Assistance to the Albanian prison administration to improve the application of professional and integrity criteria on staff recruitment and training, prisoners regime based on risk assesment and on implementation of Council of Europe health care standards and paving the way for improved care for criminally irresponsible mental health patients, were some of the highligjts of the final Steering Committee Meeting of the Horizontal Facility project “Enhancing the protection of human rights of prisoners in Albania”, held in Tirana on 27 June, at Europe House. The meeting served as a platform to evaluate achieved progress, share lessons learned and discuss needs for future support.

The meeting also provided for a constructive dialogue with civil society and other donor initiatives in the prison field. Ideas on follow up initiatives centered on designing an effective inter-ministerial action plan on establishment and effective running of the new psychiatric hospital for forensic patients. Overall, more than 300 multi-disciplinary staff mostly from the prison administration have benefited from project activities.

The Steering Committee meeting was attended by the Human Rights Officer from the EU Delegation in Tirana, the General Director of the Prison Administration, representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, National Preventive Mechanism, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and NGOs.

The project is part of the "Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey" co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.