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Ministers' Deputies Notes on the Agenda
6.1 Situation of children in Albania Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1398 (1999) Reference documents
CM(99)124 Recommendation 1398 (1999)
The Deputies are invited to consider the draft reply to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1398 (1999) on the situation of children in Albania with a view to adopting it. ———————————————— 1. At their 679th meeting (15 September 1999), the Deputies examined document CM(99)124 prepared by the Forum for Children (2nd meeting, Strasbourg 16 April 1999), pursuant to the terms of reference given it by the Ministers' Deputies and presenting proposals for activities to give effect to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1398 (1999) on the situation of children in Albania. The Deputies also examined the first material prepared by the Secretariat with a view to adopting a reply to Recommendation 1398 and agreed to resume consideration at their 684th meeting of a revised draft on the basis of more specific information, notably with regard to ongoing activities and possible action, including its budgetary implications. 2. At their 684th meeting (13 October 1999), the Deputies took note of the excerpt from the report of the 2nd meeting of the Forum for Children (CM(99)124) and decided to resume consideration of a draft reply to Recommendation 1398 at the close of their budgetary debate. 3. The Secretariat submitted to the Deputies at the present meeting a new draft reply prepared in the light of the budgetary debates and the many details provided by the general directorates active in the area concerned. The Deputies might wish to adopt the draft reply which appears below.
DRAFT DECISIONS 699th meeting - 16 February 2000
Item 6.1 Situation of children in Albania Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1398 (1999) (CM/Del/Dec(99)684/6.3, Recommendation 1398 (1999))
Decisions The Deputies adopted the following reply to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1398 (1999) on the situation of children in Albania: "The Committee of Ministers welcomes the adoption by the Parliamentary Assembly of Recommendation 1398 (1999) on the situation of children in Albania. It wishes to assure the Assembly that it shares its concerns about the protection of children and notes that following the adoption by the Parliamentary Assembly of Recommendation 1121 (1990) on the rights of children, the Committee of Ministers adopted and opened for signature in January 1996 the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights, which aims to promote the exercise of children's material rights, as recognised in particular in the 1989 United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child. The Committee of Ministers brought Recommendation 1398 (1999) to the attention of its member States and requested the European Committee for Social Cohesion (CDCS) to undertake a study, through the Forum for Children, on what action might be taken on this Recommendation in the context of the Council of Europe's activities. Following this study and in consultation with the Albanian authorities, the Committee of Ministers, through the intermediary of the Secretariat and in co-operation with UNICEF, set up an emergency programme in refugee camps in Albania to help children suffering from the distress associated with the war and their situation as refugees. The Committee of Ministers has also been made aware of the situation of street children and draws attention in this regard to the work carried out in connection with the Co-ordinated research programme in the social field which led to the publication of a very complete study on the question. In the context of the Programme for Children adopted in 1998, the Committee of Ministers also launched a special study on vagrant children - a concept similar in part to that of street children - whose findings are expected in the course of 2000. The consultations with the Albanian authorities have also resulted in the inclusion in the Organisation's Programme of Activities for 2000 of a set of activities, planned notably in connection with the Activities for the Development and Consolidation of Democratic Stability (ADACS) for Albania, and the Council of Europe's proposals for activities in the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and in part implemented in conjunction with other international organisations concerned. The Committee of Ministers wishes to draw the Assembly's attention to the fact that these activities although limited by the budgetary means which could be made available, give effect to a large extent to the proposals formulated by the Assembly in its Recommendation. It sets out below the action which the Council of Europe has already taken on these questions, as well as those planned. Paragraph 6: As part of the 1999 programme of legal co-operation (ADACS and the Joint Programme with the European Commission), a seminar on the judicial system with regard to minors was organised and the plan of action for the reform of the prison system implemented. Implementation will be continued in 2000, together with an expert evaluation on the judicial system with regard to minors (drafting of a law creating sections for minors in the courts, a project to set up a model section for prisons in the Tirana Court). The training of Albanian staff and local authorities responsible for providing services to families and children is the subject of a programme of activities proposed in the framework of ADACS programmes in the social field. Paragraph 7: Reference should be made in this context to the activities undertaken under the OCTOPUS II project to promote the fight against organised crime in which Albania is taking an active part. Furthermore, in the framework of its contribution to the Stability Pact, the Council of Europe took the initiative of the PACO programme to combat corruption and organised crime in South Eastern Europe. At the request of the Albanian authorities, an appraisal began within the Programme for Children on preparing a programme to combat the harmful effects on children of family vendettas. Paragraph 8: In the framework of the ADACS programmes in the social field, the Council of Europe is co-operating with the European Commission and a number of donor countries on preparations for a census of population and households in Albania, which is planned for 2001.
Paragraphs 10 and 11: It should be stressed that the Albanian authorities are in the process of drawing up a new Family Code in the context of legal co-operation programmes, with the assistance of Council of Europe experts. When this draft code is adopted, it will establish the legal framework of protection for children. Paragraph 12: The Committee of Ministers wishes to inform the Assembly about the information campaign for Kosovar refugees, led by the Directorate General of Human Rights - Equality between Women and Men Section, aimed at the prevention of trafficking in human beings, which took place in Albania (May to August 1999). The purpose of this campaign was to prevent the activities of organised criminal networks operating in Albania, who mainly victimise adolescents and very young women: the latter being brought to western Europe where they suffer sexual exploitation and treatment often verging on slavery. During the crisis in Kosovo, the information campaign was aimed, above all, at the Kosovar refugees, who found themselves in a particularly vulnerable situation. Follow-up action was organised in Albania during the second half of 1999 and will be continued in 2000.
It also draws the Assembly's attention to its Recommendation R (91) 11 concerning
sexual exploitation, pornography and prostitution of, and trafficking in, children and
young adults, which is concerned about measures to be taken in the member States in the
area of education, information, prevention, assistance and specific criminal procedures,
but also about conditions for reintegrating young people involved in prostitution.
The Paragraph 14: In the framework of the ADACS programmes in the social field, the Council of Europe has put forward proposals for a task force for a plan of action for children in Albania (TAFCAP), a programme whose objectives are to improve the situation of children (for the most part disabled) living in institutions and enable them to live in their families. The Council of Europe is examining together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) possibilities for implementing a health care reform programme aimed at incorporating the human rights dimension." |