Albania

Council of Europe Office in Tirana

Court Coaching Programme continues in the Albanian Courts

The activities of the Court Coaching programme are being pursued in Albania, focusing on the analysis of the daily work of the courts and the assessment of the degree of implementation of the SATURN Guidelines on judicial time-management in all Albanian courts. Between 18-22 May and 15-19 June 2015, the experts carried out a series of visits to 12 courts. Relevant reports were further discussed with 8 courts in September 2015. This aimed at sharing the results of the earlier discussions with the courts’ chairmen and head clerks.

A round table, took place on 14 September 2015, in Tirana, as a follow-up of the Court Coaching Programme to discuss issues relating to time management in Albanian Courts. This discussion was based on findings and observations of the Court Coaching visits conducted in 37 courts and reflected the most pressing time management issues and problems affecting the Albanian judicial system.

On 6 June 2015 the SEJ experts took part in the first meeting of the Working Group on Judicial Statistics, established by the Ministry of Justice to get an informed analysis of the court performance and decision-making processes.

In the meantime conduct of user satisfaction surveys started in all 10 selected courts. A report with preliminary findings will be presented to Albanian counterparts before the end of the year.

The relations between the Judiciary and the Media

A follow-up visit of two international experts took place on 28 and 29 September 2015.

A round table took place on 28 September to discuss the main observations of the experts’ last visit in Albania, as well as needs and possibilities of improvement of relations between judiciary and the media in the future, as seen from the participants’ perspective.

Access to judicial decisions and data protection issues

A first mission to Tirana of two Council of Europe International Experts took place in Tirana on 28-30 September 2015. The mission focuses on issues of personal data protection in the day-to-day work of the Albanian courts and will provide findings and recommendations to bring the current national practice and legislation in line with CoE and European Standards and ECtHR case law.

Meetings with the Commissioner for Data Protection, the HCJ, the MoJ and particularly with a number of Albanian Courts and the GPO took place during their visit.