1 groundless, 1
withdrawn and 1 under review.
In the resolved cases, 36 of them or 23.5% of the total are in favor of the
complainants, 79 of them or 51.5 % of the total are forwarded to the competent
organs, and 21 complaints or 13.9% of the total are considered as groundless or
refused as invalid, and 12 cases are under review.
According to their nature, the complaints are classified as the following:
1. Many of the prisoners complained that they are unjustly kept in the
isolation rooms of the police stations, when the court decisions have been
pronounced as final verdict long ago.
They claim to have been violated the right recognised by article 462 of
the Code of Penal Procedure ordering immediate execution of the judicial
verdict, when pronounced as a final verdict. The number of complaints of this
nature during this reporting year is increased compared to 2003.
For this reason, the People’s Advocate institution undertook an inspection
and it resulted that a significant number of convicts is being kept and continues
33
to be kept unjustly in the isolation rooms of the police stations in the districts.
Until December 31, 2004, there were 183 convicts with an irrevocable verdict in
isolation rooms kept unjustly in these places. The main cause for the convicts
kept in these rooms is the lack of high security prison capacity, as the court has
ordered for their detention.
NO. OF ARRESTED PERSONS IN THE PRE-DETENTION CENTERS
AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL, UNDER THE DEPENDANCE OF THE
MINISTRY OF PUBLIC ORDER
Districts
Berat
Durres
Kruje
Diber
Mat
Elbasan
Librazhd
Gramsh
Fier
Lushnje
Gjirokaster
Permet
Tepelene
Kukes
Tropoje
Korce
Pogradec
Lezhe
Kurbin
Shkoder
Puke
Malesi Madhe
Sarande
Tirana
TOTAL
Arrested
57
182
44
26
31
76
10
15
104
61
28
10
15
34
18
87
28
43
43
105
22
33
24
48
1144
Final
Decision
17
11
6
2
10
3
2
4
22
13
4
1
4
4
6
21
8
5
6
17
6
7
4
183
34
Minors
5
6
6
Women
1
4
1
4
3
4
1
1
4
1
2
41
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Prison 313 - Tirane
467
38
26
Prison 325 - Tirane 81
57
Prison - Vaqarr
198
22
Prison - Lushnje
333
Prison - Burrel
172
Prison - Tepelene
87
Prisons - Hospital
22 12 2 4
55 2
Prison 302 - Tirane 173
Prison - Rrogozhine 318
Special Institution 10
207
Kruje
Pre-Detention
11
1 66
2
Center - Vlore
12 Prison - Peqin
660
TOTAL
2252 545 59 42 22 28 55 2
Capacity
Total
Women
Men
Arrested
Sentenced
Arrested
Sentenced
Arrested
Men
Sentenced
Name of the
Rehabilitation the
No
Institutions and
the Prisons
Situation
Mentall
Women Minors
y ill
Over capacity
SITUATION AND CAPACITY IN PRISONS AND DETENTION
CENTERS
531
138
220
333
172
87
97
173
318
395
140
150
240
145
105
80
182
280
136
-2
70
93
27
-18
17
-9
38
207
200
7
69
46
23
660 700 -40
3005 2663 342
For the concrete cases of convicts with presented complaints, we have
recommended to the General Directorate of Prisons to sent them to prisons and
they accepted our recommendations.
As previously highlighted, one of the main directions of our work has
been and will remain the final settlement of the issue of prisoners kept unjustly
in the isolation rooms.
In the ongoing meetings with the high officials of the Ministry of Public
Order and Ministry of Justice, we have requested that measures are taken to
gradually pass the isolation rooms under jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice
35
until final solution is given to this issue. In the April 2002 meeting, they
acknowledged their commitment for the final solution to this issue.
This problem was followed in a continuous manner exercising pressure to
the Prisons Administration till the government issued the decision No. 327,
dated 15.05.2003, to pass the detention system under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Justice. Our office is still tracking this process, as currently only the
isolation rooms in Vlora have passed under the appropriate jurisdiction.
We believe that there are other means to the solution of this delicate
problem. The overpopulation of prisons cannot be resolved only by building
new prisons. More importance and priority should be given to the preventive
efforts to be undertaken by all the society and Albanian government and
secondly the prosecutors and courts should exercise a fairer policy in
implementation of alternative measures. We should be more rational that not
everything is resolved by jailing people. The deprivation of freedom is an
extreme measurement and should be given and used only if other alternative
measures do not apply due to the high threat of the penal wrongdoing of its
author.
36
37
From the analysis of complaints and requests of the prisoners inside the
prisons and isolation rooms of the police stations, during 2005, the People’s
Advocate Office should aim to accomplish the following main
recommendations to the government, the Ministry of Justice that supervises the
General Directory of Prisons and the Ministry of Public Order as the following:
1. Pursuing with priority the conclusion of the process of transferring the
detention rooms from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Order to that of
Ministry of Justice.
2. Put in a mental institute, as the law requires, the people for whom the
court has ordered obligatory medication.
3. Based on the complaints of the convicts and review of the cases when
the law itself had become a cause for the violation of the prisoners’ rights, we
have recommended the completion of the legal framework in relation to the
prisoners’ rights.
Thus we have sent to the Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights
the following recommendation:
We have continuously received complaints from the convicts kept in
detention room who are not acknowledged this period of time as pre-sentencing.
The cause for the violation of the detainees’ rights is article 7 of Law No.
7941, dated 27.01.1995 “Penal Code in the Republic of Albania”, which defines
pre-sentencing as the days time spent in detention and arrest in prison. If the
arrest has not been dismissed, the period of detention shall be considered from
the date the person has been put in custody, till the court reaches its verdict.
For this reason, based on article 63 of the Albanian Constitution we have
proposed to a group of parliamentarians to undertake an initiative to change the
second and third paragraph of article 7, Law No. 7941, dated 31.05.1995, with
this content: “Detention includes the days of arrest in detention rooms. If the
arrest has not been interrupted, the period of detention is considered the day the
suspect was retained till the day the court reaches its verdict. For the convicts
with a final court verdict, who were kept for various reason in detention, such
period shall count as prison time”.
From this disposition benefit all the convicts that were kept in detention
and are still detained as this law is empowered.
4. Observing that the majority of the convicts are not guaranteed the
rights to vote in the local government elections, our institution sent a
recommendation to the by-partisan commission for the completion of the Law
No. 8609, dated 08.05.2000 “Electoral Code in the Republic of Albania”.
5. At the same time we have resent to the Ministry of Justice the
following recommendations, for which we have received no response. In reality,
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this Ministry has not yet taken the concrete required steps to implement its
afore-mentioned commitments:
a) Recommendation to fulfill the requirements of Law No. 8328, dated
16.04.1998 “On the Rights and Treatment of Prisoners”.
From the review of the complaints and from the viewpoint of articles 76
and 34 of Law No. 8328, dated 16.04.1998 “On the Rights and Treatment of
Prisoners” it results that the Council of Ministers should have approved the
Prisons’ Regulation and other by-laws should have been issued within three
months period since the law was in power, thus since 1998. According to article
34 of this law (the last paragraph) the work of the prisoners should be
compensated according to the set criteria in the special decision of the Council
of Ministers.
Although 6 years have passed since the day this law is in power, such a
decision has not yet been issued. Actually all the prisoners working in prisons
should receive a symbolic compensation of 90 lek per month and for each
month of work benefit 4 days of prison time.
By Order No. 3223, dated 08.10.2004 of the General Prosecutor, the
prisoners that benefit days from working, should be reduced from the general
sentence.
b. Recommendation for the creation of the necessary conditions for better
functioning of the Supervisory Commission for the execution of prison
decisions, according to chapter three of Law No. 8331, dated 21.04.1998 “On
the Execution of Penal Decisions”
From the reviewing of the case, it resulted that the creation of this
commission has been completed and a decision for remuneration of the
members of the above commission has been issued. As far as we have been
informed, the commission has not started to function yet.
b. Complaints against the Bailiff's Office
Even during the year 2004, the biggest concern of the Albanian citizens
remains the problem of non-execution of court verdicts. This conclusion derives
from the amount of complaints in 121 cases, 30 less than in 2003. These
constitute only 7% of all the complaints. 65 were concluded, from which 12 or
20 % of the cases were solved positively, and the rest, 56 complaints have been
transferred to 2005.
The main scope of complaints relates to non-execution of final judicial
verdicts by the state-budget enterprises that are on the debtors’ side. The rights
of those that have won the court cases (creditors) continue to be violated, thus
39
not completing the judicial process, which conclude with the execution of the
rights gained through judicial means.
At the end of September 2004, in the framework of the cooperation
between our Institution and the Bailiff’s Office, we asked the General Directory
of the Bailiff’s Office at the Ministry of Justice for providing us with data on
the problems encountered by this service during the execution of the final court
decisions concerning the state-budget enterprises. According to these data, there
were 364 cases completed, totaling the amount of 513.944.034 leke or
4.178.407 EURO or $5.139.440. Although the budget has been increased every
year, a final solution to this problem should be found from the Parliament.
We think that time has arrived for the institutions in charge of the
administration of state finances to accept the reality, to be responsible and ease
the problems within the financial capacities they have in their possession. In
addition, attention should be paid to the strengthening of daily activities and
responsibilities of the state administrators in their relations with people, as well
as the respect of the rights of individuals, i.e. property rights, labour rights and
other legal interests, whose violation is a burden for the state budget too.
Also, we should mention that in many cases, elected or appointed
officials do not abide by the obligation to execute the final court decisions
because of the wrong perception for these kinds of decisions, for deficiency in
their professional performance and the lack of the will to seek for the assistance
from their legal departments. We can draw the conclusion from the statements
made to our recommendations, by the heads of these institutions or the elected
officials, i.e. “the court decision should be approved at the meeting of the
commune counsel”, or “from the prefect”, or in the case of a decision for
returning to work of a former employee from a state budget institution and his
remuneration the response from the authority is “…the court winner must
submit a written request to be rehired in order to evaluate if he complies with
the required criterion” and so on. These kinds of attitudes diminish the trust of
people, inside and outside the country, on the justice system.
In the future, our institution should pay special attention to problems
relating to the Bailiff’s Office violating the legitime interests of the citizens.
3. People’s Advocate and its relations with courts and judiciary
The People's Advocate Institution is a rather new institution for the Albanian
society and culture, however, along with the courts, it is one of the two most
important institutions that protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the
citizens.
40
In the nowadays situation it is imperative the increase of the efficiency of
public trust in the judicial system. It is important to mention that the assistance
provided by our institution, which is independent of the judicial system, plays
an important role in this matter.
The Constitution and the Law “On People's Advocate” have resolved our
relationships correctly. Our jurisdiction, in relation to the judiciary system, is
established in such a way that it does not affect, or threatens the judges'
independence in pronouncing the judicial verdicts.
Our several years of activity speaks for a common understanding with the
Judiciary concerning these issues and we believe that this relationship will
continue in the future, since there is a mutual concern to help citizens to realize
and enjoy their fundamental freedoms and human rights.
Our country, as a former communist country, is undergoing a period of
transition and still has several shortcomings and drawbacks in the activity
related to giving justice by the courts. These phenomena result from reasons
varying from the judges' incapacity to their corruption.
The People's Advocate assists the courts in their work when it notifies the
Ministry of Justice or the High Council of Justice on procedural violations or
administrative violations of the courts. The People’s Advocate assists also by
asking the administration to implement by all means all the judicial verdicts. It
is in this way that the judiciary authority is enhanced in relation to that branch
of the executive, whose attitudes have manifested and are still manifesting
disregard for the authority of the judicial verdicts, bringing about incalculable
(non-economic) detriments to the rule of law.
4. Complaints against the General Prosecutor’s Office
According to our Constitution, the Prosecution Office is not under the
jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, however for ease of analysis, we have
included it under this section.
During 2004, 280 various citizens have reported in 150 complaints or
requests against the Prosecution body.
Out of 150 incoming complaints during 2004, 44 cases or 33% of them
were settled in favor of the complainants, 74 were out of our jurisdiction, 15
were groundless and 17 are under review.
During 2004, we reviewed 9 complaints carried over from previous year.
Concretely, 2 were settled in favor of the complainants, 2 were out of our
jurisdiction and 4 were groundless.
Even during this year, the complaints and concerns of the citizens were
reviewed with high priority. For the complaints under our jurisdiction, the
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People’s Advocate has reviewed them and has ordered the start of the
investigation process by taking the necessary actions such as receiving the
required declarations, reviewing existing documentation, performing legalmedical examinations and scientific technical analysis for respective fields of
interest, or studying of investigative cases, which the Prosecution office has
decided their suspension or termination.
In many of the cases we visited the houses of the complainants and the
requestors, or took requisite actions, by collecting indispensable clarifications
from the Prosecution offices, for which the complainant has raised the claim.
The People’s Advocate Office has pursued with high priority the
complaints of citizens or associations representing minority communities, such
as those of the Association of the Albanian Immigrants in Greece, a group of
families from Dibra, habitants from Selenica (Vlora), etc.
We have followed with high priority the notifications came from deputies
or members of different Parliamentarian Commissions. We have received
notifications from Mr. Pjeter Arbnori, the Secretary of the Parliamentarian
Human Rights Commission relating to human rights, minorities and petitions.
Considering the scope of the complaints this year, it is the same as last
year. Considering some complaints, we have apprehended that the Public
Prosecutor’s Office has been acted not in conformity with laws and it has
resulted into unjust suspension or termination of cases. We have realized that
the termination of some cases were not based on whole and objective
investigation of the facts, and as a result, we have recommended to the General
Prosecutor or the Heads of the Districts Prosecutor’s Offices to repeal the
decisions. Such a flagrant case is Case No. 106 in 2002, investigated by the
Prosecutor Office of Pogradec during 2003, 2004 for the felony of “violation of
the Road Code” causing the death of a citizen from Tirana. The wife of the
defunct complained that the penal case related to her husband’s death was
dismissed, arguing that the car was driving by the victim. We investigated the
case and proved that the driver was a different person who caused the death of
the defunct. The General Prosecutor’s Office reopened the investigation and
sent the case to the Pogradec court, charging the driver with murder of the
victim. To our surprise, the Prosecutor office in Pogradec, not only shuffled the
investigation but the prosecutor of the case withdrew the acts and the case was
dismissed. It is our task to verify those actions.
During 2004, at the People’s Advocate office, several citizens from
different cities have submitted complaints in regard to the murder of their
relatives committed before 1997. They complained against the competent
authorities for not revealing the truth and hand the culpable over to the justice.
Some of the complaints are those of citizen S.D. for the murder of his daughter
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L.S. in Korca, committed on 17.06.1997; of citizen D.D. from Korca for the
burglary using force, committed on 01.016.1997; of citizen M.H. from Tropoja
for the murder of his sons and relatives committed between 1998-2002; of
citizen M.N. from Has for the murder of his relative in a car in Maminas
(Durres) on 19.01.2000, etc.
We have found that these cases start with a big publicity, traumatize the
public and constitute crimes of high danger. Even though the investigations had
started, it appears that a close cooperation between the General Prosecutor’s
Office and the Criminal Police is missing. As a result, the investigations had
been suspended and the cases have been sent to the Criminal Police.
Another set of complaints concerns the disappearance of the relatives’
years ago, such as the case of citizen V.K. from Korca for the disappearance of
his brother L.K. in 1991; complaints of citizen D.E. from Kukes for the
disappearance of his son A.E. in 1990; complaint of citizen V.H. from Tirana
for the disappearance of his minor daughter J.H. in 1992, etc.
We have observed that the Prosecutor Offices and the Criminal Police
Offices have not conducted the necessary investigation causing the citizens to
direct to other authorities to find a solution, such as the case of citizen L.Y.
from Vlora for the violence applied to his nephew from the police; complaint of
the citizen F.R. from Lazarat for using physical violence against him from the
Gjirokastra Police; complaint of the citizen D.K. from Vlora for using violence
from the Vlora Police against his brother G.H., etc.
The People’s Advocate has discuses the crucial issues with the General
Prosecutor, Mr. Sollaku. District Prosecutors have respected in a more correct
way our recommendations, however there are observed cases when they hesitate
to send or give for purpose of study the penal files, in the cases of which their
investigation has stopped, but there have been complaints filed with our office.
