WRITTEN QUESTION E-0879/02

by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council

(3 April 2002)

Subject: Ill-treatment of minors in Albanian Prisons

According to Amnesty International, the ill-treatment of children in detention in Albania is a widespread and very common practice. The case of eleven-year-old

Ergest Sele who was tortured while in detention to make him confess to the theft of a handbag, is one of many cases involving children who have been tortured and abused during their detention by the Albanian police. The non-governmental organisation The Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania states in its report that the police made extensive use of torture to force minors to confess crimes. Furthermore, the children are afraid that if they bring charges they will be subjected to further abuse. It should be remembered that Albania has ratified all the international conventions banning torture, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Will the Council say whether it intends to bring pressure to bear on the Albanian government to take urgent measures to safeguard and protect the rights of children in detention and to prosecute those responsible and also whether it intends to call on the Albanian Minister of Justice to promote legislation establishing a system for dispensing justice to minors?

Reply

(27 June 2002)

The Council has not been informed about specific cases of ill-treatment of children in detention in Albania. However, the fight against torture is a strongly held conviction of all EU member states and a priority for the EU's human rights policy. The EU is resolved to strengthen its international activities towards prevention and eradication of all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in all parts of the world.

To this end, the Council agreed in April 2001 the Guidelines to EU policy towards third countries on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The guidelines also mention the need for special protection for children. They provide the EU with an operational tool for use in its contacts with third countries and in multilateral human rights fora, in order to support and strengthen the on-going efforts for global prevention and eradication of torture.

The Council is aware of the weaknesses in the Albanian judicial and penitentiary system. The subject was already touched upon i.e. during the work of the High Level EU-Albania Steering Group, as documented in the Commission's report on the work of this body(1). The Albanian government has committed itself, in its Action Plan for the negotiation period of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, adopted in December 2001, to continue reforming the prison system, by fulfilling the legal requirements on the rights and treatments of inmates, as well as to continue improving the Police ethics, through approving a new code of Police ethics, establishment of a monitoring system on the behaviour of the Police at every Police Directorate and constant training in the field of human rights. The Council expects that those reforms will also improve the situation of minors.

The regular dialogues the EU has with Albania within the Stabilisation and Association Process provide opportunities to verify the resolute pursuit of reforms to which the Albanian authorities have committed themselves, as the country moves closer towards the common goal of European integration and closer relationship with the EU.

(1) COM(2001) 300 final.