Compliance and enforcement aspects (horizontal provisions of all directives)

• Author: Baci, Entela
• Pages: 95-103

95

11 Compliance and enforcement aspects (horizontal provisions of all

directives)

11.1 General (legal) context

Surveys and reports about the particular difficulties related to obtaining legal

redress

Several reports contain inf ormation on issues relating to legal remedies an d access to

justice:

i. GREVIO’s (Baseline) Evaluation Report Albania (2017);277

ii. Study report on access to justice for vulnerable groups;278

iii. Report on the assessment of legal needs in Albania.279

i. GREVIO’s report presented seve ral findings and recommendations in relation to the

difficulties that victims of gender discrimination face in obtaining legal red ress in

practice.280

• ‘Albania has developed a solid legislative framework to address domestic

violence, in the fields of both civil and criminal law. (…) Overall, however,

divergent int erpretation of laws in Albania tend to do a disservice to victims

and to deny them an effective ac cess to justice, for instance by promoting a

narrow interpretation of the offence of domestic violence or by introducing

mandatory conciliation in the procedure applying to emergency barring orders.

Thus, improved awareness amongst legal practitioners and judicial officials is

needed as regards the fundamental principles , which sh ould guide any

intervention in cases of violence against women’.

• There are a number of priority issues requiring further action by th e Albanian

authorities to comply fully with th e provisions of the Istanbul Convention:

review legal provisions applying to emergency barring orders – referred to

under Albanian law as immediate prot ection orders – to ensure that in

situations of immediate danger, such orders can be issued without undue delay

in order to ensure the victim’s safety; and establish and fund appropriately an

effective system of legal aid for the victims of all the forms of violence a gainst

women covered by the Convention.

• GREVIO strongly encourages the Albanian authorities to:

o ensure that victims a re systematically informed of their right to claim

compensation and t he procedures to be foll owed, in accordance with

Article 58(1)(g) of the Albanian Code of Criminal Procedure;

o enable victim s to exercise their right to compensation by guaranteeing

them effective access to legal assistance and legal aid;

o strengthen the capacity of law practitioners to help victims claim

compensation and incorporating the issue of compensation in training

277 GREVIO (2017) GREVIO (Baseline) Evaluation Report on legislative and other measures giving effect to the

provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and

Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) Albania.

278 Komiteti Shqiptar i Helsinkit (Albanian Helsinki Committee) (2019), ‘Raport studimor per aksesin ne drejtesi

te grupeve vulnerable’ (Study report on access to justice for vulnerable groups), available at:

http://www.ahc.org.al/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Studimi-legal-aid-KShH_Shkurt-2018.pdf.

279 TLAS (Tirana Legal Aid Society) and ELSA (European Law Students Association) Albania (2018), Vleresimi i

nevojave ligjore ne Shqiperi (Report on the assessment of legal needs in Albania), available at:

https://www.tlas.org.al/sites/default/files/VLER%C3%8BSIMI%20I%20NEVOJAVE%20LIGJORE%20N%C3

%8B%20SHQIP%C3%8BRI%20%281%29.pdf.

280 GREVIO (2017) GREVIO (Baseline) Evaluation Report on legislative and other measures giving effect to the

provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and

Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) Albania, Paragraphs 8, 14-16, 33-36, available at:

https://rm.coe.int/grevio-first-baseline-report-on-albania/16807688a7.