From the high number of detainees to the aging of society / the Ombudsman lists the problems in Albania

2024-07-18 18:45:00, Aktualitet CNA

From the high number of detainees to the aging of society / the Ombudsman lists

People's Advocate, Erinda Ballanca

The People's Advocate, Erinda Ballanca, listed the problems identified by her during the speech held this Thursday in the Assembly.

Ballanca said that the problem is the very high number of detainees and the lack of an institution to treat people who need forced treatment or who have committed a criminal offense under conditions of irresponsibility.

Other concerns she listed were the aging of society and social care.

Problems identified:

1. In 2023, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) presented its report on Albania. The report was in line with the earlier findings of the People's Advocate, but it is important to highlight the problem of the extremely high number of pre-trial detainees in the prison population in Albania. We have on average in the last year 60% of the prison population, remanded in custody. Which is absolutely one of the highest figures of any Council of Europe country. The European average is 25% and best practices have 10% of the remanded prison population. The People's Advocate also assesses that there is a need for a fundamental change in the approach to the principle of presumption of innocence, but also with the fact that there is a very large financial cost to keeping people in custody, and for this there is a need for structural changes to change the approach to enforcement of criminal policy in our country. Arrest measures should be the last measure used and when no other measure is appropriate.

2. Lack of a forensic institution in the country to treat persons who need forced treatment or who have committed a criminal offense under conditions of irresponsibility. This is, in our estimation, the most flagrant failure of human rights in the country, and the improvements in this field over the years have been minimal, despite several ECtHR decisions against Albania on this issue. This institution at this moment has absolute overcrowding, with living spaces that are in violation conditions, provided for by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The People's Advocate estimates that the delay over the years for these people to be treated with appropriate health care by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection is unjustified, in violation of the law on mental health, it has been twelve years since this law was approved, it is not implemented and is not the forensic institution was built by the relevant ministry, continuing to remain in the penitentiary system where their treatment will always be in violation of Article 3 of the Convention.

3. The aging of society and the measures taken to address this issue have also been brought to the attention of the People's Advocate. We estimate that the capacities of residential social care institutions for the elderly are very low and insufficient to address the problem of the aging of society. The current number of elderly people in the 6 Residential Institutions of Social Care for the Elderly is 329. With capacities divided in different places, in Tirana there are 47 beneficiaries, in Shkodër there are 65 beneficiaries, in Kavajë there are 61 beneficiaries, in Fier there are 53 , in Gjirokastër there are 57 beneficiaries, in Poliçan there are 46. During the year 2023, 103 new requests were submitted to the Central Commission at the State Social Service, which means a request for 1/3 of the capacities of the entire system that we have for care residential of elderly people. Only 89 requests have been addressed, this shows that there is an urgent need to increase capacities.

4. Social care has also received our attention and energies during these years. We have consistently advocated for the need to adopt a minimum wage in the country. The report drafted by us in 2019 has not been addressed and we have had no response from the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. Even in the Assembly, the report was never discussed in a special way. This has been the second report made by us to structurally evidence the need to determine this value and to shape social policies based on this measure. Based on the dedicated analysis, the value of the vital minimum for 2019 was approximately 17,875 Lek per person.

The value of the vital minimum if we were only to deal with the price indexation according to the official indexations or the price increase report determined by INSTAT in 2024 would have to be ALL 21,039 per person. Meanwhile, we have also followed the progress of the value of economic assistance and the indexation of pensions, which still remain at a low value, especially the social pension, which today is in the amount of 9,327 lek, while the values ??of pensions are indexed every year: 2018- 2.8 %; 2019- 2.8%; 2020- 2.4%; 2021- 2.7%; 2022- 3.3%; 2023- 8.6%./ CNA