The activity of the People’s Advocate, in reviewing of the complaints of
the citizens against the prosecutors has evidenced the correct and objective
execution of the Constitution, the main body that guides our work, along with
the penal procedures law. Our conclusion is that only through collaboration by
witnessing the real violations of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the
citizen who are defendants in the penal procedure cases, we can better serve to
the increase of professionalism at the expected levels.
5. Ministry of Public Order
The acceptance and the reviewing with priority and rigorousness of the
complaints and requests against the Ministry of Public Order and the Police
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Forces is and will continue to be one of our main activities. This is, not only for
the fact that this organ of the public administration comprises one of the
strongest power exercising function of the government, but also for the specifics
of the Albanian Police, which beside the positive results it has achieved,
continues to have in its ranks ill-mannered elements, unprofessional, not trained
with the basic concepts of the rule of law and respecting of the human rights, or
corrupted people and other factors.
Our institution received during 2004, a total of 163 complaints,
notifications or requests, addressed against the police forces - this total does not
include the complaints carried over from previous year. Seventy-three of these
complaints were reported in from citizens of Tirana, and 90 from citizens of
other districts. 144 complaints were concluded as the following: 34 or 24%
were settled in favor of the complainants, 33 were out of our jurisdiction, and 75
were groundless and in 2 cases the parties withdrawn their requests. 19
complaints are carried over in 2005 for review.
In the cases when investigations have proven law violations, we have
made 2 recommendations to start the penal prosecution and one of them was
accepted, and 4 recommendations to take disciplinary measures, which have
been all, accepted. Based on our recommendations, the Prosecutor’s Office of
Shkodra started the penal case against some its policemen and there were given
five disciplinary measures to the police employees that violated the law, of
whom three were police officers. Out of the disciplinary measures taken, there
were 2 officials dismissed from their duty, one lowering the grade and 2 other
disciplinary measures.
The reviewed complaints, according to the problems raised, are classified as
the following:
a. Complaints for the maltreatment of the citizens
These complaints become more important, because in cases when they are
true, they represents heavy infringements of article 25 of the Constitution of the
Republic of Albania, which states that “No one shall surrender to torture,
scolding or inhuman, humiliating, and criminal treatment.” Meanwhile, they
also represent severe infringements of article 3 of the European Convention of
Human Rights. A positive achievement during this year is the decrease at 55%
of the number of these cases in comparison to last year. This is an indicator of
the high commitment shown by our institution to protect citizens from violation
of their rights.
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We received 25 complaints against the state police forces, all completed as
follows: seven were considered as valid, 4 were out of our jurisdiction, 13 were
groundless, and 1 has been withdrawn.
For cases we were able to find the complaints grounded for maltreatments
from the police forces, we have made the appropriate recommendations to the
relevant instances. Only for the maltreatment cases, we made two
recommendations to the prosecutor’s offices to initiate the penal procedures, out
of which one is accepted and one is under investigation.
The following are brought as example cases for this section:
The complaint of the citizen B.S., inhabitant of Shkodra District. He
complained about the unlawful control exercised by a group of five policemen
on May 24 at 10:00pm to check about weapons without a court order. No
weapon was found and they accompanied him to the police station of Shkodra
District and maltreated him, causing several wounds, mainly in the arms. The
complainant told us that he could not provide us with names but he can identify
them in an appearance for recognition.
We verified his allegations and proved that there were evident signs of
violence in his body and ordered a medical-legal examination. The Institute of
the Legal Medicine conducted the examination and sent us the Medical-Legal
Act No. 548, dated 27.05.2004. From the examination, it came out that there
were signs of physical violence caused by a sharp tool within a week (timing
coincided with his statement), and the impairment prevented him to work for 9
days.
From the investigation we conducted and the legal medical order results,
we concluded that on B.S. was inflicted violence from the police officers and
there were a breach of his home privacy during the illegal control. The police
acts were in violation of article 25 and 37 of the Constitution of the Republic of
Albania, article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and article 27,
pg. 2 of the Law No. 8553, dated 25.11.1999, “On the Police State”. We
recommended to the Prosecutor Office of the Shkodra District to start the penal
investigation for the policemen according to article 250 of Penal Code. The
recommendation was accepted and a penal investigation started. The case is
under investigation.
b. Complaints against other unlawful actions of the police forces
There were 118 complaints for arbitrary actions of the police officers
such as 2 unlawful house inspections, bars or restaurants; 9 unlawful physical
checking and accompany; 20 corruptive actions; 87 for other illegal actions, as
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sequestered goods from the police, for corruption, illegal fines, refusing the
advocates to meet the persons under arresting or detention. The below cases
were solved positively:
1. The complaints of the minor E.K. represented by his mother as his
legal guardian, second grade student at the High School of Foreign Languages
“Asim Vokshi” in Tirana. He wrote in his letter that on 09.02.2004, together
with eleven other friends from his class were petitioned to the Police Station
No. 3 from the police officer Entiol Xhelilaj. The reason for this appearance was
the statement made by a teacher of this school for threatening of her life. During
their stay at the police station, some illegal procedures were conducted, such as
taking declarations, handwritings, fingerprints and appearances for recognition
without the presence of their legal guardians. He alleged that he was insulted,
psychological pressure was exercised upon him and some policemen hit him in
the face. Also, he stated that he was kept for half an hour at the isolation rooms
at the same place with two adults.
From the verification conducted at the school by asking the pedagogic
staff, the teacher and the police officials, it resulted that the authors of the
threatening letter were three other students, not the complainant. The officer of
the judicial police didn’t accept to have taken fingerprints and carried out the
presentation for recognition. He accepted that he got declaration without the
presence of the parents to compare the handwritings with the threatening letter.
Later he took declaration from the complainant in the presence of his mother.
He was based on the declaration of a schoolmate of the complainant, T.O.;
according to him E.K. was one of the author of the threatening letter to their
teacher. Through asking two agents of the criminal police, it was proved that the
complainant was not put into the isolation rooms, insulted or maltreated.
We verified the age of the complainant and resulted that he was under 16
and even in the case that he has written the threatening letter, he could not be
charged because his acts constitute a misdemeanor and the penal responsibility
for the misdemeanors starts at the age of 16.
The officer of the criminal police accepted his responsibility and we
recommended to the Director of Tirana District Police to take disciplinary
measures according to Law No. 8553, dated 25.11.1999 “On the State Police”
and make it known to all the staff in order to prevent these kind of violations in
the future. The recommendation was accepted.
2. The complaint of the citizen F.SH., 70 years old from Tepelena against
the police officer Valter Bizhga, an employee with Tepelena Police Station.
According to his statement, on 20.03.2004, while he was selling
newspapers near Tepelena agency he was threatened and pushed back on the
ground from a police officer. As a result, he had a fracture in his arm and the
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behavior of the policeman has caused the indignation of people that testified the
event. The complainant alleged that he had tried to contact the Head of the
Tepelene Police Station in vain. He also has sent complaints to the Ministry of
Public Order but received no response from them.
We conducted an investigation of the case. We verified the facts and it
resulted that the allegations of the complainant for pushing back to the ground
and causing a fracture in his arm was groundless. An evaluation of his statement
was proved that the police officer has not behaved accordingly to ethics and has
not warned his superiors. We recommended to the Head of Police Station in
Tepelena to take disciplinary measures to the policemen in question in order to
prevent such behavior in the future and they accepted it.
3. The complaints of some journalists, correspondents in Fier District,
who claimed that the Police Station of this city has mis-diffused the information
given on keeping the order and public security. According to their declarations,
the communication of the spokesman of this institution with Media has been
done in the inappropriate locations and they had to wait for hours to take
information, which in several cases was very vague or no information was
provided or was selected differently for different newspapers. They claimed that
they have informed the State Police for violation of the article 57 of the Law
No. 8553, dated 25.11.1999 “On the State Police”, regulating the relations with
public and its informing for its activity on a regularly basis.
We asked for explanation from the Directory of Fier District Police and
the General Directory of the Police. At the same time, for the reasons described
above, we suggested that the problem should be examined seriously and giving
a solution as soon as possible. We were informed from the General Directory of
the Police that the complaint was accepted and they promised the amelioration
of the locations and the ways of dispensing the information to the public and the
Media from the Police Stations and discharged the spokesman of the Fier
District Police.
c. Non-execution of the final court decisions
This is a common problem and present almost with all the Albanian
public administrative authorities. Thus there were plenty of complaints under
this category. During 2004, there were 9 complaints for non-execution of the
court decisions to return to previous positions and non-payment of the monetary
obligations for suspension. As positive solutions to such complaints, the
following cases are quoted:
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Complaint of citizen GJ.GJ., former employee with RENEA Unit,
removed from the police by an order of the General Director of Police. He wrote
to us that after being fired from the job, he filed a lawsuit with the court, which
ruled that his removal was unjust and the General Directory of the Police should
reimburse him the salary of one year. The Tirana Appeal Court sustained the
above decision, which became final and an executive order was issued. Since
the police authority did not execute the decision, he addressed to the Bailiff
Office in Tirana, which tried in vain to execute the decision thus violating the
article 142/3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, which stipulates
that “The state organs are obliged to execute the court decisions”.
Under those circumstances, we recommended to the Budget-Finance and
Judicial Directories at the Ministry of Public Order to execute the court
decision, which constitutes a civil and constitutional obligation. They showed
willingness in accepting our recommendation and paid dues to the Gj.Gj.
2. The complaints of citizens R.T., R.C., and H.B., former police officers
with Ministry of Public Order and State Police for being dismissed unjustly
from the police forces. They submitted lawsuits to the court which ruled in their
favor, by overthrown the decision of the police, their restitution to the police
forces and obliged the employer to pay in full amount the salary during the
unemployment time. The Ministry of Public Order and the General Directory of
the State Police didn’t execute the court decision even after the Bailiff’s
Office’s intervention.
We requested explanations from the Ministry of Public Order and the
General Directory of the State Police and in their responses they said: “We can
not employee them because they have not completed the training according to
the law “On the State Police” and they have been removed from their job.
The courts of all levels and other state organs must execute the unified
High Court decisions according to article 142, pg. 3 of the Constitution. As a
result, we execute this part of the decision that is based on the law. There are no
legal dispositions that obliged us to execute a decision that violate the laws. It is
not our responsibility that the unified High Court decisions are not recognized
by the lower courts”.
The above reasoning even though refers to the Constitution formally, is
not based on the law for the reasons below:
a) The constitutional obligation of the Police (as part of the public
administration) to execute the court decisions is stipulated in article 143, pg. 3
of the Constitution: “The state organs must execute the court decisions”.
Consequently, the requirement of the article above is compulsory and don’t
leave any discretion to the parties involved.
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b) Completing of the training is an obligation for the starters (those who
start working for the first time in the police forces). In our case, we are dealing
with an existing job relation, established even before the law “On the State
Police” entered in vigor.
c) The court decisions dropped the causes for their removal from job.
d) The High Court decisions are not all unified, as the Police Directory
states, according to article 141, pg. 2 of the Constitution only those emanated
by Unified Colleges for certain judgments, for unification or changes of the
judicial practices. The Decisions of the Supreme Court are considered as legal
precedents for the judiciary, for the similar legal matters in the future and they
have not have effect for the decisions given in the past. Thus we can say that
they have no judicial effect toward the execution of court decisions, which have
exhausted the appeal before the Supreme Court has decided in the same matter.
We have to underline that they do not have any judicial effect for the abrogation
of the final given judicial decisions, as in the cases in question (to be accurate
we have to underline that the Unified Decision of the Unified Colleges of the
High Court No. 31, dated 14.04.2003, while the decisions in question are being
issued before this date).
e) No constitutional or legal disposition gives to the state organs
(including the State Police) the discretion to consider the court decisions just or
unjust. Only the higher courts have that power.
In closing, we recommended to the Minister of Public Order and the
General Director of the State Police the execution of the court decisions in favor
of the complaints. The above authorities did not take into consideration our
recommendation. So, we addressed recently to the Prime Minister to exercise
his authority and order the Minster of Public Order to execute the final court
decisions and have not received yet a response from the office of the Prime
Minister.
d. Recommendation for prevention of torture and
maltreatment forms and violations of law by the police forces
other
In the 2002 and 2003 annual reports, we made some recommendations,
the implementation of which would prevent torture and other maltreatment
forms and violations of law by the police forces. Although we sent them to the
Ministry of Public Order, we still see, that even after a year, the majority of
them have not been implemented. Thus we can mention:
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1. No measures have been taken to secure the right of doctor consultation
for people deprived of freedom, since the beginning of this status. This right
should also allow them to be visited by a doctor of their own choice.
To achieve this, it is important that:
• All the medical examinations for the persons deprived of freedom
should take place not in a hearing distance of the police, unless the
doctor requests so. In special cases, also, away from the view of the
police forces, when these persons are visited by the doctor.
• The doctor should write the results of the examination, as any other
declaration of a visited person, and the person deprived of freedom
and his defense attorney should be informed.
2. The persons deprived of freedom are not given informative materials to
make them aware of their rights. These materials should also be translated into
foreign languages. Above all, the interested parties should be invited to sign a
declaration that they have been informed on their rights.
3. It is not yet issued the guide (Code of Ethics) for the interrogation from
the police. This code, among others, should address the following topics:
systematically acquaint the convicts with the identities of the present person
while interrogation occurred (name and/or title); the allowed duration of one
interrogation session; the periods of breaks among sessions and the break during
interrogations; the place or places where the interrogation is taking place; if the
convict will be asked to stand during interrogation; and that it is forbidden to
interrogate individuals under the influence of drugs, alcohol, medications or
mental shock. This code should also foresee the inclusion of the beginning and
ending of an interrogation session, the identity of all the persons present during
this session and any request formulated by the convict during interrogation. The
situation, particularly with unprotected persons (such as juveniles, the sick,
disabled or mentally-ill) should become an object of specific guarantees.
4. The above rights are not executed for individuals kept by police for
administrative reasons. In some cases, we have evidenced that “the escort to the
police station” is used as a justification also for the individuals that the police
suspects of committing a penal offense. Thus the escorting is used for the
clarification of administrative action and aiming at interrogating and
investigating for penal offense. After the escorting, the arrest or detention
procedures start for these individuals. In some other cases we have evidence that
the police take actions to research and collect data in an illegal way, thus
violating pg. 2 of article 32 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania. In
certain cases, these data are taken by use of physical force.
5. The police authorities have not issued the circular to clarify that the
time for detention of an individual, for administrative or judicial reasons, should
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be calculated within the set time frame, from the moment the person appears
before the magistrate, which according to article 28 of the Constitution, is not
more than 48 hours. From the verification of certain cases, it is evidenced that
the time of detention or arrest starts after that of escorting, which in some cases
has passed the legal time limit.
6. High officials and cadres of the Police do not exercise continuous
control on the registration ledgers for the individuals being kept in police
stations, with the aim that they are not manipulated or are filled correctly. We
have evidenced some cases that the notes in these ledgers do not coincide with
the exact time of the detention in the police station of these individuals, or in
certain cases they are not registered at all.
7. Still it has not changed the concept that the persons escorted to the
police should be kept in escort rooms and not in detention rooms being cuffed
or locked, as in some cases. Also there are no special rooms for juveniles and
women. These rooms should be in good and appropriate hygienic-sanitary
conditions and equipped with tables and chairs.
8. The conditions in the rooms of pre-detention in the police stations, for
keeping the convicts and arrested, still have no changes, so:
• To respect strictly the foreseen criteria related to the minimal space
per individual; and
• To separate the adults from the juveniles and pay special attention
to the latter in terms of health and education.
9. Still it has not become a reality to transfer the pre-detention rooms and
its personnel from the supervision of the Ministry of Public Order, to that of
Justice. Even though the process started last year with the Police Directory of
the Vlore Region it was not aligned with the joint Order of the Minster of Public
Order and the Ministry of Justice in some Police Directories. This would
effectively put in practice all the defined dispositions of “The Guide for the
security and treatment of the prisoners”, approved by Decision of the Council of
Ministers No. 96, dated 09.03.2000.
