Albania has started its way to reform the newly established democratic
system, since the early 90’s. The legal system was one between others to be
modified in compliance with the international standards set up in the
international instruments. Among the reforms, the most important one was
the establishment of the human rights standards, especially concerning
minority rights, which is the focus of this thesis.
The thesis firstly gives a descriptive survey of the minority groups living
in Albania and aims at defining the minority groups. It will also point out
the issue of no recognition of two minority groups namely, Egyptian and
Bosnian, which are considered as communities by the Albanian government.
The thesis emphasises that the existence of the minority group is a matter of
fact and not depending on the state’s recognition. In that perspective, it
recommends that the government should reconsider its policy towards the
two aforementioned groups and it should confer them in the future the
minority rights.
Furthermore, the issue of the lack of information about the accurate
number of the members of the minority groups living in Albania will be
examined. Bearing in mind the importance of such data with regard to the
implementation and monitoring procedure of the minority rights, the thesis
recommends that the Albanian government should undertake as soon as
possible a general census including the ethnic data in it.
Afterwards the thesis surveys the international minority rights
instruments, for instance ICCPR, ICESC, ICERD, Declaration of the
Minority Rights, FCNM, ECHR etc., aiming at indicating the international
standard-settings and the international tendency towards the protection of
the minority groups, which in turn Albania should respect as far as it ratified
those instruments and committed itself to such international provisions.
After describing the international standards, the thesis shifts to the
domestic legal framework on minority rights. Hence, it analyzes the national
legal rules and examines the deficiencies and gaps in it.