Country report, gender equality. How are EU rules transposed into national law? Albania 2020

The Republic of Albania (RoA) has a formal constitution, which has the highest legal power in the country. The Constitution was adopted in 1998 with Law No. 8417, ‘Constitution of the Republic of Albania’. So far, it has been revised five times. None of the five constitutional reforms concerned gender equality. The hierarchy of legal acts within the country is explicitly set out in Article 116(1) of the Albanian Constitution: a) the Constitution; b) ratified international agreements; c) laws; d) normative acts of the Council of Ministers. The constitutional framework concerning gender equality/sex discrimination contains only one provision among the general principles of fundamental human rights and freedoms, Article 18, which refers to principle of equality and non-discrimination: ‘1. All are equal before the law. 2. No one can be unjustly discriminated against for reasons such as gender, race, religion, ethnicity, language, political, religious or philosophical beliefs, economic condition, education, social status, or ancestry. 3. No one may be discriminated against for reasons mentioned in Paragraph 2 if reasonable and objective legal grounds do not exist.’