Besides the execution of the above recommendations, the Police should
work more towards the implementation of their main institutional duties,
foreseen in article 3 of Law No. 8553, dated 25.11.1999 “On the State Police”,
and in particular those for the protection of human rights and fundamental
freedoms of individuals. For the realization of this task, it is necessary:
1. To give more priority to the education and professional formation in
continuity to the police forces at all grades and categories. In these programs, an
important role and place should be given to the education of respecting the
rights and freedoms of the individuals. The cultural and professional level, the
acquaintance and respect of human rights, the communicating ability, should be
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the criteria for the recruitment, maintenance, selection and promotion of the
police forces at all levels.
2. The political and technical authorities’ at all high instances should
approach more often with clear and reinforcing messages that they strictly
denounce all the maltreatments by the police. This should be repeated regularly
from the officials of the police forces. This in particular should be emphasized
to the police forces, in charge of the interrogation of the individuals deprived of
freedom.
3. In all the institutions and buildings of the Police must be expose
pamphlets and posters prepared in collaboration with our institution, which
should address the respect of human rights and prevention of force from
employees of the Police. They should be a constant reminder for these
employees and will help them in performing their duties in compliance with
law.
4. The collaboration of the Ministry of Public Order or the General State
Police Directory with the Peoples Advocate’s Office in the scope of work to
protect the rights and freedoms of the individuals has been a positive
experience, as was mentioned in the 2004 report and hoping to be improved in
the feature.
6. Ministry of Defense
In 2004, there were 249 claims and requests made against and to the
Ministry of Defense in 73 letters addressed to our office. 10 of them are made
in 2003, which have been concluded. In 2004 there have been considered the
complaints presented by 243 officers and former officers through 62 letters sent
to our office. There are 9 cases pending, mostly dating December 2004.
According to claims that have been presented in 2004, 20 claims or 32%
of them had a positive outcome. This is an important indicator of the efficiency
of our work and the cooperative efforts with the Ministry of Defense. 19 claims
or 31% were beyond our authority and 23 or 37% were groundless.
In 2004, officers brought most of the claims, while a few of them came
from under-officers, civil servants and soldiers of military or under-military
units. As for the previous year, during the open days we organized a meeting
with the soldiers at the Vlora Sea District where we received complains about
the living conditions in their units. The authorities took some measures to
ameliorate the condition of the living conditions of the soldiers. We also
organized a meeting with officers and under-officers and suggested them to
present their complaints in a written form. In 2005 we are to organize more
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open meetings with soldiers in order to verify right a way if there have been
violation of human rights and individual freedoms and their living conditions
too. We suspect that the low number of these kind of complaints do not
correspond the reality which may reveal the real reasons why soldiers do not
submit complaints, i.e. for the fear of their superiors.
Looking at the numbers given above, we could say that the work with the
complaints that had to do with the Ministry of Defense has been successful.
This conclusion is not based only on the figures. It is our pleasure to report that
the Ministry of Defense is one of the departments of our Public Administration
where we always, from the inception of our activity in 2000, have found willing
partners to cooperate institutionally, with good intentions to appropriately solve
the concerns and complaints of the officers.
The good cooperation with the Ministry of Defense is realized through
direct contacts with the leaders and specialists of the respective Directories
charged to deal with the concerns and complaints of the soldiers, including the
Directory of Managing Human Resources, Department of Veterans, Legal
Department, etc., thus increasing the level of the responsibility of all structures
of the Ministry of Defense, to carefully address concerns and to respect legal
rights of the officers.
This understanding and cooperation with the Ministry of Defense is
considered as an achievement to our objectives to defend human rights, aiming
at spreading this experience in other institutions. That has evidenced by the
well reception, heeding and acceptance of Recommendations made by the
After dealing with the main concerns presented in the complaints brought
by military subjects, it became clear that the complaints of the officers or former
officers who were considering leaving their careers or who have left their career
as part of the reform in the Armed Forces from 1992 until the present, are of a
considerable number.
These people complain that not only their pension is lower than the
pension of their colleagues who retired after 1993, even though they were equal
in their duties, but also for not being recognized the additional pay over the
pension for the number of years they have served in the army at a time when
officers retired after 1993 benefit from this legal right.
Complaints of such nature are brought not only by certain individuals, but
also by the National Committee of Veterans of the LANC-it, or other
associations and groups of former officers.
The People’s Advocate, having considered such complaints as
appropriate and legitimate, on November 29, 2003, recommended to the Prime
Minister Mr. Fatos Nano, discussion and submission to the Parliament of the
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draft law “For some changes and amendments in the Law No. 8087, dated
March 13, 1996”, “For supplemental social benefits of officers of the Armed
Forces, Ministry of Public Order and National Information Service of the
Republic of Albania.” Upon entering into vigor of the law “On the Status of the
Officer” and the issuance of the subsidiary laws, we might consider the problem
resolved.
It is worth mentioning the fact that, few of those subjects object to being
in reserve because they have become conscientious for the reform in the Armed
Forces. But, their complaints have to do with violations of the rights
promulgated under the Law No. 8087, dated March 13, 1996 and amendments
thereof. Structures of the Ministry of Defense and military commands have not
always acted correctly, right and on time to make sure that those officers, after
they interrupted their careers benefit from the law.
Generalizing those instances, we have concluded that during the
application of reforms, in the way it has been acted, there have been violations
of their rights. Their complaints have come to us during the year 2004, and
have been an important part of our work.
Specifically, after our investigation into these complaints, it was
determined that the Ministry of Defense, after it had laid out criteria for the
reforms, such as age, professionalism and commitment, has started the
procedure to interrupt the relation of the career of the active officers who plan to
leave.
But these procedures have not always been followed in conformity with
the law and act promulgated under, but it was acted in such a way that allowed
the violation of their rights, because the officers mentioned above were left
“active officers” but without being compensated for several months. Thus in our
institution has submitted a complaint Mr. Sh.B., an employee with Fast
Intervention Unit in Tirana. He proclaimed that according to an order of the
Head of the Land Forces the financial relations with his job were cut on
01.08.2003, three months before the Order of the Minster of Defense issued on
01.11.2003 discharged him from the duty. We opened an investigation and it
resulted that his claim was lawful and recommended on 25.05.2004 the
reimbursement for the period he was suspended. Because of our intervention, it
was made possible the late payment for SH.B.
Even in 2004, our Institution has continued to receive complaints from
officers relating to the non-privatization of buildings given by Ministry of
Defense to live in, we have continually followed the draft decision to be
submitted to the Council of Ministers, dealing with changes in the Decision of
the Council of Ministers No. 379, dated June 26, 1995 regarding “Converting
into homes the buildings that were abandoned during the restructuring of the
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Army and the Ministry of Public Order.” Our recommendation sent to the
Ministry of Defense for the necessity to make some changes in the above cited
decision, attempting to ease the privatization procedures of the buildings, not
foreseeing the need of first getting the permission of the mayors for converting
them into houses has been followed in practice. We are pleased to express that
the Ministry of Defense not only accepted our recommendation, but it carefully
prepared the respective draft decision with the necessary changes which was
submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval in February 2004. This draftdecision was not accepted by reasoning of interfering in the autonomy of the
local government. In spite of this, after entering into vigor of the law “On the
Status of the Officer” drafting of a new project is under way which will
definitely resolve the housing problems of the officers. We have observed
willingness from the part of Government and the Ministry of Defense to help
officers to solve housing problems. As a result, Decision No. 524, dated
30.07.2004 “On the amount and the method of the compensation of the rent and
food for the officers of the Defense Forces of the Republic of Albania”.
One of the priorities of the activity of the People’s Advocate Office is to
resolve the complaints of the officers in active duty in regard to their financial
treatment for performing heavy duty, overtime work, etc. We have
recommended an increase in the financial treatment of these categories of
officers and initiating a fund to be paid to the retired or in reserve officers. Thus
the Council of Ministers approved the decision No. 791, dated 26.11.2004 “On
some amendments and changes to the Decision of the Council of Ministers No.
939, dated 11.12.2003 “On the remuneration of the officers in active duty of the
Armed Forces in the Republic of Albania, for special work conditions or
services, for holding grades and amount of years in service and for performing
heavy and dangerous jobs. We look at this as an achievement of our positive
cooperation with the Ministry of Defense and our efforts to protect the
legitimate interests of the citizens.
In conclusion, all our work with those subjects has served positively
towards achieving the main objective of the work of our Institution, to protect
human rights, directly impacting the good administration and well governing in
the Armed Forces.
One of the priorities of the work of the Institution of the People’s Advocate
for 2005, will be organizing open days with groups of experts in various
military units connected with the Command of the Land Forces, Air and Sea
Forces, aiming at attracting complaints from under-officers and soldiers of the
Armed Forces, close cooperation with various departments in the Ministry of
Defense and other military structures for the right application of the law and the
fair resolution of the complaints and requests of officers.
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7. Ministry of the Local Government and Decentralization
During 2004 our Institution has followed up on 35 complaints with this
Ministry, of which 12 were carried from 2003. From this number of
complaints, 26 have been finalized and 10 are pending. From the 26 complaints
completed, 8 of them have been beyond our jurisdiction, 10 complaints were
groundless, 6 were resolved in favor of complainants and 2 were disposed based
on the judicial instruction, through which complainants have solved their
problems. Also, during this year we have adjudicated complaints dealing with
the service offered by the Office of Civil Status, service, which is under the
authority of this Ministry.
The subject of the complaints mainly deal with not getting assistance from
the state in cases of natural disasters and major forces, including fire, explosives
or floods, building collapses, land slides, damages caused by earthquakes etc.
This year complaints and concerns are the same as those presented in the
previous reports, especially those dealing with non-resolution of complaints for
lack of budgetary funds. In the Directory of Emergencies in this Ministry there
have been other additional complaints, brought directly by citizens and have not
been addressed because of the lack of funds, which should be given by the
reserve fund of the Council of Ministers.
Thus complainants seek application of the Decision of Council of Ministers
No. 206, dated March 26, 1998 “On the criteria of participation of the state to
cover for damages in unfortunate cases” and the Decision of Council of
Ministers No. 708, dated December 1, 2000 “On some changes in the Decision
No. 206, dated March 26, 1998 of the Council of Ministers ‘The criteria of
participation of the state to cover damages in unfortunate cases”. For those
complaints, the responses are standard that once the funds have been secure
their complaints will be considered. However, this has caused the complaints to
be carried from previous years. The consideration of complaints has revealed
that complaints are legitimate and they are the result of legal acts and
regulations themselves, and their resolution in favor of complainants appears to
be impossible for the lack of financial means.
Considering that funds for assistance are given from the reserve fund of the
Council of Ministers, in several occasions, the Government with separate
decisions have accorded funds for natural disasters that have caused serious
damages and touched a great part of population in certain regions, such as the
case of Fierza Hydropower where a sliding of land occurred and many houses
were destroyed.
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We are of the opinion that the Ministry of Local Government should set
priorities in following up with cases, dealing first with those that have caused
serious damages. We single the complaint of the head of office of the village
Nimce, Topojan Commune, Kukes in regard to several significant land sliding
which have caused problems, such as blocking of roads, houses risking to be
collapsed, kids not being able to attend schools, cutting of communication
between the populated area and the main road, etc. We asked for the assistance
of the state and his subordinate bodies but the problems are not resolved yet.
In regard to the local governmental bodies, we have to point out the lack of
transparence and non-informing of the public about the procedures, as in the
case of citizen A.G. from Bytyc, Tropoja for whom the Ministry informed us
that they released the funds while the Commune refuse to give any explanation
on the case. We would like to mention also that there is a lack of information on
the insurance market, which can cover a significant part of the natural disasters
if they operate properly. Our legal responsibility is to promote and raise the
awareness of the central organs for creating funds for the purposes above and
local organs, which are to manage the financial resources in an effective way
and come to help people to solve vital problems, like housing, etc.
During 2004, another complaint that we single from the group of complaints
is that of a group of employees with the Police for the Protection from Fire and
Rescue who claimed that the Ministry for Local Government has not complied
with the requirement of the Law No. 8766, dated 5.04.2001 “On the Protection
from Fire and Rescue” in treating the personnel of this entity. During the
consideration of this complaint, we found out that their requests were fair and
sent a recommendation demanding the speeding of the procedures for the full
implementation of the legal obligations in regard to the treatment of this
category of employees. In their response, the Ministry informed us that a
working group has been set up and the solution to the problem is on the way.
The most considerable part of the complaints against the Civil State Office
relates to the inaction and the delay on the deadline of considering the
complaints of the citizens. In some cases, these offices do not even inform the
citizen about their requests. We can mention here the complaint of citizen F.P.,
habitant of Tirana who has submitted a request 2 years ago to the office of civil
state for a copy of the death certificate of her late husband with the correct last
name. Also, citizen Dh.C., habitant of Korca claimed that for two months he
was not able to get his name changed based on the Law “On the Civil State”.
Because of our intervention, the civil state office undertook the proper
procedures and the citizen finally got his request solved.
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Some civil state offices, such as the Municipality Unit No. 7, Tirane, and the
Office of Civil State in Sukth have not responded on time to our requests for
explanation.
While adjudicating complaints, it has been observed that the administrative
procedures are being prolonged and this fact is evident in all structures. This
phenomenon is a result of negligence, and it also comes from the nonfamiliarity with the law and the time limits set by the administrative procedures.
Complaints against Local
Municipalities and Prefectures)
Governmental
Organs
(Communes,
During year 2004, we have received 369 complaints, the scope of which
dealt with the issues we have presented in the previous reports too.
a. Complaints against communes
From 64 complaints reviewed for the communes, 18 were carried over
from 2003 out of which 16 are still under consideration and 48 have been
concluded. Out of 48 reviewed during 2004, 10 were in favor, 21 were out of
jurisdiction and 17 were groundless. We can highlight some issues, which are
worth mentioning. As their resolving takes place in the communities, in which
the infrastructure still is not in the desired standards, the appearing complaints
are of various forms, such as lack of potable water, or for irrigation,
construction of new roads; complaints for not gaining assistance such as
families with problems, non-gaining of social assistance, non-consideration of
requests of the inhabitants for the status of the homeless, and many other
complaints, which are related to the law for right of information. From the lack
of knowledge of the law, the communes not only do not take into consideration
and solve problems, but do not respond to the complainants, thus making people
wander around the doors of their local administration for a long time.
Obligations that spring from this law either are not recognized or not
implemented for unjustified reasons. The Code of Administrative Procedures is
a law not well known, thus the obligations coming from this law for these
organs are not implemented during administrative proceedings. It is notable that
administrative acts or the levels of administrative complaint are not known.
There are cases when the heads of the communes take actions that overpass
their competences. In some cases they take over also the competences of
judicial power.
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While reviewing the complaints with communes, we have observed negligence
and hindrance from their officials, which is reflected in inactivity or not
responding to requests or recommendations from our office. The commune
officials find themselves protected by law because according to the law in force,
they hold a four-year term and often abuse the power vested by law for personal
gains.
From the broad scope of complaints with communes, it is observed that
there are also problems that come with the non-execution of the decisions of
Commissions of Restoring and Compensating Properties, hence violating the
constitutional principle for the protection and guarantee of private property. In
many cases we have detected non-compliance with the requirements of Law No.
8652, dated 31.07.2000 “On the Organization and Functioning of the Local
Government”.
The case of citizen V.S. resident of Libonik village of Korca, who
complained of non-execution of a judicial decision by the commune, which
recognized the right to a land within the village, ignoring the constitutional
obligation set forth in the article 41 of the Constitution and pg. 10 of the Order
of the Council of Ministers, No. 13, dated 18.10.1993 “On the implementation
of the Law No. 7698, dated 15.04.1993 and changes to the Order No. 3, dated
21.06.1993”, which foresees that “The decision of the Commissions of
Restoring and Compensating Properties are mandatory and must be executed
from the competent state bodies (the local government and the police)”. The
case was resolved positively after the intervention of the People’s Advocate.
b. Complaint against municipalities
During the year 2004, in the Institution of the People’s Advocate has
arrived 211 complaints against municipalities. 76 complaints were carried over
from 2003. 287 were reviewed and 81 are still pending. Of 206 completed
cases, 31 were solved in favor, 83 were out of jurisdiction and 92 were
groundless. The scope of the issues is the same as the one presented in the last
annual report and the majority of these complaints are carried from last year,
because for the issue of housing there is still no strategy to solve the problem.
