Transcript MAKING IT REAL: IMPLEMENTING THE LAW AGAINST …

ALBANIAN LAW:
“ON MEASURES AGAINST VIOLENCE IN
FAMILY RELATION”
Monika KOCAQI
Executive Director of “Refleksione” Association
HOW IT STARTED….
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1994-1995 Women’s NGO-s proposed the idea of drafting a law on
VAW – the idea was totally refused with the excuse “there is no VAW
or DV in Albania”
1995 – “Refleksione” did the first study and the first public awareness
campaign on VAW in Albania. 86% of women interviewed accepted
the fact that they were abused.
1999-2000 Women’s Advocacy Center in collaboration with former
Committee “Women and the Family” proposed again the idea of
drafting the law on DV – no financial support.
2003 – a coalition of NGO-s found support to draft the law on DV. The
strategy changed: this time the law came as a citizens’ initiative,
with 20,000 signatures from citizens all around Albania and the draft
was also consulted with the Ministries of lines, and different state
institutions in many round tables. The law is approved on December
2006 and it entered into force on June 2007. The secondary
legislation is in the process of preparation.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS LAW:
To prevent and reduce domestic
violence in all its forms by appropriate
legal measures;
 To guarantee protection through legal
measures to members of the family who
are subject to DV, paying particular
attention to needs of children, the elderly
and the disabled.
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OBJECTIVES OF THIS LAW:
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To set up a coordinated network of responsible
authorities for protection, support and rehabilitation of
victims, mitigation of conseguences and prevention of
DV;
To direct efforts for the set up of responsible
structures and authorities at the central and local level in
support of victims and prevention of DV;
To empower the the judiciary in taking protection
measures against DV;
To ensure /guarantee quick, affortable and simple
services to the victims of DV provided by courts and
other law enforcement agencies in compliance to the law.
THE INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS:
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It provides the legal definition of DV and
family members;
It creates the network of responsible state
institutions;
It determines the duties and responsibilities of
each of these institutions;
It acknowledges and provides role for NPO-s;
It determine sanctions and penalties in case
of not fulfilling the duties;
It foreseen a new court procedure: the
protection order.
THE RESPONSIBLE STATE
STRUCTURES:
MINISTRY OF LABOR, SOCIAL AFFAIRS AND EQUAL
OPPORTUNITIES
(The lead responsible authority and the coordinative
structure)
MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
POLICE DEPARTMENTS
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
HOSPITALS AND PRIMARY
HEALTH CARE CENTERS
COURTS
MINISTRY
OF JUSTICE
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
UNITS
The lead responsible authority has the
following duties (MoLSAEO):
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To develop and implement national strategies and programmes to
offer protection and care to the victims of domestic violence;
To finance and co-finance projects designed for the protection and
consolidation of family and for the care of victims of domestic
violence;
To assist the set up of support structures and all of the necessary
infrastructure to support and fulfil all the needs of the persons
subject to domestic violence, including financial assistance as well
as social and health services pursuant to the law;
To organise training sessions on domestic violence with social
service employees at any local government unit, police structures
and employees of NPOs licensed to offer social services;
To maintain statistical data on the level of domestic violence;
To support and supervise the set up of rehabilitation centres for
domestic violence victims;
To support and supervise the set up of rehabilitation centres
for the perpetrators of domestic violence;
To license NPOs that will provide social services to victims and
perpetrators.
The duties of Ministry of the Interior:
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To set up special units at the police
departments to prevent and combat
domestic violence;
To set up the necessary structures
and to nominate those individuals
responsible for the implementation of
this law ;
To train members of the police force to
handle domestic violence cases;
Police Departments (in national and local
level):
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Shall respond to any report filed by the victim or other persons
indicated by this law, for cases of violence or threat to use violence,
including cases of violation of protection orders and emergency
protection orders.
These authorities keep due records and issue a copy to the victim or to
the person accompanying them;
Informing the victim or the person accompanying them on the measures
to be taken according to the law and authorities they should refer to;
Informing the victim or the person accompanying them on existing social
services and accompanying them to appropriate centres and institutions
and providing for transportation when its necessarily.
Providing them with the protection of a policeman in life endangering
cases;
Police authorities shall record their findings in a written report and start
investigations upon their own initiative. The incident number for the
report should be given to the victim. The police gives the incident
number to the victim.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND ITS
STRUCTURES:
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Offer at any time medical and psychological help to
domestic violence victims,
To carry out necessary examinations at any time at
respective public health institutions,
To record domestic violence cases at the appropriate
medical documentations, as approved by the Ministry
of Health
To provide the victim with the respective medical
report;
To guide and refer the victim to other support and
protection domestic violence services.
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE:
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To train the medico-legal experts in
recognizing, diagnosing, evaluating and
reporting on domestic violence and child abuse
injuries;
 To train the bailiffs on their duty to serve
protection orders immediately and to ensure
their implementation under Article 23 point 6
and to take appropriate action;
 To budget for free legal assistance mandated
under this act and ensure a sufficient number of
trained lawyers to provide said assistance
Local authorities (municipalities, communes):
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To engage in setting up social services
structures for domestic violence cases;
 To install regional 24-hour toll free
telephone line, which will then establish
links to local units, police, medical emergency
units and NPOs, thereby coordinating their
actions ;
 Establish social and rehabilitation centres
for victims and perpetrators and coordinate
efforts with exiting ones, giving priority to
specialised centres in respective fields.
Protection and emergency protection
order:
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The petition for protection orders may be presented by:
the victim themselves; the victim’s legal representative
or attorney; the police/prosecutor;
The court establishes a hearing with regard to a
protection order within 15 days from the filing of the
petition;
Time limits for this protection order should not exceed
12 months, but with a possibility of extension;
The court reaches a decision with regard to emergency
protection orders within 48 hours from the
presentation of petition;
The date for the verification of the emergency
protection order, should take place within 20 days from
the issuance of the emergency protection order
WHERE DO WE ARE ACTUALLY…
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New Law on DV; Still waiting for secondary legislation.
New National Strategy on Gender Equality and against DV;
There is created the new Structure for measures against DV near
GDEO at MoLSAEO (with the Prime Minister order);
There is created the Section for Child Protection and on DV near
the General Directory of State Police and there are created the same
Sections at the local level;
International institutions and national NPO-s, based in the above
mentioned documents, are involved in capacity buildings, public
awareness raising, establishment of referral system, etc;
New initiatives like studies on DV, unpaid work of women, gender
disaggregated data, etc
We have the first cases for protection order finalized in the court;
There is the discussion for changes in Penal Code related to DV;
BUT…
We live in a country where:
 People mentality continues to give power to male domination,
 A lot of prejudices are revealed especially related to “women’s moral”,
 DV still is continued to be an issue that must stay behind the closed
doors,
 People and particularly women continue to blame themselves in case
of family problems,
 There are a lot of NPO-s working on this issue but they are depending
on donors support;
 We draft good laws and strategies but we “forget” to plan financial
means to support the implementation of these important documents;
 So, we must be prepared that the implementation of this law will be a
big challenge for all of us….