The Human Rights in Democracy Center (HDRC) has issued a comprehensive report on the role of Albania’s largest court system in upholding the country’s domestic violence law, “On Measures against violence in family relations”. The report found that, in 2015, courts in the Albanian capital of Tirana heard a victim’s request for an order of protection, including emergency protection orders, approximately thirty-percent of the time. In the majority of accepted cases, the court granted the protection orders. According to the report, this represents a positive step forward in the judiciary’s handling of protection orders. However, report also noted that seventy-percent of domestic violence cases involving a request for an order of protection from a violent abuser are dismissed, because the victim withdrew her case, the parties did not show up in court, or the court declined to review the victim’s petition. The report recommends that the institutions charged with implementing Albania’s domestic violence law, such as the courts, police, and social service agencies, do more to protect and enforce the rights of victims.
Compiled from: Selami, Oltiana, et al., Role of Tirana District Court in Protection from Domestic Violence in Family Relationship, Human Rights in Democracy Center – Albania (2015).