Hence, it is evident that the complaint of homeless from the collapse of pyramid
schemes, for which there has been a lack of transparence, they were never
informed on the achievements and actually when their problem would be
solved. We are pleased to report that this year 54 families from Tirana were
provided houses from a complex apartments built for this purpose. This is an
important initiative that needs to be followed by other measures taken by the
Government. Hopefully, the recent legal and sub-legal acts issued by the
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Government will resolve step by step the housing of these categories of people
that constitute a major problem at national level and other categories of
homeless will profit from the state social policies.
The requests and our suggestions for the solution of the housing problem
is the development of a national strategy with clear objectives and the ways this
problem should be solved, for the category that must be taken care of and secure
the conditions for the achievement of tangible results, such as the obtaining of
funds for this reason. The problem of housing is a social and imperative
objective to be solved and from not solving in a timely manner this problem, the
number of homeless and the possibilities to solve it grows year by year. From
many of the received complaints during this year in the Institution of the
People’s Advocate, it is clear that in all the municipalities, even if the people get
the status of homeless, there is a lack of transparency in decision-making for the
order in which the citizens should be treated, and who have a lot to say about
these delays. In this direction, the efforts for a better transparency must be
increased from the organs of local government, to let the taxpayers and electors
know about their work for the solution of this major problem, as well as the
respective strategies. These organs, as they exercise their activity based on the
principle of autonomy and self-governance must increase the collaboration with
the community to listen to their opinions, for the alternatives and the timing.
The Law No. 8030 “On the Contribution of State for the Homeless” and other
legal acts, charges the Local Government and the National Housing Entity with
the execution of the decision. For all this process the citizens are completely
uninformed, and are delayed endlessly.
In the complaints reviewed in relation to the issue of housing, we would
like to make evident the fact that the municipalities do not make use of legal
means for processing the complaints. They hesitate to issue administrative
orders. The municipality shows to its citizens the judicial way, while according
to the Code of Administrative Procedures and the Law No. 8652, dated
31.07.2000 “On the Organization and the Functioning of the Local
Government”, the municipalities have the right to undertake such proceedings,
review and decide on the administrative complaints.
One of the main principles of functioning of the local government is their
continuity, as defined by pg. 5 of article 4 of Law No. 8652, dated 31.07.2000
“On the Organization and the Functioning of the Local Government”. The
changing of the heads of municipalities and municipalities’ councils after the
elections of October 2003 has resulted in mal-functioning of the local
governmental bodies.
We consider worth mentioning the complaint of the citizen K.K. from
Tirana who complained against the decision of the Commission of the
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Evaluation at the Municipality of Himara, thus asking the nullity of the act
according to the dispositions of the Code of the Administrative Procedures. The
citizen complained about an act issued by an incompetent authority at the
municipality of Himara. Concretely, the Municipality of Himara, based on a
decision of the Commission of Evaluation, upon the verification of the
construction of a house carried out by the citizen M.S. licensed by the Council
of Himara City, has decided that citizen K.K. has to pay the amount of 435.000
leke according to the calculation performed by the Evaluation Commission and
in case of non-payment, the land should change owner from K.K. to M.S. The
decisions that evaluate the material damages occurred between individuals are
in contrary of the requirements of the Law, No. 8652, dated 31.07.2000 “On the
Organization and the Functioning of the Local Government”. The above law
defines the organization and the functioning of the local government bodies,
their mission, the general principles of their functioning, and the structure of the
bodies, as well their competences and responsibilities.
The above commission is not listed on the dispositions of the abovementioned law. According to pg. 1/d of article 8 that describes the competences
of the local government units, the establishment of committees, boards or
commissions for completing specific tasks is allowed, if necessary. But such
bodies are not entitled of taking decisions; they are only consultative bodies.
The power of taking decisions is vested with the communes, municipalities and
region councils and the head of commune, municipality and the region.
Moreover, the local government bodies cannot take over judicial powers, such
as the case in question, evaluating the civil damage between individuals. The
standpoint is in contrary to the article 7 of the Constitution, which foresees the
division of powers, the legislative, executive and the judiciary. The solving of a
civil conflict between individuals is an exclusive power of the judiciary. The
alleged injured party should address to the court, which through experts,
evaluate the effective damage, and decide on the case by issuing a court order.
In our case, the Evaluation Commission has attributed to himself judicial
powers. Besides, a new way of gaining the property has been established by this
decision, the exclusion of the property in case of non-payment. The
Constitution, in its article 41, pg. 2 explicitly foresees “Property may be gained
by gift, inheritance, purchase, or any other classical means provided by the Civil
Code”.
The Evaluation Committee was set up contrary to the dispositions cited
above and consequently, the above-mentioned decision is null and it produces
no legal effects. The Municipality of Himara issued several similar decisions
and our office recommended to the Council of Municipality of Himara to
declare null the decision of the Evaluation Commission based on the article 17
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of the Code of Administrative Procedures, and advising to the parties to address
to the court to solve the problem. The recommendation was positively
considered by the Municipality of Himara, which took necessary legal steps to
restitute the violated right and resolve definitely the case.
c. Complaints against prefectures
There were 17 complaints against prefectures during 2004, out of which
11 were carried over from 2003. Out of 17, 14 were reviewed and 2 are under
consideration. Out of the reviewed complaints, 3 were solved in favor, 6 were
out of jurisdiction and 4 were groundless.
From considering the complaints, it is evident that many violations of the
citizens’ rights have come from non-execution of administrative procedures in
various proceedings that these bodies handle for the solution of problems with
community, and in relation with their employees.
The prefect, having a special status, being a liaison between central and
local government, is responsible for coordinating the work and activity of these
institutions. Many delays have been reported in regard to the administrative
procedures, lack of transparence and lack of dissemination of information on the
activity of the prefect office.
A lack of coordination of the work between central and local government
prevails on the complaints against prefectures. We single the complaint of
citizen B.S. from Berat who complained about the delays of the administrative
procedures that the Prefecture of Berat has to put in action in order to grant a
fund to her, based on the decision of the Municipality Council. The prefecture
justifies the decision on the lack of the documentation. The case is under
consideration and a response from the Prefecture of the Berat Circuit is
accepted.
Also, another range of complaints deals with the non-execution of the
dispositions of the Code of Administrative Procedures. Citizen Sh.B. from
Tirana submitted a complaint for non-execution of an order of hiring him as a
firefighter in Rinas. The order was not executed and the Prefecture never
informed Sh.B. on the reasons of the non-execution of the order. This case is
under consideration from our office. Another similar complaint belongs to the
citizen N.P. from Vlora who was informed on the order issued by the Prefect of
Vlora Region on her promotion in a higher position but later on she was not
informed on another order abrogating the first one, thus violating the
dispositions of the Law No. 8503, dated 30.06.1999 “On the Right to Access
Over the Official Documents”, as well as the dispositions of the Code of
Administrative Procedures.
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In conclusion, the prefectures, in compliance with the Law No. 8927,
dated 25.07.2003 “On the Prefect”, should strengthen their controlling role over
the administration and the activity of the local government bodies and the
compliance of their decision with laws in vigor so that the people can gain trust
in their government.
8. Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA)
The number of complaints reviewed by our institution reached 184, in
relation to the MoLSA and the institutions under its supervision, such as the
Institute of Social State Insurance (ISSI), the State Social Service, and their
subsidiaries in districts. Out of 229, 9 complaints were for the ministry itself. 58
complaints were carried over from 2003 and have all been reviewed. The scope
of these complaints is similar to that of the previous year. In the following, we
are presenting specific problems according to their subject.
It is evident through the reviewing of the complaints related to social
services that the possibilities of our country to secure the health and the welfare
of its population are compromised by the poor infrastructure, large demographic
movement, temporary lack of internal and regional stability, low technical
capacities of the respective structures. The restructuring and reformation of the
basic social services should be considered as a priority element in the reduction
of poverty.
Precisely, the increase of employment and not the actual situation brings
an impact on the level of poverty because of the connection between the
benefits or non-benefits of social welfare or increase or decrease on the social
insurance funds. The Ministry of Labour based on the relevant decisions of the
Government in 2004, has issued the Order No. 73, 74, 75 and 76 to incite the
employment.
a. Institute of Social State Insurance
During 2004, the complaints addressed against the ISSI were 151. From
these complaints, 114 were concluded and 37 are still under review. Out of the
completed complaints, 34 have resulted groundless, 63 out of jurisdiction, 14
resolved in favor of the complainants and in three cases were given necessary
explanations.
It is clear that the scope of complaints is very similar to that of previous
years 2000-2003. Hence, the citizens complain for the level of compensation of
their retirement pension, disability pension, family pension, non-gaining of
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disabled status, non-gaining of increases above pension, lack of documentation
and other issues.
No indexing of the pensions took place in 2004, although the ISSI stated
that the raise of pensions in 2004 was higher that the inflation, which has not
passed unnoticed from the public through several complaints addressed to our
institution. People’s Advocate does not have power to intervene in the state
policies.
Even though there have been periodic changes to the current legislation,
ameliorating the pension benefits of a certain category of beneficiaries, we keep
receiving complaints from citizens. As a result, we think that the legislation
needs further amendments.
Recently, we have received complaints against the content of Law No.
7703, dated 11.05.1993 “On Social Insurance in the Republic of Albania” and
other legal acts issued in compliance with this law.
During examination of these cases, we have encountered many problems
relating to the content of the above-mentioned law. The themes of the
complaints have been described in general in the previous reports.
The collaboration with the local and central administration of social
insurance has been efficient, observing an increasing responsibility towards
citizens and the Institution of the People’s Advocate.
b. Social welfare
The complaints related to this subject and addressed to the Institution of
the People’s Advocate during 2004 are 24. Out of these, 19 are settled and 9 are
still in process of review. Out of 19 complaints completed, 9 were groundless, 6
were out of jurisdiction, 4 were solved in favor of the complainants and 5 are
still under review.
Mainly these complaints regarded to the claims for the measure of the
benefit of welfare, termination of welfare, and non-benefit from the right to
custodianship.
Within this scope of conclusions, we are presenting some typical
complaints in this respect:
Citizen K.M., resident of Gostine, Elbasan, raised the concern for nonreceiving the social welfare. After considering the complaint we send a request
for explanation at the Office of the Financial Aid and Social Welfare at the
Commune of Gostine, the family was awarded financial aid, starting from
March 2004.
In the 2002 and 2003 annual reports, dealing with legislation on the
welfare, we reached the conclusion that welfare benefits for custodianship must
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not be connected to the scheme of welfare. Hence, in 2002 we recommended to
the General Directory for Welfare and Social Assistance to abrogate paragraph
9, of Order No. 2132, dated 23. 09.1998 of this Directory, because it is contrary
to the law for the implementation of which it was issued.
The recommendation is taken into consideration and according to the
Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, a project-law has been drafted in 2002,
which considered the changes we recommended. This project-law has been sent
to the government, which approved and sent it to the Parliament. The draft-law
is not approved by the Parliament yet.
9. Ministry of Territory Regulation and Tourism (MoTRT)
a. Complaints against the ministry itself
For this ministry, the institution of the People’s Advocate during 2004, has
envisaged 22 complaints. Out of these, 4 were carried from 2003, 6 were
groundless, 7 were out of jurisdiction, and 7 are under review.
The scope of the complaints has mainly focused on the expropriations for
public interests and problems that have come during this process, non-benefit of
compensations or complaints against the amount of compensations and nonexecution of judicial decisions. This scope is similar to the one presented in
previous reports.
There are complaints related to the procedures of the privatization of the
houses from the side of National Housing Entity and its district branches. The
citizens complain about the evaluation of the surface they received and dispute
the payment that they made; they think that they have to be excluded from the
payment because they have the status of the homeless. We verified the
complaints and found them groundless. Also we would mention the complaints
related to the non execution of the Law No. 8503, dated 30.06.1999 “On the
Right to Information over the Official Documents”.
The citizens complain that they have not been informed on the allowance
of funds to the local government to be used to fulfill the needs of the
community. On the other side, a lack of transparence exists between the local
government and the community, which constitute a premise for abuse and mal
judgment for the civil servants.
The representatives of the village Nivice of Lukova Commune in Saranda
presented one of the complaints we have considered last year. According to the
complaint, the Ministry of Tourism licensed the “Riviera”, sh.p.k. and
“Mediterranean Group” to build a tourist village at Kakoma Bay. Kakoma is
part of Nivica Village of Lukova Commune and they own property according to
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the decision of the Commission of the Distribution of Land. All the
documentation on the property happens to be at the Real Estate Office of
Saranda. They argue that the licensing of the above-mentioned companies has
violated their owners’ rights. This case is made public by the media and after
reviewing it we did not find the complaint to be grounded.
Complaints of citizens that are related to non-execution of Decision of
Council of Ministers No. 85, dated 2.03.1994 “On putting at disposal free areas
for the sheltering of the families that will be removed from Bovilla Basin and
those that were built without permission in the surrounding of Tirana”, as well
as the article 142/3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, were
presented also during the last year’s report. During the review of this problem,
after our recommendations, we think that the case is on the way to being solved.
Our office has followed many complaints regarding sheltering, especially
those of the citizens that found themselves homeless after the pyramid schemes
fell. The approval of the Law No.9232, dated 13.05.2004 “On the Social
Programs of the Housing in Urban Zones”, marked an achievement of the last
year to solve the problem of housing. The law set forth the regulations and the
administrative procedures on the ways of raising and distributing the funds,
including also the solutions to different categories of homeless. Several sublegal acts have been adopted which together with the above-mentioned law
serve to the definitive solving of the housing problem. The Decision of the
Council of the Ministers No. 814, dated 3.12.2004 “On the criteria of housing”,
as well as the initiative for drafting a decision on the documents and procedures
to be followed from the beneficiaries of this law”. After verifying the
complaints, we have been informed that a decision on the organigram, structure
and functioning of the Housing National Committee has been approved together
with the internal Regulation on the activity of the Committee. The above legal
measures undertaken show that the problem is on the way to be resolved and
need to be followed by drafting policies and strategies for a definitive solution.
b. Complaints against illegal constructions
After working 5 years on the issue of illegal constructions, we have
noticed that this problem remains the same, an indicator of the insufficient work
made by the appropriate public body.
The urban planning, along with the people’s free movement, after an
experience of more than 10 years, was issued as one of the priorities of the
country development, to face the challenges of progressive development in
many directions.
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In difference to the topics of last year relating to illegal construction, we
evidenced that nowadays is passed the phase of prevention of new illegal
constructions, and are in the phase of full identification and the destruction form
the Construction Police.
Last year marked the approval of two important laws, Law No. 9209,
dated 23.03.2004 “On the Legalization of the Additional Construction” and Law
No. 9304, dated 28.10.2004 “On the Legalization of the Urban Informal Zones”.
Law No. 9209 aims the legalization of constructions that has surpassed
the project approved by the KRRT of the local government. While the Law
9304 intends to legalize the illegal construction in the informal zones in order to
adapt them to the development of the infrastructure of the country. The problem
of the illegal construction raised in our previous reports finds its regulation in
the above-mentioned laws. Due to several problems it appears that the
implementation of the above laws has been delayed and practically they are
inapplicable.
Referring to the information received at the General Directory of
Urbanization at the Municipality of Tirana, only two construction companies
have submitted the necessary documentation for legalization and many other
companies did not submit their requests within the three months required
deadline that was 25.08.2004. We think that another deadline should be put in
place, because the three-month deadline it is considered very short. Another
cause for the delay is considered the procedures and the documentation required
for the legalization.
In our opinion the above-law needs amendments. Our institution will take
the legislative initiative and request to the competent ministry and the
Parliament two major changes of the law:
1. Defining a new deadline for submitting the requests for legalization.
3. Simplifying the procedures and the required documentation for
legalization.
The Construction Police has not intervene in solving some recent illegal
construction cases, arguing that now it is in place a regulation defined in the
Law “On the Legalization and Urbanization of the Informal Zones”. According
to article 77 of the Law “On the Urbanization”, the KRRT of local government
have competences in the decision-making of such cases.
