QENDRA PER MBROJTJEN E TE DREJTAVE TE FEMIJEVE NE SHQIPERI Children’s Human Rights Centre of Albania - CRCA NO ONE TO CARE A Report on the situation of children in Police Stations and Pre-trial Detention Centres in Albania 2002 - 2004 Prepared by: Altin Hazizaj S. Thornton Barkley Tirana, December 2004 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CRCA Children’s Human Rights Centre of Albania CAT Convention Against Torture CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child CC Criminal Code CPC Criminal Procedures Code HR Human Rights INSTAT Institute of Statistics of Albania MPO Ministry of Public Order MoJ Ministry of Justice STD Sexually transmitted diseases UN United Nations UNCRC United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2 Acknowledgements CRCA would like to thank the following: - Special thanks to Mr. Altin Hazizaj and Mr. S. Thornton Barkley for the carrying out of the fact-finding mission and for the preparation and writing of this report. - The staff of CRCA Child Legal Protection Centre (CLPO) for providing detailed information on the situation of juveniles in four Police Stations of Tirana and Pre-trial Detention Centre 313, Tirana. - Soros Foundation in Albania for the financial support of the monitoring and reporting process on the situation of juveniles in police stations and pre-trial detention centers during 2004. - Special thanks to our long-term partner Olof Palme International Center for the financial support of the monitoring and reporting process on the situation of juveniles in police stations and pre-trial detention centers during 2003 in Albania. - Defence for Children International (DCI) for the financial support of the monitoring and reporting process on the situation of juveniles in police stations and pre-trial detention centers during 2003 in Tirana. - The children in police stations and pre-trial detention centers who spoke freely to us about their life, problems, fears and concerns. - The Ministry of Public Order and its General Directorate of Police for providing on time appropriate documents and permissions to our researchers. - Police representatives in all the districts of Albania who spoke freely to our researchers during the fact-finding missions. - INSTAT who provided us with available data and statistics on criminality rates in Albania. 3 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 INTORDUCTION 7 1. Juvenile Justice in Albania 7 Definition of a juvenile offenders 7 Criminality rates and juveniles in Albania 8 The institutions and facilities for juvenile justice 10 People working in institutions and facilities for juvenile justice 13 Prevention 14 Media 14 2. The Legal Framework for Juvenile Justice 15 Criminal Responsibility 15 Legal procedures 15 Best interest of the child 16 Sanctions towards juveniles 16 Deprivation of liberty 17 Alternative Measures 17 Gender perspective 18 3. Situation of Juveniles in Police Stations and Pre-trial detention centers 18 Exercise of children’s rights 18 Investigation of juveniles’ cases 19 Torture, violence against children and treatment of juveniles by police 20 Sexual abuse and sexual life of juveniles 21 The right to keep contacts with family 23 Conditions of cells and overpopulation 23 Conditions of other facilities for juveniles 23 Food and nutrition 24 The right to education and leisure activities 25 3.10 Medical assistance 25 3.11 Psycho-social services for juveniles 26 4. Conclusions and Recommendations 26 Conclusions 26 Recommendations 28 5. Contacts and links 31 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The fall of communism and the transition to democracy found Albania without a system of juvenile justice in place. Although juvenile justice structures existed in the communism period, the traumatic and sometimes violent changes left children and juveniles in Albania without a system of care and protection. In 2004 Albania still doesn’t have a juvenile justice system in place. Children in Albania make up to 40 percent of the population. Nevertheless, during the last 14 years of transition and democratic changes, children and adolescents have been one of the least addressed groups of society in terms of legislation, policies and budget. The lack of a modern childcare and protection system has left many children without the protection of a safety net, which would guarantee the care of children when parents are not able to handle their responsibilities. Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe characterised by wide poverty, internal and external migration, unemployment, social exclusion and lack of opportunities for young people in society. As many as 3 percent of children a year drop out of schools, although many believe that this figure is much greater than the official data suggests. As can be seen in the official data that is published annually there are a greater number of children committing crimes in Albania. One may find the reasons of such an increase to be linked to the widespread poverty, internal migration, social exclusion and unemployment. Researchers believe that the lack of opportunities for young people and the lack of preventative work are amongst the main reasons for juvenile delinquency. This report presents the situation of juveniles in police stations and pre-trial detention centers in Albania, managed by the Ministry of Public Order and the Ministry of Justice. Although since April 2003 the pre-trial detention system should have passed under the management of the Ministry of Justice. The lack of financial resources and managerial structures means that the system, remains under the management of the Ministry of Public Order, with the exception of two districts: Tirana and Vlora. The CRCA Team carried out indiscriminate visits to police stations and pre-trial detention centers in a number of cities and towns across Albania. During our three-year (2002-2004) monitoring process of the situation of juveniles, we carried out 10 visits to police stations and pre-trial detention centers in 10 cities / towns including Tirana, Shkodra, Lezha, Elbasan, Korça, Gjirokastra, Saranda, Vlora and Fier. The CRCA Team was made to feel welcome by the Police Authorities; this in turn made our work a lot easier to carry out. During 2002 – 2004 we have had the chance to talk with more than 100 juveniles in police stations and pre-trial detention centers throughout Albania. Almost all the juvenile offenders that we have interviewed state that torture and violence was used against them each time they got stopped or arrested by the police. The degree of violence varies between one Police station and the other, and the seriousness of the offence they are supposed to have committed. Very few cases of violence against juveniles are reported in the pre-trial detention system. However inhuman and degrading conditions within the system contribute in making the juveniles feel forgotten abused and mistreated. One of the major concerns that came often to our attention was the lack of justice for juvenile offenders. Most of the juveniles in pre-trial detention system have committed what in the legal sense would be termed petty crimes. Despite this prosecutors and judges often ask and decide to keep juveniles as long as one year in pre-trial detention system, although they know that the conditions are inhuman and degrading. 5 Restorative justice1 is neither known nor applied in Albania. The fact that pre-trial detention centers and prisons are overcrowded should make the policy-makers find solutions to the problem. Instead, the lack of coordination and restorative measures from the Government and Justice System makes living conditions for all detainees inhuman and degrading, violating their most basic human rights. People often ask how do juvenile offenders live and spend the time in pre-trial detention centers. In most of the cases they share their cells with adult detainees. They smoke all the time, play cards with inmates and talk until late at night. They eat food that they receive from their families, because the food provided by the Government is inedible. If they are lucky they can stay every day one hour in open-air cells. In a few cases juveniles have become the victims of rape and sexual abuse from adult detainees and no measures have been taken by the Police authorities to follow up claims. As one of the juveniles told us “Some times we get so bored that we sing songs to pass the time.” The right to education is denied to all the juveniles. There is not a single policy from the Albanian Government and the respective Ministries to make the right to education exercisable to all juvenile detainees. The child’s right to education is a basic right guaranteed by Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the lack of implementation means that the Albanian Government is in violation of the CRC. The facts presented in this report come from a long-time monitoring of the conditions in police stations and pre-trial detention centers by the Children’s Human Rights Centre of Albania – CRCA. During the period 2002 – 2004 police stations and pre-trial have been visited at least once. We have noted that conditions have improved very little and in some cases they have deteriorated. One of the major difficulties we had while writing this report were disaggregated data on juvenile delinquency in Albania from the Albanian Ministry of Public Order. Although we received considerable amount of data from INSTAT, they mainly dealt with adult delinquency. Data and information was also available until 2001 and very few non-analysed data was available for the period 2002-2003. This report presents the situation of juveniles in police stations and pre-trial detention centers in Albania, including concerns of juvenile detainees, who have spoken openly to us and have provided us with an accurate view of their situation, conditions and opinions. We hope that with this report will bring their voices and concerns to the agenda of the Albanian Government, Ministry of Public Order, Ministry of Justice, Parliament and the civil society.