Justice for children and youth in Albania

Albania has made good progress in improving child and juvenile justice legislation, through the adoption of the Code of Criminal Justice for Children and the National Strategy of Justice for Children.

However, the political situation, weak institutions, corruption of the justice system and the lack of public investment for children and youth seriously hinders efforts to increase access to justice, protect and advance the rights of children and youth in Albania.

Child and youth poverty is reinforced by high levels of unemployment, lack of equal opportunities for services and access to justice. Referring to official data, about 1/3 of all criminal offenses in Albania are committed by children and young people. Most of the crimes relate to the overall poverty of children and youth. Girls continue to be held in the same facilities as women. While it is expected that the justice reform will give qualitative effects in improving access to justice, children continue to face long court processes and are treated the same as adults. The lack of a functioning system of community services, where children and young people with tendencies to break the law, have access to justice and other services related to justice and social welfare, makes their rehabilitation extremely difficult.

CRCA/ECPAT Albania believes that prison and detention should be the last resort for children and youth in conflict with the law.

Based on this, our Juvenile Justice Program is centered on the promotion and respect of children’s rights for persons in conflict with the law in Albania through:

• Establish the National Center for the Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Children and Youth in Conflict with the Law;
• Provide Free legal aid for vulnerable children and young people, poor and with social or family problems;
• Psycho-social assistance in the family and in the community for children and young people in conflict with the law;
• Strengthen the capacities of the child protection system and the justice system on the rights of children and youth in the criminal process or child victims of crime;
• Employment and vocational training courses for all young people who are serving a sentence or have completed it.
• Monitor the implementation of the legislation and policies in support of juveniles rights from institutions in national and local level;