Another issue to be clarified is the execution of the decisions taken before
the adoption of the new law. At a first glance, it looks like there is a conflict
between the competences exercised in the decisions for construction inside the
informal zones by the Construction Police, which after the adoption of the new
law result no executed. The article 23 of the Code of Administrative Procedures
gives the solution. The decision of the Construction Police should be suspended
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until a final decision issued by the competent authority. The legalization of the
illegal construction contain solution to the ownership of the land too in
compliance with the dispositions of the Law No. 9235, dated 29.07.2004 “On
the Restitution and Compensation of Property”.
During 2004, for this problem, we reviewed 117 complaints, from which
99 dealt with activity of the Construction Police and 8 with the activity of the
competent authorities at the Municipalities or KRRT as well as the activity of
the communes and their executive bodies. There is pretty much the same
numbers as last year, showing that the problem persists.
From these complaints, until the end of 2004, 79 complaints were settled
and 30 complaints are still under review.
For the reviewed cases, it has resulted that: 4 cases are solved in favor, 13
cases are groundless, whereas 46 are out of our jurisdiction. In 16 cases the
citizens withdrew the complaints after being instructed by our office where to
address to solve their problems.
There was abundance of cases when action has been partial and not in
abidance with respective administrative decisions, or has been unlawful from
the side of the Construction Police. Actually, as seen in the presented
complaints, the majority of the problems with the illegal constructions comes
from previous years and is related to the inactivity of the decision-making
organs and executive according to the cases.
An indicator, evidenced also in the previous reports, is the obvious
reduction of illegal construction particularly from individuals, a phenomenon
that was widely spread in the beginning of the 90s in all the main districts of the
country. The problem this year has more to do with defining a deadline from the
Construction Police regarding the execution of its decisions for the
deconstruction of illegal constructions.
There is a lack of willingness from the Construction Police, and the
KRRT of the Municipalities, to provide response and clarifications for issues
presented.
It is observed as a “game” of official documents between the KRRT and
the Municipalities with the branch offices of the Construction Police in relation
to respective decision-making for various constructions evidenced as unlawful.
We have officially contacted in a continuous way the representatives of the
above-mentioned Municipalities and officials of the branches of the
Construction Police and the central office.
At the same time, we are aware of the difficulties that the Construction
Police face for the execution of various decisions, coming from a lack of
personnel, means, and the changes in the managing structures. But this does not
justify the continuous inactivity for the problems and issues, for which our
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institution has, for more than two years, been involved to review and investigate
them and for those that result with a negligence for many complaints against
this body. In some cases we intervened with recommendations for the
explanation of defining the process of decision-making, recommendations,
which aim at a final solution of the cases and the regaining of the violated rights
of the individuals.
In our opinion, not providing citizens with copies of the official
documents from the Construction Police and the secretaries of KRRT, in
accordance with dispositions of the law “On the Right to Information over the
Official Documents”, is connected with profits and abusive behaviors from the
employees of the above-mentioned bodies. In a considerable amount of cases,
the lack of information has caused the violation of the rights of individuals.
During this year, as in the previous one, regarding the cases that fall into
this category, we have focused our work in direct contacts, without seeing the
need for sending a written recommendation or proposal to the appropriate body.
The need of a complete reform of the urban sector, through drafting a
new law on the urbanization has been brought up at the annual review of the
activity of the Government for the year 2003 but no further steps have been
taken.
10. Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MoAF)
During 2004 for the MoAF and the institutions that focus on agricultural
issues and food, we received 63 complaints or requests, compared to 58 from
2003.
There was one complaint for the Ministry itself. It was in regard of refusing
to license the “Association of the Operators of the Artificial Fecundation of the
Animals” as a judicial person, whose scope of activity is to bring qualitative
genetic materials from abroad.
a. Complaints relating to the Law “On the Land”
The complaints that focus on the activity of the commissions for rural land
distribution, in execution of Law No. 7501, dated 19.7.1991 “On the Land”, at
the village, municipality or district level, have had a slight increase compared to
the previous years. From 49 complaints in 2003, there have been 53 complaints
during 2003, out of which 5 were carried over from last year. 39 complaints
have been completed, out of which 4 were solved in favor of the complainants
by awarding them rural land from the Land Commissions of villages
Kryemedhenj-Kavaje and Mjull Bathore in Tirana, The Municipality of Bulqize
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and Kamez and 14 complaints are under review. The citizens complain that they
are not awarded rural land according to the size of the family.
During 2004 there were some positive changes compared to the previous
years in the restitution of the rural land and the interest showed by the
communes in resolving the land conflict. We single the commune of Farke,
Tirane with which we have established very good collaboration.
The majority of these complaints share the same concerns. For each
complaint that has been evaluated as right, we have sent recommendations to
the land commissions at all levels, for distributing the rural land and putting to
justice the damaged rights. Unfortunately, the recommendations are not
implemented, although the complaints from the land commissions of some
communes are standard: “there is no land left, it has been distributed”, “we are
not aware of the complaint”, “we have sent the complaint to the superior
commission”, etc.
We have received complaints from citizens D.GJ., H.D., E.Sh., etc, from
Elbasan District, Communes of Rrashbull and New Village in Durres and
especially in Shkodra District, Guri I Zi Commune and villages Boric i Madh
and Boric i Vogel. The above commissions are not consistent in solving conflict
of these kinds.
Another separate group of complaints regards the lands of Former
Agricultural Enterprises. In the district of Korca, Vlora and Elbasan, until 2003,
there has been a full or partial suspension of the acts for distribution of land
belonging to the Agricultural Enterprises. We have observed that after the
verification we did and the accomplishment of the obligations emanated by the
act-controls of the Prefectures and the Department of the Administrative
Internal Control at the Council of Ministers, the complaints are on the way to be
resolved.
Although our endeavors to help the people, whose property rights emerging
from the law “On Land” have been violated, we haven’t been very successful.
We hope that the local authorities, the head of those bodies that are at the same
time the head of the land commissions should put all their efforts and devotion
into finding a quick solution. In the following year we should insist and increase
our intervention at the competent authorities, within the competences the law
has invested to us, to put an end to this process.
11. Ministry of Finance (MoF)
During 2004 there were 48 complaints, requests and notifications
addressed to the People’s Advocate with claims from citizens and commercial
entities for violation of their rights, freedoms and legal interests from illegal and
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irregular actions and/or inactivity of the financial organs, including the MoF
itself, as well as the customs and taxation offices. Out of these 8 complaints
were under review, 8 were groundless, 5 were out of jurisdiction, 3 lacked
competence and 2 were solved in favor since the first phase of intervention and
verifying and 3 were solved in favor after submitting the recommendations from
our institution.
We will describe below some of the complaints that were solved in a
positive way:
1. Citizen S.B. submitted a complaint in regard to the non-execution of a
court decision of the First Degree Tribunal of Tirana from the Ministry of
Finance. According to the decision, the Ministry of Finance should pay to S.B.
the amount of 375.000 leke for the time he served in prison unjustly. The
Bailiff’s Office sent to the Ministry of Finance the court order to be executed
which was delayed without any reason. After the intervention from our office
the Ministry of Finance executed the court order.
2. Citizen R.R. submitted a complaint in regard to the non-execution of
the Court Decision No. 509, dated 10.02.2004 of the Tribunal of First Degree
from the Ministry of Finance for paying to the citizen R.R. the amount of
4.130.000 leke, besides the court fees in the amount of 73.493. R.R. withdrew
from the Saving Bank of Tirana the amount of 3.717.540 leke and was not
reimbursed for the court fees. We intervened at the Ministry of Finance and ask
for explanations. They sent us a response saying that the court fees are not
foreseen as expenses inside at the state budget allocated for court expenses. We
considered this practice an act in violation of laws in vigor and send a
recommendation to the Ministry of Finance and asked for changing of this
practice. Even though the case is still pending and we have not heard from the
Ministry of Finance, the People’s Advocate is of the opinion that nonreimbursement of the court fees from citizens is against the law and should be
remedied by the competent authorities. The Ministry of Finance cannot avoid
the application of the constitutional obligation by saying that they have not
included in the state budget “court fees”. People’s Advocate will insist in the
future until the Ministry of Finance modifies the practice.
In some of the complaints, citizen complain about article 29, pg. 3 of Law
No. 8438, dated 28.12.1998 “On the Income Taxes”, which defines the ways of
pre-payments made by individuals to the tax institutions which should be
recognized to them as a modality of payment for delayed tax obligations, for
future tax obligations or the individual should get reimbursed on his request.
We have observed that this obligation has not been enforced by the tax
institutions and constitutes a case for our office and the court too.
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We have repeated our concern toward the Custom and Tax
Administration for not responding to our recommendations to the Ministry of
Finance, which causes serious problems in the investigation of the complaints
within the required deadline.
In this framework, during 2004 we have proposed disciplinary measures
for some employees to the General Directory of Taxes for unjustifiable delays
and negligence in responding to our requests and recommendations. One of the
reasons for this bad situation in the public administration of the finance sector,
we believe is the lack of knowledge on the Constitution, the Code of the
Administrative Procedures, “Labour Code”, the Law “On the Status of Civil
Servants”, and the Law “On People’s Advocate” which set the boundaries for
the obligation of the administration in responding to the complainants.
In conclusion, even though the number of the complaints for that sector is
low, the violations are of significant importance, causing the loss of trust of the
citizen in the public administration.
We will continue in the future to intervene and protect the rights of
citizens from the abusive behaviors of the state administration.
12. Ministry of Education and Science (MoES)
During 2004 there were 48 complaints or requests against the MoES and
the institutions under its supervision. 13 complaints were in the phase of review
from our office, 8 complaints or requests were solved in favor, and 14
complaints were beyond our jurisdiction, whereas 10 complaints were
groundless. 16 complaints were from year 2003, out of which 4 were solved in
favor, 6 out of jurisdiction and 4 groundless.
A considerable number of complaints had as an object the dismissal from
work of teachers or their transfer from one job to the other. During 2004 there is
an increase of the issues on this subject because of the reorganization of the
directories of education throughout the country.
In some cases the complaints resulted as groundless. We have advised the
teachers to contact our institution after exhausting all the administrative means.
A good reasoning of the administrative decisions is a premise for good
administration for two reasons: first, it helps the citizens to get informed of the
content of the administrative decisions; second, it facilitates the administrative
and judicial control. Another problem relating to these decisions is the lack of
facts, which constitute violation of the Code of the Administrative Procedures.
Also, we had complaints from the teachers for not being informed of the
decisions. Often the decision is notified verbally to them. We have observed
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that in many cases the right to be heard during the process of decision-making
has been violated.
In conclusion, we are of the opinion that a lot has to be done in regard to
the compliance with the legal procedures from the appropriate bodies, especially
in getting acknowledged and implementing the Code of Administrative
Procedures.
Some of the complaints are as below:
1. Citizen P.T. complained against the President of the Polytechnic
University. He was not awarded the diploma of graduation because of his beard,
as part of her Muslim belief. We investigated the case and concluded that in the
actions of the President there were violations in regard to the procedures and the
content.
According to article 108/a of the Code of Administrative Procedures, the
bodies issuing administrative acts should reason such decisions in order to give
people the opportunity to complain to the competent body at the Ministry of
Education, and lastly to the court. According to article 18 of the abovementioned code, the citizen should be provided with the administrative act. In
the case of citizen P.T., such an act was missing and the words "school is
secular” do not fall in the term of reasoning.
We explained to the President the legal aspect of the problem and the
student was awarded the diploma of graduation.
3. Citizen A.B. complained about his unjust removal from the position of
lecturer at the Faculty of Mechanic Engineering at the Polytechnic University
from the President of the University.
We investigated the case and it resulted that the decision for his removal
was taken by the president and was not discussed at the appropriate structures of
the faculty. In spite of the requirements of the article 11 of the Internal
Regulation of the Polytechnic University that embody the President with the
power to nominate the academic staff through a contest, the case needs to be
discussed collegially by the structures and in the end, the President is the
competent body to make the decision. In the given case, there is violation of the
procedures foreseen by the Labour Code. As a result, an administrative act
issued in violation of the procedures required by law is considered null,
according to the Code of Administrative Procedures. After our intervention,
A.B. was returned to his previous job.
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13. Ministry of Health (MoH)
During 2004 for this ministry and the institutions under its supervision
there were a total of 33 complaints. 8 complaints were carried from last year, 25
complaints were concluded, out of which, 11 were solved in favor, 4 resulted as
groundless, 7 were outside our jurisdiction and competence and 8 complaints
had been carried in 2005.
The scope of issues dealt mainly with dismissals and transfers from job,
trading of medications that are not licensed, reimbursement of the medications,
non-execution of judicial decisions, maltreatment from the side of medical
personnel, non-compliance with the procedures of hiring and non transparence
from the Directory of the Hospital Center “Mother Teresa”.
From the complaints settled we can mention:
1. Citizen A.M. complained for not receiving free the drug “Mestinon”
(Piridostigmine Bronkeri). This medication was excluded from the list of
reimbursed medication because it was imported from Italy. After a
correspondence with the Pharmaceutical Directory at the Ministry of Health, the
complainant was informed that the above drug was replaced with three other
similar drugs being imported from Italy, France and Germany. No problem of
the distribution of these drugs was encountered, so the complaint was
groundless.
2. Complaint of the Association of the Pharmacists of Diber District,
which raised a concern that in the Peshkopi city there are some pharmacies
where the technical head is not a pharmacist by profession. Thus these persons
sell medications that are strictly interdicted to be sold by non-licensed people.
The National Center of the Medicaments Control informed us that the
concern was based. They have sent controls in Peshkopi and other cities and
ordered closing of the activity.
14. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA)
During 2004 for the MoFA, embassies and consulates outside the country
we received 13 complaints, out of which 2 were carried from 2003. From the
considered complaints, 3 were finished in favor, 6 are under review and 4 are
out of the jurisdiction of the People’s Advocate.
In relation to the scope of these complaints we can say that they mainly
dealt with actions or inactivity of consulates or consular sections in our
embassies in those countries where there are a lot of Albanian citizens.
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The majority of the complaints were addressed against the representative
missions in Albania. When the complaints have been out of our jurisdiction, the
citizens were shown the ways to follow in such cases.
To increase the services to the citizens, more attention is being paid to the
problem of legalizing of documents needed outside the country, for those
documents to be notarized and must be legalized in the MoFA. We had
complaints from the citizens that are obliged to stay in long queues and face
unnecessary obstacles. This ministry has taken measures to ease the process.
Because of the intervention from the People’s Advocate, the right to be
informed has been respected and ways to the solution of problems have been
found. We would like to mention the request of the Head of the Albanian
Association of the Immigrants in Canada who requested the opening of a
General Consulate in Toronto. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs kept the request
for 10 months unanswered.
In compliance with the constitutional dispositions defining the activity of the
People’s Advocate, we are not focused only in dealing only with concrete cases
but we have played a very active role on drafting the reports that Albania is
obliged to submit to different structures of the UN.
We would like to mention the contribute our institution gave not only in
drafting but also during the consideration of the National Report on the
Implementation of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights
by the UN appropriate Committee in Geneva in October 2004.
15. Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications (MoTT)
During 2004, our institution received 50 complaints against the MoTT
and their depending bodies. 8 complaints addressed to the ministry itself. Out of
these, 5 were groundless, 2 were out of jurisdiction and 1 is resolved in favor of
the complainant.
The complaint solved in favor belongs to citizen D.M., resident of Tirana,
a second year student at the Faculty of Economics. For the purpose of a seminar
to be organized by the Faculty of Economics, he asked from the General
Directory of the Civil Aviation to be provided with the documentation in regard
to the concession of the International Airport “Mother Teresa” of Rinas. He was
drafting an academic paper on the “Concession as an effective way of the
economic development”. In despite to the request made by the student, the
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General Directory of the Civil Aviation has not provided him with the
documentation required.
People’s Advocate after getting informed with the case, acted quickly
using its power as “a guardian” for the implementation of laws vested by the
Law No. 8503, dated 30.06.1999 “On the Right to Information over the Official
Documents”.
After studying and examining the case, we were convinced that there is
no legal obstacle to get the documentation he required. On the other side,
providing him with a copy of the documentation is a legal obligation for the
competent authority and is in conformity with the article 23, pg. 2 of the
Constitution which stipulates:
“Everyone has the right, in compliance with law, to get information about
the activity of state organs, as well as of persons who exercise state functions”.
