Economic and Social Council

UNITED NATIONS E Economic and Social Distr. Council GENERAL E/C.12/ALB/Q/1/Add.1 17 July 2006 Original : ENGLISH COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS Thirty-seventh session Geneva, 6-24 November 2006 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 16 OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS REPLIES BY THE GOVERNMENT OF ALBANIA TO THE LIST OF ISSUES (E/C.12/Q/ALB/1) TO BE TAKEN UP IN CONNECTION WITH THE CONSIDERATION OF THE INITIAL PERIODIC REPORT OF ALBANIA CONCERNING THE RIGHTS REFERRED TO IN ARTICLES 1-15 OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (E/1990/5/ADD.67)* [17 July 2006] _________________ * In accordance with the information transmitted to States parties regarding the processing of their reports, the present document was not formally edited before being sent to the United Nations translation services. GE.06-24146 E/C.12/ALB/Q/1/Add.1 Page 2 General Information 1. Convention for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has been ratified by Albanian state on 4 October 1991 and it has entered into force on 4 January 1992. Development of human rights has generally gone through a difficult period in Albania during 15 years since the fall of communist regime. 2. Albania is committed to abide by the obligations stemming from the Convention for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, experiencing progress moments, but also difficulty in their performance. First and foremost, the main principles translated into obligations for our country stem from the Convention to take arrangements in the economic, social and cultural field and they have been provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of Albania. 3. During this period there have been approved also legal and bylaw acts, which regulate in detail the main principles of observing the economic, social and cultural rights and freedoms of the individual. 4. The economic, political and social situation of Albania since 1992 has experienced moments of instability and crisis in the economic, political and social fields, and this has caused an insufficient performance of all the obligations. 5. Albanian economy is considered to be Market Economy in Transition. Private sector makes up the bulk of DGP. In the strategy of Economic Development of Albania for years 2000 – 2003 it is worth mentioning the general structural reforms according to the standards of the countries of a stronger market economy, privatization of strategic sectors and stabilization of macro-economic indicators to the effect of boosting investment through implementation of Public Program of Investments and absorption of direct foreign investments. There is a close cooperation with international organizations like: World Bank, International Monetary Fund, EBRD etc, which consist a guarantee for a steady economic development and ending of transition period. 6. At the same time Albanian society has inherited from the communist regime social problems of different dimensions connected to rights of women, children, national minorities etc, which are even today reflected in our reality. Albania is encountering different social problems which are characteristic for transition countries. 7. Cultural situation has also been conditioned through the previous political situation, but it has seen a more intensive development compared to the economic situation. Albanian government has as its priority the observation of human rights with the entire state apparatus, as well as in cooperation with the international community, with its civil society which is working for their improvement. There have been undertaken developments and there are in the phase of implementation arrangements in the economic, social and cultural field, which are deemed to facilitate the comprehensive performance of the obligation stemming from the Convention. E/C.12/ALB/Q/1/Add.1 Page 3 8. Albania has concluded the drafting of national strategies on: Rights of the child Rights of women Anti Trafficking Roma minority Education of minorities. 9. Ministry of Justice of Albania does not possess Court decisions which refer to the Convention, but it only possesses the decisions made by the Albanian respective courts in accordance with the provisions of the legal basis (respective articles) in the Annual Statistical Bulletin. - In 1995, the Ministry of Education of Albania in cooperation with national and international agencies launched the initiative to develop curriculum guidelines that were introduced as cross-curricular and extracurricular activities for pupils in grades 1-8. These collaborative efforts led to the publication of about 500 000 pupils activities textbooks for all pupils of grade 1-8. - Human and Children Rights are addressed as such in civic education of 6th grade. - Human Rights are part of curricula of high profiled (oriented) education. They take up 30 % of the program "Citizenship 1" of the 10 grade. Some of the themes of this programs are: o Human rights are suggested to be addressed, every time there is room for that, while discussing different topics in civic education; o Human rights are part of the draft of new standards for civic education. 10. Albanian Human Rights Centre (AHRC) is the leading organization among the NGOs. AHRC has been involved or has been the initiator of a lot of HRE projects. • Support of the piloting of the pupils activities textbooks on children rights in 1995-1996; • Reprinting of the Human Rights textbook - a manual for primary teachers; • Publishing of the Teacher Manual for Human Rights Education (1997); • Setting up a network of HRs model school in different districts in Albania; • Organizing a National Conference on Human Rights in December 2000; • Joint project with Faculties of Education for introducing HRs modules in the curricula of pre-service teacher training (2000-2001); • Organizing HRs workshops with primary head teacher etc. 11. In field of human rights, teacher training activities preceded other activities. Since 1993, 600 teachers from all over Albania participated in training seminars on the idea, concepts and the pedagogy of teaching and learning human rights. 12. In 1995 the publishing of student books were accompanied with teacher training workshops and other publications for teachers. Here are some of teachers' manuals for human rights: E/C.12/ALB/Q/1/Add.1 Page 4 • "Human rights" for primary teachers, co-operation with Norwegian ANA(later MIRA) Foundation (1994); • "It's only the Right" (translation, co-operation with UNICEF); • "Human Rights Education at school " - guidelines for teachers, (co-operation with Netherlands Helsinki Committee); • "Human Rights Education at school" (manual for teachers, cooperation with Albanian Centre for Human Rights and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee), etc. 13. The publishing of the textbooks and other teaching materials in the field of Human Rights is accompanied with the training of a large number of teachers of civic education and other subjects. During 1995-1996, in national training sessions organized by Institute of Pedagogical Research, about 1000 teacher trainers of all subjects participated in a one day workshop dedicated to human rights education. 14. Currently, Human Rights Education is part of the teacher training program for 15 high school teachers who teach the human rights chapter in the framework of the new high school reform for the oriented (profiled) high school. 15. In addition to that a human rights module for teachers of civic education is also part of the national teacher training program developed by Institute of Pedagogical Research (year 2000-2001) for teachers that have served 5, 10 and 20 years in the teaching profession. 16. Yes, Albanian state has jointed the EU Statement pertaining to the support to the draft of an Optional Protocol to the Covenant. II. Issues relating to General Provisions of the Covenant Article 2(2) – Non-discrimination 17. In the way it has been explained in the report of Albania pertaining to the implementation of the Covenant (CESCR 2005), non-discrimination has been provided for in Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, approved on 21 October, 1998. This article provides for everyone to be equal to the law and no one may be discriminated against unfairly for such reasons like gender, race, religion, ethnicity, language, political, religious or philosophical conviction, economic, educational social education or parental affiliation; no one may be discriminated against for the reasons mentioned above, as long as there does not exist a reasonable and objective justification. 18. However, at the same time this article does not prohibit the positive discrimination. The content of the article allows the special treatment or the special protection and support which might be provided to special categories of individuals. E/C.12/ALB/Q/1/Add.1 Page 5 19. With regard to the above quotation, the Constitution would allow, in the framework of the positive discrimination, for instance stimulation for the best students, for vulnerable groups or families etc. 20. In the framework of observing the rights and fundamental freedoms of national minorities, laying the foundation for their non-discrimination, Article 20 provides for the full equality to the law: “…They have the right to express themselves freely, without prohibiting or imposing their ethnic, religious or lingual affiliation. They have the right to preserve and develop them, learn and be taught in their mother tongue, as well as unite in organisations and associations for the protection of their interest and identity…”. 21. Albania is a Party to many International Conventions, which prohibit discrimination, such as: International Convention on elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, Convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination of women and additional protocol (Law no 9052, dated 17.4.2003 on accession of Republic of Albania into “Additional Protocol to Convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination of women).

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