Albania

Albania needs to invest more in education and health to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The treatment of girls and Roma children must also be improved.

The Committee recommends that the State party address as a matter of priority the situation of extreme marginalization of children with disabilities in the State party. In particular, the Committee recommends that the State party undertake long-term awareness-raising programmes in order to change and combat negative societal attitudes prevailing against children with disabilities. The Committee also recommends to set up mechanisms for early detection and multidisciplinary intervention services for children with disabilities and their families and take all the necessary measures to increase their access to preschool education. Albania should further ensure that all children with disabilities, including children with mental, hearing and speech disabilities receive proper financial support and care from the State and that support to families is no longer restricted to one child per family. The Committee further recommends that Albania develop a comprehensive national strategy on disability, promoting the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all children with disabilities, with special focus on time-bound measures to ensure that children with disabilities access mainstream education.

The Committee urges the State party to prioritize the allocation of financial and human resources to the health sector with a special emphasis on primary health care in order to ensure equal access to quality health services by all children. In particular, the Committee recommends that the State party strengthen its efforts to address child malnutrition, focusing primarily on the most disadvantaged categories of children and on nutrition education and access to quality food. The Committee further recommends to Albania to ensure that access to basic health care is not conditional upon the mother’s membership in the social security schemes and take all necessary measures to counter the pervasive practice of health workers and doctors asking for informal payments. In addition, Albania should strengthen the link between maternal and child health services, including paediatric institutions, and the collaboration of these services and the early childhood care institutions.

The Committee is concerned at the absence of specialized health services for adolescents, including mental health services, and the fact that existing counselling services are not used by adolescents.

The Committee recommends to take all the necessary measures to address air pollution and contamination of drinking water.

The Committee urges the State party to strengthen its efforts to eradicate child labour, particularly in its worst forms, by addressing the root causes of economic exploitation through poverty eradication and education. In particular, the Committee urges the State party to strengthen the labour inspectorate and provide labour inspectors with all the necessary support, including child labour expertise, with a view to enabling them to monitor effectively, at the State and local levels, the implementation of labour law standards.
Albania should also ensure that the Gërdec incident is thoroughly investigated and those responsible are effectively prosecuted.

The Committee urges the State party to establish specialized juvenile courts with adequate human, technical and financial resources throughout the country, introduce specialized judges for children in all the regions and ensure that such specialized judges receive appropriate education and training. The Committee further urges the State Party to ensure that children are no longer detained in police stations together with adults and without access to a lawyer and that all cases of mistreatment are properly investigated and punished. The Committee further recommends to organize regular training for law enforcement personnel, including police and prison administration staff, in order to ensure that they all have a thorough understanding of provisions of the Convention and are aware that violations are not acceptable and will be investigated, and that perpetrators are liable to prosecution.
In addition, the Committee recommends to take urgent measures to address the conditions of detention in pretrial detention centres for juveniles and also ensure that all children deprived of liberty have effective access to education and health services, including mental health care.

The Committee is deeply concerned about the persistence of “blood feuds” resulting from the application of customary law known as “Kanun” and, in particular, the killing of children and the confinement of a large number of children for fear of being killed, especially in the northern areas of the State party. In that regard, the Committee expresses deep concern that in May 2012, a 14-year-old girl was killed in a “blood feud”.