Therefore, People’s Advocate, based on the article 23/2 of the
Constitution as well as on the Law No. 8503, dated 30.06.1999 “On the Right to
Information over the Official Documents” sent a recommendation to the
General Directory of the Civil Aviation, proposing to provide D.M with the
necessary documentation.
Also, the People’s Advocate has expressed his willingness to assist the
General Directory of the Civil Aviation in the implementation of the Law No.
8503, dated 30.06.1999, on drafting of an internal regulation on the right to
information from the General Directory of the Civil Aviation.
b. Complaints against Telecom
During 2004 we have received 23 complaints against the General Directory
of Telecom and its offices in different cities. Out of these complaints, 4 are still
under review, 9 were groundless, 2 were out of jurisdiction and 8 were solved in
favor of the complainants.
We do not include here the petition of 10.000 signatures that we received
from the Citizen Advocacy Office, complaining about the raise of the rate of the
electricity and phones at the end of 2003. It is a wide known fact that on
December 15, 2003, Albtelecom, after the approval from the Regulating Entity
of the Telecommunication raised the rates for the rotary phones 6-7 times. This
became a great concern for the general public and we set in place a group of
experts with professors at the Academy of Science and the University of Tirana.
The group of experts reached the conclusion that the raise was higher and not
motivated in the current situation of the consummators. After several
encounters between the group of experts nominated by our institution and the
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experts of Albtelecom and ERT and the meeting of the People’s Advocate and
the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, a decrease of 50% of the
rates were put in place, with a decision of ERT starting from April 1, 2005. This
is one of those cases, where our institution worked closely with the interested
parties and it was not necessary to draft any written recommendation, only
through the act of expertise concluded by the group of experts.
We need to point out that this sector has grown tremendously in the few last
years. Nevertheless, a lot of problems have appeared, especially the increasing
of the standards of services in conformity with the contemporaneous techniques.
The complaints showed that there was many inaccuracies in the bills, such as
missing of due dates and the repair and restoration of the services were not
completed on time.
It has been verified that this institution, in a lot of complaints, has not done
verifications of the complaints submitted, but rather sent out a copy of a form,
changing only the name and the phone number of the complainant. After our
intervention, there are some improvements, but still, a lot has to be done,
especially on being transparent during drafting of the bills, where the majority
of complaints come. It doesn’t require too much action, as in the case of the
Albanian Electric Corporation and Water Pipe, because the equipment is located
within the institution structures. It demands also the attention from different
organizations, such as ERT, Consummators Association, Directory of
Consummators at the MoE and the MoTT.
One of the achievements during 2004 was drafting and approval of the new
contract offered to consumers in close cooperation with Albtelecom. This
contract meets the contemporary requirements thus embodying both parties with
mutual rights and obligations.
We have received complaints against the private cellular companies, such as
AMC and VODAFON for the service fees and the phone cards. We have
addressed to the Regulation Agency of Telecommunications to resolve the
complaints, which deal with small rural operational problems rather than
drafting a methodology of the rates of the cellular phones thus decreasing the
prices put by AMC and Vodafone.
16. Ministry of Industry and Energy (MoIE)
During 2004 we received 16 complaints, which were related directly to
the MoIE, out of which 5 were out of jurisdiction, 1 was solved in favor of the
complainant, 5 were groundless and 5 are under review.
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The complaint of citizen Y.A., (on behalf of 13 employee), is addressed
to the Electric Policy of Tirana for the illegal actions of the General Director of
the Electrical Police, which is under jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and
Energy. These employees claimed that they were dismissed from their jobs
with prejudice because they brought up issues of corruption and abusive
conduct in the workplace.
The cases were sent before the court of Tirana, which ruled in favor of
the employees, reasoning that the dismissals were not grounded because the
employees did not have any other disciplinary measures and no remarks were
made about their performance.
Therefore, we have recommended to the MoIE to verify the accusation of
the above employees for corruption and abusive behaviors of the General
Directory of the Electric Police.
In regard to this recommendation, the Ministry of Industry and Energy set
up a supervising group to verify the complaint, which found out irregularities
and abuse of power committed by the Director of the Electric Police of Tirana
and the General Director of the Electric Police. Under these circumstances,
these high officials were dismissed from their jobs by an order of the Minister
of Industry and Energy. In addition to these administrative measures, the High
State Control is carrying out a control to find out the financial abuse committed
by them. They might face other penal or administrative charges, if the above
violation is proved.
The positive outcome of the complaint rang a bell on the Ministry of
Industry and Energy on the fight to corruption and abuse of power from its
officials. In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Energy should raise its
efforts on the good administration and normal functioning of its subordinate
bodies. Strengthening of the order, supporting of the new initiatives in
protection of individual rights and abolition of illegal practices should be
priorities of this institution in the future.
Quite often, it is unacceptable the attitude of the Ministry of Industry and
Energy in cases of asking for help in regard to the supplying with power of
some urban and interurban zones. It is to be mentioned the case of the
neighborhood “Bregalumas”, Laprake, Tirane, where, even though the line 20K
has been installed during 2003, most of its habitants are not being provided
with power or no contract has been concluded. We have raised the issue several
times at the Ministry of Industry and Energy but no concrete steps have been
taken to solve the problem.
People’s Advocate, in several occasions, has observed that finding of the
administrative responsibilities and penalizing of the responsible employees
has had a positive impact on the amelioration of work and the public services.
78
A good example is the administrative measures taken to the high officials of
the Electric Police. These measures need to be strengthened and put in place
for KESH structures too. People’s Advocate should encourage any kind of
efforts from the Ministry of Industry and Energy to change its image in front
of the public and raise its standards of services provided to the citizens.
b. Complaints against the Electric Power Corporation (EPC)
During 2004 we received 47 complaints and requests against Tirana EPC
and some other branches in different cities, out of which 10 were carried over
from 2003, which have been all concluded. Out of 37 complaints receiving
during 2004, 2 of them have been solved in favor, 15 were groundless, 4 were
out of jurisdiction and 16 have been carried over to 2005.
We have received a lot of complaints from citizens, claiming that the
competent authorities haven’t provided them with power in conformity with the
signed contract. They said that they have paid their dues accordingly. The
verification resulted that the requests were based on legal grounds.
Based in our recommendation, in 2002, EPC changed pg. 1 and 6 of its
Order No. 32, dated 02.02.2001, which legitimized the collective punishment.
This change hasn’t been enforced because we continue to receive complaints for
the same object.
We have had complaints from some employees of EPC for not filling the
electricity bills accordingly. It has resulted in paying a higher amount than what
was due, because we all are aware that after consuming over 300 KW, there is a
higher tariff to be paid. We informed the competent officials and the
disciplinary actions have been put into place.
We have received a lot of complaints regarding the bills issued by EPC
for people that don’t have an electricity meter. EPC hasn’t found an appropriate
way to collect money for the services rendered and has charged the consumers
with erroneous amounts. A lot of people complained that they have been to EPC
several times asking to have the meter installed but EPC has not taken any step
to fix the problem. They continue to pay erroneous bills in order to get
electricity. These actions on the part of EPC constitute a violation of the
consumers’ rights.
Even though EPC promised that with the World Bank financial support
would equip citizens with apparatus within 2004, giving priority to zones, as
Shkodra, Vlore, Kukes, etc., we continue to receive complaints from the
Northern Region (i.e. some communes in Dibra of the Malesi e Madhe) who ask
for immediate installment of the apparatus to avoid the erroneous fees. The noncompliance with the above obligation is confirmed in the “Information on the
79
investments on the metering system for 2004” presented by the General
Director of EPC, Mr. Andis Harasani:
“In conclusion, for the year 2004 we have provided 254.529 contractors
which constitute 92.71% of the meters needed for the whole country. The
installment of the meters according to EPC has been implemented timely,
except the part funded by Cooperaccione Italiana, which will be carried over to
2005 for 20.000 clients. The causes for the delay, according to the EPC, are the
late issuance of the meters. EPC has made a commitment for the year 2005 to
install 20.000 meters with funds from Italian loan and will use its funds for
30.000 meters for the new clients.
People’s Advocate will continue to monitor this process, in order to put to
an end the erroneous electricity payment from the citizen that do not have power
meter installed to their home.
Also, we have observed that EPC structures have delayed the repairing of
the old meters thus violating the new contract, which guarantee such a service.
The People’s Advocate institution has made an immense contribution in
raising the awareness and conscience of the public on the violation and
infringement of the citizen’s rights from EPC. At the same time we have asked
the citizens to fulfill their obligations, such as paying the dues for the services
provided.
Since January 2004, EPC is operating with the new rates approved by the
new contract. The Citizen Advocacy Office has forwarded us the complaints of
10.000 citizens who opposed the increasing of the electricity rates. We
established a group of experts to review the case and make necessary
suggestions. The group of experts was constituted from professors at the
Academy of Science and the Polytechnic University of Tirana. They reached the
conclusion that the raise was higher and not motivated in the current situation of
the consummators. In the end, the People’s Advocate based on the report
provided by the group of experts issued a recommendation to the ERT to revise
and low the rates of the electricity approved with its Decision No. 22, dated
30.12.2003. We notified the Chairman of the Parliament, Mr. Servet Pellumbi
and the Prime Minister, Mr. Fatos Nano of the above recommendation too.
We are of the opinion that ERT should have applied the article 29 of the Law
No. 9072, dated 22.05.2003 “On the Sector of the Electric Energy”. Taking into
the consideration that EPC has consummators without meters, that its service is
not conform higher standards, lacking quality (often is lower or higher that 220
Walt), and quality (there are frequently cut of power), it is not justified the
higher raise of rates.
Even though we provided on time the above recommendation, during 2004,
EPC and ERT have applied the new rates of the electricity, thus ignoring our
80
recommendation, which was based on the expertise of scientists, academics and
intellectuals with reputation in the field of energy. Furthermore, in 2004 EPC
proposed to ERT another raise of the rates for 2005. We are consistent in our
attitude and will continue to use our power to protect the violation of citizens’
rights from the public authority.
17. Conclusions on the cases relating to the Albanian
Public Administration
As you have followed us on analyzing of the activity of our institution for
the year 2004 through this report, we have tried to evaluate and drew
conclusions on each ministry separately. In this section, we would draw some
general and definitive conclusions coming out from the complaints we have
received in regard to the activity of the public administration. We have observed
that there were many violations of the citizen’s rights from the public
administration, such as not resolving on time of different cases, refusal to accept
requests and complaints and denying the right to get informed and to be heard
during the administrative procedures.
It is a known fact that people pay for the services provided by the Public
Administration, which it appears to be low compared to the salaries and the
standard of living in Albania. Even though there was amelioration compared to
the previous years, we have observed that citizens spend much time and make
lines for hours to make payments for different services, such as at the Real
Estate Offices, EPC, Telecom, etc. Providing of the services in a timely manner
will reduce the “small corruption” phenomenon that associates these kinds of
situations. Whereas the central public administration has taken measures to
change those practices, the local governmental bodies, such as, municipalities
and communes are moving very slowly in this direction.
The Public Administration has to face the challenge of the accession into
the European Community and in this framework some of the main goals are:
1. Increasing of the control in all aspects of the activity of all public
administration bodies, not focusing only in the financial side, as it appears in
many cases, but putting an emphasis on the job performance of the individuals,
as well, which requires the strengthening of the external and internal control.
The role of the High State Control is indispensable but its recommendations are
mandatory and must be applied by the concerned parties.
2. The Public Administration of all levels, in exercising its functions must
comply with the dispositions of the Laws “On the Code of the Administrative
Procedures” and “On the Right to Information over the Official Documents”.
Therefore, disciplinary measures should be applied upon the officials or civil
81
servants that by negligence or intentionally violate these laws that have been
into force for more than 5 years.
3. The Law “On the Status of the Civil Servant” should be applied in
every sector of the public administration. Every position should have a job
description.
4. A close cooperation should be established within the ministries and
between ministries too. Especially, the decentralization and the autonomy of
local government should be implemented through positive practices.
5. Strengthening of the work of directories or judicial sectors within the
central government as well as filling in with lawyers of the local government
bodies should be a priority for these organs. The lack of lawyers in the
communes or even in municipalities has resulted in issuing decisions in
violation of laws in vigor.
6. The Public Administration of all levels should be informed of the level
of governing and the performance of its officials through surveys and
questionnaires with the general public. In addition, awareness campaigns should
be organized periodically to promote the activity and the services provided by
the public administration.
7. The recognition and the implementation, from all the civil servants
during performing their duties, of the Code of Ethics of the Public
Administration approved with Law No. 9131, dated 08.09.2003, in conjunction
with the Law “On the Conflict of Interests” that hopefully will be adopted the
following year, should play a very significant role on the amelioration of the
activity of the Public Administration in Albania.
We are aware that this is not an exhaustive list of recommendations for
changes of the performance of the public administration. We are very modest in
our mission: through considering the complaints we receive from the citizens,
we make investigations, observations, drew conclusions and make
recommendations that help the public administration in performing its role as
the servant of citizens.
82
CHAPTER FOUR
1. Follow-up on cases presented at the 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003
Annual Reports
Some of the cases (complaints, requests, or recommendations) presented
in the 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 reports have been accomplished, therefore
they have been reflected in the respective sections dealing with their problemrange. Consequently, in this chapter we shall briefly introduce only those
follow-up cases even for year 2005.
1. The amendment of the Law “On the Rights of Prisoners” with subsidiary
legislation in regard to the remuneration of the prisoners for the work they
perform in prisons and changes to the internal regulation of the prisons police,
which was in the schedule of the Ministry of Justice for 2003 and 2004 but no
action has bee taken from this Ministry to complete this legislative task.
2. Recommendation addressed to the Parliament “On drafting projects for
amendments of the legislation for protecting the citizens’ health and
environment from the radiation of the cellular telephones”. We have sent the
same recommendation to the Prime Minister, Minister of Justice, Minister of
Health, Minister of Environment and Minister of Transports. Only the Ministry
of Health has notified us on the establishment of a working group, which has
not reached a decision yet because of the diverse opinions on the creation of the
regulation entity. Whereas the Ministry of Justice has responded that a new
draft is on the way.
3. Recommendation addressed to the Council of Ministers to respect the
constitutional obligation embodied on article 24 of the Constitution in regard to
the religious freedom and comply with the requirements of the pg. 5 of article
10 of the Constitution which stipulates: “Relations between the state and
religious communities are regulated on the basis of agreements entered into
between their representatives and the Council of Ministers. These agreements
are ratified by the Assembly”. We have resent this recommendation several
times and have not received any response from the Council of Ministers.
83
4. Recommendation for changes of the legislation on social protection in
regard to the benefits of the custodianship from economic assistance scheme
and the amendment of the Law “On Social Protection and Assistance” in regard
to the administrative way of complaining against the decisions taken from the
appropriate bodies. We have not received any official response but drafting of a
project-law is in process.
5. The proposal addressed to the Prime Minister for changes and
amendments to the Decision of the Council of Ministers No. 552, dated
27.11.1999 “On the economic and financial treatment of the families of the
policemen murdered or wounded in duty” to exceed the effects of the law from
January 1, 1991. Even though the Minister of Public Order promised to the
Parliament that the above decision should be changed, no further steps have
been taken after resending several times the recommendation.
2. Cases initiated by the People's Advocate
According to article 13, Law No. 8454, dated 4.02.1999 “On People's
Advocate”: “The People's Advocate initiates the procedure related to examining
the respective cases, provided he notices or suspects that the violation of the
right has occurred, based on the complaint or request submitted by the person
interested or damaged, as well as at his own initiative, in special cases which
have bee made public, at the consent of the person interested or damaged.”
- A total of cases started at the initiative during year 2004
- Complaints resolved favorably
- Beyond competency or jurisdiction
- The complaints refused on account of the fact that
individual complaints have not been submitted in compliance
with the law, the complaints have been withdrawn, or
finally the complaint was unjust or untrue
- Examination underway
84
9
4
0
5
0
APPENDIXES
1. Acknowledgement letters addressed to the People's
Advocate
Mr. Ermir Dobjani, the People’s Advocate
I would like to thank you for the willingness your institution showed by
respecting laws to solve the problem concerning my son Sokol Manjani, age 26,
habitant of Gjorice in Bulqize.
