Legal Aid for Children in Conflict with the Law
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LEGAL AID FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW National Report on Albania May - October 2020 The project is funded by the Justice program of the European Union (2014 –2020) This research report has been written in the context of the project "Legal aid for children in criminal proceedings: developing and sharing best practices (LA CHILD)", financed by the Justice program of the European Commission. The content of this report does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Commission and thus does not imply in any way its endorsement of the views expressed in this report. If inaccuracies or mistakes are to be found in this document, they can only be attributed to the authors of this report. © 2020-2021, «LA CHILD » project INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................3 The LA Child Project ...........................................................................................................................6 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................7 Methodology of the first part of the research: the desk research.....................................................7 Methodology of the second part of the research: field research ......................................................8 KEY DEFINITIONS ...............................................................................................................................9 ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................................... 12 PART I: NATIONAL LEGAL AID SYSTEM .............................................................................................. 13 Constitution of Republic of Albania (Constitution) ........................................................................ 13 Code of Criminal Procedure (CPC) ................................................................................................. 14 Code of Criminal Justice for Children (CCJC) .................................................................................. 16 Law No. 55/2018, On the profession of Advocates in the Republic of Albania ................................ 18 Law No. 111/2017 on State Guaranteed Legal Aid ......................................................................... 20 A separate system for mandatory legal defense ............................................................................ 20 Primary legal aid versus secondary legal aid ................................................................................. 21 Primary Legal Aid ......................................................................................................................... 22 Secondary Legal Aid ..................................................................................................................... 24 Appointment of lawyers for providing secondary legal aid service ................................................. 25 Exemption from payment of court fees and costs as a form of legal aid ............................................. 26 Sub-legal Acts .............................................................................................................................. 28 Sub-legal acts related to primary legal aid system ............................................................................................ 29 Strategies .................................................................................................................................... 30 European Commission Report 2019 on the Strategy: ........................................................................................ 34 PART II. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF LEGAL AID .......................................................... 35 The Minister of Justice ................................................................................................................. 35 Albanian Chamber of Advocates (ACHA) ....................................................................................... 37 The organization of legal aid system from the administrative perspective ..................................... 38 The sub-system for the primary legal aid ........................................................................................................... 39 The sub-system for the secondary legal aid ....................................................................................................... 42 FUNDING OF LEGAL AID ............................................................................................................... 44 Forecasting the cost for legal aid services in Albania ..................................................................... 46 Comparative Tables on legal service fee ....................................................................................... 47 Historic background of legal aid funding ....................................................................................... 50 PART IV. RIGHTS OF BENEFICIARIES OF LEGAL AID ............................................................................. 53 1 General overview on beneficiaries of legal aid .............................................................................. 53 Children in conflict with the law as beneficiaries of legal aid due to mandatory defense ................ 55 Children victims as beneficiaries of free legal aid .......................................................................... 58 Legal aid for terrorist suspects or perpetrators ............................................................................. 60 Access to information about legal aid ........................................................................................... 60 Child Notification on free legal aid during mandatory defence ......................................................................... 60 The right of a child to be assisted by free of charge interpreters ...................................................................... 61 Awareness among public and children on availability of free legal aid ............................................................. 62 Protection of child interests: “The principle of the best interest of the child in criminal justice” ..... 66 The role of Child Protection Units ................................................................................................. 67 Mandatory presence of the psychologist free of charge ................................................................ 69 Defense lawyers and implementation of the best interest of the child ........................................... 70 PART V. LEGAL AID PROVIDERS (LAWYERS) ....................................................................................... 71 General requirements for legal aid providers ................................................................................ 71 The list of the lawyers specialized and trained in the cases for the juveniles (including victims of trafficking, domestic violence and sexual abuse) ........................................................................... 79 Professional training of lawyers .................................................................................................... 80 Specialisation of legal aid providers .............................................................................................. 86 Summary of the role of the lawyer in different phases according to the CCJC................................. 88 Organizations who provide legal assistance to minors in criminal proceedings .............................. 90 PART VI. QUALITY AND ASSESSMENT OF LEGAL AID .......................................................................... 93 Legal aid quality standards (guidelines) ........................................................................................ 93 Quality Assessment of Legal Aid ................................................................................................... 94 Complaints against lawyers .......................................................................................................... 99 PART VII. CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS FOR IMPROVEMENT IDENTIFYEED DURING THE INTERVEWS ...................................................................................................................................................... 105 Suggestions for the improvement of legal aid ................................................................................................. 106 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................... 108 ANNEXES ....................................................................................................................................... 115 1. STATISTICS ................................................................................................................................. 115 2. CASE LAW .............................................................................................................................. 127 3. Common questionnaire for the desk research .............................................................................. 141 4. Semi-structured interviews for field research .............................................................................. 149 2 INTRODUCTION This report was written when implementing