Sokol fall sick in Italy where he was a legal immigrant because he was
stolen 8 million lireta and his documents too. We brought him in Albania to
take care of him. He escaped from home in 2003 and I asked for help from the
police, which did not take any measures to bring my son back. After my son
showed improper behavior at the Bllaca Bektashi Monastery due to his physic
state, he was wounded, arrested and accused of being a terrorist from the police.
Even today, a year after he has been cured at the Tirana hospital, they want to
send him to Kruja to lock there forever.
07.05.2004
Besim Manjani
Mr. Ermir Dobjani, the People’s Advocate
Tirane
I am so grateful to the People’s Advocate Institution for the
competence he showed in following and solving my complaint No. K1/H18-9,
Prot., No. dok., 2003001607/9 against INSIG, Tirana.
On January 15, 2002, I was transferred from the INSIG-Kosovo
Branch to the General Directory of Tirana INSIG where I worked until July
2003, time I was laid off. On July 20, 2003 I was presented at INSIG to collect
my 9 salaries but:
- I was told verbally for a debt, in the amount of 429 EURO for the time I
was in Kosovo.
- From January 15, 2002 to July 30, 2003, I have received 15 full payments
(twice a month).
- There is no order for returning the above amount of money.
85
I submitted a complaint several times to the General Director of INSIG
and have not received any response thus I was addressed to the People’s
Advocate and met with Mr. Artur Lazabeu who paid very much attention to
my explanation of the case.
For several months, Mr. Alek Jaupi, Vice Commissioner at your
institution followed up with my case until a recommendation was sent to the
INSIG on February 6, 2004. I am very touched with the readiness of this
institution to solve my problem and I am very thankful and grateful for your
role in the protection of people’s rights.
Tirana, 21.06.2004
Respectfully,
Halil Elezi
Mr. Ermir Dobjani
People’s Advocate
Tirane
We would like to thank you and we are very grateful for the condolences
you sent to my family for the loss of my daughter Elsa Hasa and for all the
endeavors at the Greek Ombudsman in Athens.
The version you presented in your letter No. K2/F59-5, dated 25.03.2004,
No. Dok. 200301837/5, severe economic reasons – I am a retired man with a
very low pension and sick - made the trip to Greece impossible. We needed
money for our trip to Greece, including the expenses for the attorney and the
court.
Thank you and we apologize for disturbing you. We would like to ask
you to find another solution: for example to authorize someone from the
Albanian Embassy in Athens to follow up with our problem, which is not being
covered from the Greek authorities, while the identity of the driver who violated
the law is recognized.
We have the impression that this problem will not be solved if you do not
exercise the power vested by the article 8, pg. 2 of the Constitution or other
laws that our Embassy may dispose to protect the rights of Albanian citizens,
murdered or disappeared.
We believe on you from the message of your letter.
Respectfully,
Fadil Hasa
28.07.2004
86
Organization of the Veterans of the Antifascist National Liberation War
(LANC)
National Committee
People’s Advocate Institution
Mr. Ermir Dobjani
The Presidency of the National Committee of the Organization of the
Veterans of the LANC of Albania, on behalf of all the veterans, would like to
thank you for the interest you have shown toward the former partisans of LANC
who sacrificed their life for the liberation of our country.
We, as representatives of the veterans of LANC, have seen on you, in the
quality of the People’s Advocate, a dedicated official of our state who have
shown his respect in receiving and hearing us attentively. It was because of you
that the proper authorities accepted the documentation for many of veterans of
LANC, who missed the deadline for objective causes. We believe that you will
support us in our request to the Council of Ministers for defining a new deadline
to submit the required documentation for the veterans that were unable to make
it on time.
Also, we count on you, by using the powers vested by the law, to assist us
in our endeavors to raise the pensions for veterans of LANC.
With your help it was made possible the adoption of the legal rights of
military veterans who have not received any financial remuneration for 40
years. At this time, the Council of Ministers is working on drafting subsidiary
laws on defining the amount of the compensation and we believe that we will
have your support in this matter.
On behalf of the Presidency of the National Committee of the
Organization of the Veterans of LANC, we would like to express again our
deepest gratitude for your support.
With highest consideration,
General Secretary
Qamil Poda
President
Adnan Qatipi
87
Mr. Ermir Dobjani
People Advocate
Tirane
I am writing to thank you for everything you and the institution you are
leading have done for me, as a citizen and a former professor at the Faculty of
the Mechanic Engineering at the Polytechnic University, fired unjustly from the
job by the Rector, Ms. Tamara Eftimi and returned to the job as a professor due
to your intervention.
Even though I wrote to some ministers whom I did not receive any
response “because they are very busy”, and after a 4 year calvar of court
proceedings in Tirana Court, I could not solve my problem.
Therefore, through this simple but meaningful letter, I would like to
express my appreciation and also my family’s and my colleagues’ gratitude.
You have shown a great deal of commitment to protect people’s rights
from the unjust behavior of the public administration.
Tirane, 10.11.2004
Respectfully,
Prof. Dr. Alexander Bushati
88
2. Tables and Graphs
The Written Media for 2004
No.
DATE
NEWSPAPER
HEADLINE
COLUMN
1
04.01.2004
SHEKULLI
Attention to the People’s Advocate: To have or not
to have KESH
Article
2
07.01.2004
SHEKULLI
The outcome of the experts should be published
today from Dobjani
Article
3
08.01.2004
KORRIERI
Experts submit the study on the rates of telephones
and electricity.
Article
4
08.01.2004
5
14.01.2004
ATSH
6
14.01.2004
KOHA JONE
7
14.01.2004
DITA
8
14.01.2004
Gazeta "55"
9
14.01.2004
KORRIERI
10
14.01.2004
ALBANIA
11
20.1.2004
ALBANIA
12
20.01.2004
GAZETA
People’s Advocate Dobjani: We should be more
SHQIPTARE involved in the anti-trafficking battle.
13
20.01.2004
SHEKULLI
14
20.01.2004
PANORAMA
People’s Advocate: The structures of the State are
Pronunciation
involved in the traffic
15
20.01.2004
PANORAMA
People’s Advocate: The free movement. Stop to
barriers
Pronunciation
16
20.01.2004
PANORAMA
People’s Advocate: Child trafficking through
international adoption
Pronunciation
KOHA JONE Academics react over the Albtelecom.
Notification
People’s Advocate urges the General Prosecutor’s
Office to find out about the 9 January tragedy.
Notification
Dobjani, condolences to the families touched by
the tragedy
Notification
Dobjani: We are investigating the event
People’s Advocate encourages the General
Prosecutor’s Office to find out about the tragedy
of January 9
People’s Advocate: “Encourages the General
Prosecutor’s Office to find out about the tragedy”
People’s Advocate: "Find the truth about the
tragedy"
People’s Advocate: State denounces the state
People’s Advocate, Ermir Dobjani insisted on the
strengthening and the implementation of the
punishment for traffickers
89
Pronunciation
Notification
Pronunciation
Pronunciation
Article
Pronunciation
Pronunciation
ZERI I
POPULLIT
People’s Advocate: Fighting child trafficking, a
political priority that should be accompanied with
measures
Article
17
20.01.2004
18
22.01.2004
GAZETA
Dobjani: We are working on the January 9th event
SHQIPTARE
19
22.01.2004
People’s Advocate in Shkoder met with the
KOHA JONE families that lost their relatives at the tragedy of
Jon
20
22.01.2004
ATSH
People’s Advocate discusses on the draft-law on
the creation of the Committee for Prevention of
Crimes
Notification
21
23.01.2004
SOT
People’s Advocate on the project-law on the
creation of the Committee for the Prevention of
Crimes
Notification
22
28.01.2004
23
29.01.2004
24
29.01.2004
25
05.02.2004
ATSH
26
06.02.2004
27
10.02.2004
28
11.02.2004
PANORAMA People’s Advocate met with the prisoners on strike
29
12.02.2004
PANORAMA
The mother of one of the students complains to
Dobjani
Notification
30
12.02.2004
PANORAMA
The Commissioner of the People’s Advocate get
informed of two cases
Notification
31
12.02.2004
KORRIERI
The “threat” of the teacher was discovered. The
parents of the 15 years old addressed to the
People’s Advocate
Pronunciation
32
12.02.2004
ATSH
GAZETA
The student of the Faculty of Engineering at the
SHQIPTARE People’s Advocate office
"The religious student should be awarded the
GAZETA
diploma”, The People’s Advocate: “The decision
SHQIPTARE
is groundless”
GAZETA
"Bread" arrives at the People’s Advocate office
SHQIPTARE
Pronunciation
Article
Article
Interview
Notification
People’s Advocate, Ermir Dobjani meets with the
new Ambassador of Greece, In Tirana, Carabassis
Notification
ZERI I
POPULLIT
Dobjani, the Greek Ambassador Carabasiss: To
facilitate the procedures for the legalization of
Albanians
Notification
SHEKULLI
People’s Advocate handed to HCJ the complaints
for 7 judges
Notification
People’s Advocate asks from ERE the revising of
the rates of energy
90
Interview
J.Dhrami
Notification
People’s Advocate: Price of the energy get raised
38%
33
13.02.2004
PANORAMA
34
13.02.2004
DITA
People’s Advocate reacts publicly against the
increase of the electricity rates
Article
35
13.02.2004
R.D.
People’s Advocate asked the ERE to revise the
rates of the electricity increased by 30%
Article
36
13.02.2004
KOHA JONE
37
13.02.2004
KORRIERI
The report of the group of experts at the People’s
Advocate throws light on the truth of the
electricity rates
Article
38
13.02.2004
SHEKULLI
People’s Advocate: The electricity is increased by
38%
Article
39
13.02.2004
GAZETA
People’s Advocate and the debate on the
SHQIPTARE electricity rates of KESH
40
13.02.2004
ALBANIA
People’s Advocate asks for the revising of the
electricity rates
41
14.02.2004
ALBANIA
Ministry and KESH against the People’s Advocate
and academics
42
14.02.2004
43
14.02.2004
R.D.
44
16.02.2004
PANORAMA
45
16.02.2004
President hosts the Minister of the Energy, the
SHEKULLI, Head of the Academy of Science and the People’
Advocate
46
16.02.2004
47
16.02.2004
People’s Advocate: The Regulator Entity must low
Notification
the rates
GAZETA
Dobjani denounces the concealing of prices
SHQIPTARE
DITA
Notification
Article
Press
Conference
Article
Notification
People’s Advocate denounces the fraud of the
Government for the compensation
Article
The Head of the Government supports the
academics and the People’s Advocate
Article
President met with leaders of the Academy of
Science, People’s Advocate and the Minister of
Energy
People’s Advocate: We will contact our
PANORAMA homologues in regard to the extradition of the
Article
Article
Pronunciation
prisoners
48
18.02.2004
ATSH
OSCE: People’s Advocate has gained the trust of
the general public
49
19.02.2004
ATSH
Minister Xhafa emphasis the importance of the
cooperation with the People’s Advocate for a
better functioning of the Justice System
91
Pronunciation
O.Lipponen
Notification
REPUBLIKA,
Fernhout: The Netherlands National Ombudsman
TEMA,
in Tirana for extending the cooperation
PANORAMA
50
19.02.2004
51
20.02.2004
ATSH
52
20.02.2004
REPUBLIKA
53
20.02.2004
54
20.02.2004
55
21.02.2004
SOT,
KOHA JONE, Netherlands will support the People’s Advocate
REPUBLIKA
56
21.02.2004
KOHA JONE
57
24.02.2004
58
25.02.2004
59
25.02.2004
Notification
Netherlands should support the Albania to
strengthen the People’s Advocate institution
Notification
Dobjani: Albanians in Netherlands enjoy equal
rights as nationals
Notification
KORRIERI,
ZERI I
POPULLIT,
Netherlands Ombudsman met with the Minister of
Justice, Xhafa and the Head of the Constitutional
Court, Fehmi Abdiu
Notification
BALLKAN
People’s Advocate has gained a broader trust from
the public
Notification
Notification
People’s Advocate met with the commissar in
strike
Notification
ATSH
The American Ambassador, Jeffrey, expresses his
support for the People’s Advocate institution
Notification
DITA
Energy, Xhefri congratulates Dobjanin
Notification
People’s Advocate meets with the American
Ambassador
Notification
PANORAMA Xhefri-Dobjani: The citizens need protection
Notification
REPUBLIKA
60
25.02.2004
61
25.02.2004
R.D.
The American Ambassador has supported the
People’s Advocate in his initiative to low the rates
of KESH and Telecom
Notification
62
25.02.2004
ZERI I
POPULLIT
The American Ambassador, Jeffrey, supports the
People’s Advocate institution
Notification
63
25.02.2004
KORRIERI
Xhefri, the People’s Advocate: The citizens need a
mediator
Notification
64
25.02.2004
ALBANIA
American Ambassador appreciates the dialogue of
the People’s Advocate
Notification
65
26.02.2004
DITA
Dobjani gives his condolences to the families of
the victims of Selenica
Pronunciation
66
26.02.2004
ATSH
People’s Advocate meets with the families of the
miners that lost their lives at the Selenica mine
Notification
67
27.02.2004
REPUBLIKA Dobjani: "To close the Selenica mine”
92
Notification
GAZETA
People’s Advocate to the relatives of the victims:
SHQIPTARE “Denounce the French in the court”
68
27.02.2004
69
70
27.02.2004
27.02.2004
BALLKAN
SOT
People’s Advocate: To confiscate the mine
Dobjani with the families of the victims
71
27.02.2004
ZERI I
POPULLIT
The People’s Advocate institution recommends
that the property of the French businessman
should be confiscated
Notification
72
27.02.2004
R.D.
People’s Advocate denounces the abuse of the
employers at the bitumen mine
Pronunciation
73
03.03.2004
SHEKULLI
74
10.03.2004
REPUBLIKA People’s Advocate reports at the Parliament
Notification
75
10.03.2004
GAZETA
Report of the People’s Advocate at the Parliament
SHQIPTARE
Notification
76
10.03.2004
DITA
The Italian Embassy reacts over the remarks of the
People’s Advocate: Here are the cases and causes
for non- issuing the visa
Article
77
10.03.2004
"55"
"People’s Advocate": Demotion only for the minor
infringements
Article
78
10.03.2004
"55"
Dobjani: The corruption is paralyzing the public
administration
79
10.03.2004
KOHA JONE
80
10.03.2004
81
People’s Advocate: The Embassies do not respect
the Albanians
Article
Pronunciation
Notification
Article
Pronunciation
People’s Advocate presents to the Parliament the
Report of the People’s Advocate for the year 2003
Article
KORRIERI
Dobjani: Moisiu is entitled to give grace to the
detainees in Greece
Article
10.03.2004
ALBANIA
Dobjani: "Mistreatment at the Police Stations"
Article
82
10.03.2004
PANORAMA
People’s Advocate asks for guarantying of the
right to vote to the prisoners all over the country
Article
83
10.03.2004
BALLKAN
People’s Advocate: The President is entitled to
give grace to the expatriated from Greece
Article
84
10.03.2004
SOT
People’s Advocate at the Parliament: To
strengthen the law
Article
85
10.03.2004
R.D.
People’s Advocate presents to the Parliament the
Report on Human Rights for the year 2003
Article
86
16.03.2004
ATSH
People’s Advocate, Dobjani meets with the Polish
Ombudsman, Mr. Andrzej Zoll
Notification
87
17.03.2004
ATSH
The Head of the Parliament, Pëllumbi, and the
Polish Ombudsman appreciate the work of the
People’s Advocate in Albania
Notification
88
17.03.2004
SOT
Dobjani meets with his Polish homologue
Notification
93
89
18.03.2004
GAZETA
Polish Ombudsman meets with the leaders of the
SHQIPTARE Justice System
Notification
90
18.03.2004
PANORAMA Pëllumbi meets with the Ombudsman
Notification
BALLKAN
The People’s Advocate intervenes after the
complaint of the sons for benefiting the pension of
their father
91
19.03.2004
Article
92
Mars 2004 Tribuna Juridike
Access to the People’s Advocate to official
documents
Article
Ermir Dobjani
93
Representing from an attorney of a person during
his escorting, detention or flagrant arrest.
Article
Sotiraq Nushi
94
The execution of the penal decisions that sanctions
time in prison
Article
Harallamb
Bano
95
30.03.2004
REPUBLIKA
The Venice Commission responds to the People’s
Advocate on the property issues
Article
96
09.04.2004
DITA
The Venice Commission supports the complaints
of Dobjani
Article
97
12.04.2004
PANORAMA
People’ Advocate: The Minister should hear the
fired employees
Pronunciation
Ermir Dobjani
98
14.04.2004
ZERI I
POPULLIT
99
14.04.2004
SOT
People’s Advocate encourages the amelioration of
the relations between KESH and the consumers
Notification
People’s Advocate backs the KESH
Notification
People’s Advocate has recommended to start the
investigation for the former prosecutor who left in
prisons two detainees after they finished their time
100 20.04.2004
KORRIERI
101 21.04.2004
REPUBLIKA
“The fired employees” from the police to the
People’s Advocate
Pronunciation
102 21.04.2004
REPUBLIKA
People’s Advocate recognizes their rights to the
owners
Pronunciation
103 06.05.2004
DITA
104 06.05.2004
105 12.05.2004
People’s Advocate emphasizes the need for
ameliorating of the relations between the
individual and the state
GAZETA
People’s Advocate starts the investigation on
SHQIPTARE Boville
ATSH
"The role of Ombudsman in a Rule of Law State”
is the theme of a seminar in Turkey
94
Article
Article
Notification
Notification
106 14.05.2004
SHEKULLI
People’s Advocate of Greece confirms to the
People’s Advocate of Albania, the trafficking of
the Albanian children by Greek institutions
107 15.05.2004
ZERI I
POPULLIT
People’s Advocate evaluates positively the
controls exercised by the Ministry of Agricultural
and Food
Article
108 15.05.2004
PANORAMA
People’s Advocate: Children result disappeared
but not trafficked
Article
SHEKULLI
The report of the Greek Ombudsman shows that 510
Albanian children disappeared because of the Greek
authorities negligence
Article
REPUBLIKA
Greek Ombudsman welcomed the request of the
People’s Advocate in regard to the disappeared children
during 1998-2002
Article
109
15.05.2004
110
15.05.2004
111 15.05.2004
TEMA
112 15.05.2004
BALLKAN
113 16.05.2004
BALLKAN
114 16.05.2004
ZERI I
POPULLIT
115 27.05.2004
ATSH
116 28.05.2004
Article
People’s Advocate: No comment on the trafficking Pronunciation
phenomenon
Artur Lazebeu
The letter, dated May 6, 2004 of the Greek Deputy
Ombudsman to the Albanian Ombudsman has been
made public
Article
The disappearance of the Albanian children in
Notification
Athens
Dobjani: 487 Albanian children in Greece lost but
Article
not trafficked
People’s Advocate discusses with the OSCE
Ambassador, Lipponen on joint projects
The meeting Dobjani-Lipponen: "The 2005
REPUBLIKA election, the ballots should be counted by the
judges”
Notification
Article
117 28.05.2004
R.D.
Dobjani proposes the counting of ballots by judges
Article
118 28.05.2004
KOHE JONE
Dobjani: Ballots in 2005 should be counted by the
first degree court judges
Notification
119 28.05.2004
ZERI I
POPULLIT
People’s Advocate with the OSCE Ambassador,
Lipponen on joint projects
Notification
120 28.05.2004
SOT
121 10.06.2004
KORRIERI
122 15.06.2004
KORRIERI
123 19.06.2004
DNEVNIK
124 19.06.2004
FLAKA
Dobjani: The judges should count the ballots
Report: Why 560 Albanian children were
disappeared
To pay to get into your house
Ombudsman – an institution with reputation in
Macedonia and Albania
People’s Advocate a controller of the state
95
Notification
Article
Article
Notification
Article
125 20.06.2004 MAKEDONIA
Press
Ombudsman – an imperative condition on the Conference
accession to the EU
Ermir Dobjani,
B.Naumovski
126 20.06.2004
FAKTI
Maqedoni
127 26.06.2004
RD
128 26.06.2004
DITA
129 26.06.2004
KORRIERI
130 26.06.2004
KOHA JONE
"The public trust – a challenge for the police”.
Dobjani confronts with Toska
Article
131 26.06.2004
DITA
Dobjani-Toskes: Put to an end the clans’ fights at
the Ministry of Public Order
Article
132 26.06.2004
Ombudsmen deepen the cooperation
People’s Advocate criticizes the policy
appointments at the Ministry of Public Order
Article
of
Dobjani : To create the Police Syndicate
Public trust – the police defy
REPUBLIKA Dobjani criticizes Toska
Article
Article
Article
Ermir Dobjani
Article
133 04.07.2004
ALBANIA
People’s Advocate disapproves the cleansing at
the Ministry of Public Order
Interview
E.Dobjani
134 12.07.2004
DITA
People’s Advocate: We are a good example of
cooperation and truthfulness
Interview
E.Dobjani
135 14.07.2004
GAZETA
People’s Advocate: We will initiate investigation
SHQIPTARE if required by the families
Pronunciation
136 14.07.2004
SOT
Gjirokastër: People’s Advocate collects the
complaints
Article
137 22.07.2004
SOT
People’s Advocate, Dobjani: Durresi is polluted
Article
138 16.09.2004
KORRIERI
People’s Advocate, investigation with Greeks on
the trafficking of minors
Notification
139 16.09.2004
DITA
Dobjani has taken in his hands the investigation of
the trafficking of infants
Article
140 16.09.2004
ATSH
People’s Advocate participates in the Conference
organized by the International Institute of
Ombudsman and the Ombudsman Forum of
Francophone Countries
Notification
141 17.09.2004
KORRIERI
State Police provided to the People’s Advocate the
list of the lost children
Article
142
21092004
ZERI I
POPULLIT
People’s Advocate: Here is the list of 32 Albanian
children disappeared between 2000-2004
Article
143 21.09.2004
KORRIERI
The investigation of "Agia Varvara" initiated by
96
Notification
144 02.10.2004
145 04.10.2004
ATSH
People’s Advocate in Beograd in support of the
regional cooperation
PANORAMA Firefighters complain to the People’s Advocate
People’s Advocate responds negatively to the
request of 178 families for not allowing the
demolition of Hawaii buildings
Notification
Article
146 05.10.2004
SHEKULLI
147 13.10.2004
ATSH
People’s Advocate shares his experience in Jordan
Notification
148 31.10.2004
"55"
People’s Advocate appeals for more attention and
professionalism in the relations with individuals
Article
149 16.11.2004
ATSH
OSCE Ambassador, Pavel Vacek, assures to the
People’s Advocate for further support
Notification
150 19.11.2004
ALBANIA
When Ombudsman talks, the Government should
listen
Article
151 19.11.2004
ALBANIA
People’s Advocate analyses his first term
152 20.11.2004
KORRIERI
153 21.11.2004
SOT
Elections, ballots should be counted by judges
Beja: Dobjani-Zogu, idealistic ideas
154 21.11.2004
BALLKAN
Should the proposal from Dobjani on the elections
be applied
Article
155 22.11.2004
SHEKULLI
The ballots should be counted by the judges
Article
156 26.11.2004
PANORAMA
The Deputy Head of the DP contests the counting
of the ballots from the black squads
Article
157 14.12.2004
KORRIERI
The World Organization Against the Torture
informs the People’s Advocate
Article
97
Article
Interview
Ermir Dobjani
Article
Article
The Electronic Media for 2004
Nr.
ORGANI
DATA
RUBRIKA
PASQYRIMI
TVSH, News
1 24, Top Chanel,
Tv.Klan, TVA
09.01.2004
People’s Advocate at the annual meeting
of the Ministry of Public Order
Notification
TVSH, TVA,
News 24,
TNSH,
2
Top Chanel,
Tv. Klan,
Shijak Tv.
19.01.2004
People’s Advocate at the National
Conference against Trafficking on
Children
Notification
3 News 24
19.01.2004
People’s Advocate on the operation “The
Iron Network” and the confiscation
Interview
Zeri Amerikes,
Top Albania,
4 Tv.Shkodra,
Tv.Rozafa,
Radio Tirana
21.01.2004
People’s Advocate visits the families of
the 9th January victims
Interview
Zeri Amerikes,
Top Albania,
5 Tv.Shkodra,
Tv.Rozafa,
Radio Tirana
21.01.2004
People’s Advocate on the creation of the
National Committee on the Prevention of
Crimes
Tv. Klan, ATN,
News 24, Alsat,
6
Albania 1,
Vizion +,
28.01.2004
The religious freedom, a constitutional
right
7 TVA
06.02.2004
Dobjani receives the new Ambassador of
Greece, Carcabassis
98
Notification
Pronunciation
A.Lazebeu
Notification
TVSH, TVA,
News 24,
TNSH,
8
Top Chanel,
Tv. Klan,
Shijak Tv. etj
12.02.2004
The People’s Advocate asks for
amendments to the rates of KESH
TVSH, TVA,
News 24,
TNSH,
9
Top Chanel,
Tv. Klan,
Shijak Tv. etj
15.02.2004
People’s Advocate and the Academics at
the President
19.02.2004
Assistance required for training of the
lawyers and judges
Notification
TVSH, TVA,
11 News 24, Alsat,
Tv.Klan
19.02.2004
The Netherlands Ombudsman and the
People’s Advocate meet the Head of the
Constitutional Court and the Minister of
Justice
Notification
12 TVSH
20.02.2004
The Chairman of the Parliament receives
the Netherlands Ombudsman
Notification
TVSH, TVA,
News 24,
TNSH,
13
Top Chanel,
Tv. Klan,
Shijak Tv. etj
24.02.2004
The American Ambassador, Jeffrey,
states his support of the People’s
Advocate
Notification
14 Tv.Koha
26.02.2004
People’s Advocate asks for the
Interview
responsibility of the French citizen for the
Ermir Dobjani
Selenice victims
TVA, TVSH,
15
Tv.Klan, TNSH
26.02.2004
People’s Advocate expresses his
condolences to the families of the
Selenica mine victims
16 Tv.Koha
28.02.2004
Special programme with the People’s
Advocate
Interview
Ermir Dobjani
+E27
17 TVSH
28.02.2004
People’s Advocate: no parallel
investigation with the General
Prosecutor’s office
Pronunciation
Artur Lazebeu
10
TVSH, TVA,
News 24, Alsat
99
Press
Conference
Pronunciation
Ermir Dobjani
Notification
TVSH, TVA,
News 24,
TNSH, Zeri i
18 Amerikes,
Top Chanel,
Tv. Klan,
Shijak Tv. etj
09.03.2004
People’s Advocate reports to the
Parliament
Notification
TVSH, TVA,
Vizion +
16.03.2004
People’s Advocate receives the Polish
Ombudsman
Notification
20 TVSH
17.03.2004
The Chairman of the Parliament receives
the Polish Ombudsman
Notification
21 Tv.Shijak
19.03.2004
On the protection of personal data
Programme
Artur Lazebeu
22 Nesër TV
12.04.2004
No offence to the state police positions
Pronunciation
Ermir Dobjani
23 Tv.Klan
20.04.2004
We are examining the complaints of the
high level officials of the Police
Pronunciation
Jorgo Dhrami
24 Top.Chanel
12.05.2004
People’s Advocate obtains a response
from the Greek Ombudsman on the
trafficking of children
Interview
Ermir Dobjani
25 Top.Chanel
14.05.2004
Lost, not trafficked children
Interview
Ermir Dobjani
26 Tv.Klan
14.05.2004
Lost, not trafficked children
Interview
Ermir Dobjani
TVSH, TVA,
Tv.Klan,
27
Vizion+, News
24, TNSH
27.05.2004
The Head of OSCE Presence in Albania,
Mr. Lipponen expresses his support for
28 Tv.Klan
10.06.2004
People’s Advocate and the antitrafficking of children
29 Vizion +
15.06.2004
The irregularities on the rates at the
Directory of the Governmental Services
Pronunciation
Ervin Karamuço
30 MTV
19.06.2004
The Albanian People’s Advocate meets
with Macedonian President
Notification
31 Tv.Klan
26.06.2004
People’s Advocate criticized the police
irregularities
Notification
32 Top.Chanel
16.07.2004
People’s Advocate: The Vavacula case
before the Greek Justice
Interview
Artur Lazebeu
33 Top.Chanel
27.07.2004
People’s Advocate pays visit to the
prisoners of Kosove, Lushnja Region
Pronunciation
Ermir Dobjani
34 Top.Chanel
16.09.2004
The State Police provides the People’s
Advocate with the list of the lost children
Pronunciation
Artur Lazebeu
19
100
Notification
Interview
Artur Lazebeu
16.09.2004
The OSCE Ambassador, Pavel Vacek,
assures the People’s Advocate on further
support
19.11.2004
People’s Advocate denounces “the
alliance” against citizens on the energy
issue
Pronunciation
Ervin Karamuco
37 Top.Chanel
22.112.2004
People’s Advocate on Top Show on the
street children
Programme
Artur Lazebeu
38 Tv.Klan
23.11.2004
Confrontation on the increase of the
energy
39 Top.Chanel
23.11.2004
People’s Advocate on Top Show on the
trafficking of children
Programme
Artur Lazebeu
40 Top.Chanel
24.11.2004
People’s Advocate, “The ballots should
be counted by the judges”
Interview
Ermir Dobjani
41 Zeri i Amerikes
02.12.2004
People’s Advocate on the trafficking of
children
Interview
Artur Lazebeu
35 News 24
36
News 24, Real
Tv, Nesër Tv
101
Notification
Programme
Ervin Karamuco
Complaints handled during 2004
Total 2520
513
or 20 %
2007
or 80 %
Complaints received during 2004, without
including 1320 complaints responded
immediately
Complaints pending from 2003
102
Manner of resolving the complaints completed during 2004,
despite being within or beyond our jursidiction
Total 2112
29
or 1%
78 or 4%
395
or 19%
1057
or 50%
Beyond jurisdiction
553
or 26%
Groundless
In favor
With recommendation or suggestion refused
Withdrawn
103
Manner of resolving the complaints within our jurisdiction during 2004
Total 1055
29
or 3%
78 or 7%
395
553
or 52 %
or 38 %
Groundless
In favor
With recommendation or suggestion refused
Withdrawn
104
Situation of complaints until December 2004
Total 2520
408
or 16%
2112
or 84%
Complaints completed during 2004
Complaints under examination in 2005
105
Complaints and requestes submitted orally to the
Public Relations Office during 2004
Total 1941
621
1320
or 32%
or 68%
Complaints and requests submitted orally and
registered to the Public Relations Office
Complaints and requests registered at the Public
Relations Office and responded immidiately according
to article 17/a and 17/b under the Law "On the
People's Advocate"
106
Complaints, requests and notifications handled by
People's Advocate Office during 2004
Total 3840
2520
1320
Complaints handled during 2004 (2007 from
2004 and 513 pending from 2003
Complaints submitted to the Public Relations
Office and responded immediately during 2004
107
108
3
0
4
241
Others
Secret Services
64
Ministry of Industry and Energy
10
Ministry of Environment
13
Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports
Ministry of Transports and
Telecommunications
33
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
35
Ministry of Health
63
Ministry of Education and Science
50
Ministry of Finance
69
Ministry of Agriculture and Food
128
Ministry of Economy
252
Ministry of Territory Regulation and Tourism
250
Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
391
Ministry of Local Government and
Decentralization
100
Ministry of Defence
159
Ministry of Public Order
200
General Prosecutor's Office
Judiciary
400
Ministry of Justice
150
Council of Ministers
Distribution of complaints according to the governance branches during 2004
Total 2520
450
402
350
300
229
169
142
38
63
12
WRITTEN MEDIA FOR 2004
2
5
70
59
21
Articles
Pronunciations
Notifications
Interviews
Press Conferences
109
ELECTRONIC MEDIA FOR 2004
4
1
16
11
9
Articles
Pronunciations
Interviews
Programmes
Press Conferences
110

Message of the People`s Advocate

Transcription

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