Policy

The Republic of Albania signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 8 September 1998 and ratified it on 29 February 2000, becoming a State Party on 1 August 2000. It enacted national implementation legislation in 2006, which includes penal sanctions.[1] Albania submitted its 13^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in April 2012.[2]

Albania attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in November-December 2011, where it was represented by Deputy Minister of Defense, Dr. Arian Starova, and served as a vice-president of the meeting. Ambassador Gazmund Turdio opened the meeting on behalf of Albania as outgoing president of the Tenth Meeting of States Parties, held in Geneva in November–December 2010. During the meeting Albania made a number of statements, including on victim assistance, clearance, universalization, the International Support Unit, and cooperation and assistance. Ambassador Turdio reflected on his work as president in 2011 on universalization, including convening a workshop in Tirana for universalization partners, holding bilateral meetings with representatives of states not party in Geneva, promoting the convention at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and efforts to engage with Morocco in-country.[3] He noted that he had made statements to the media expressing deep concern over instances of new use of antipersonnel mines and called on all States Parties to condemn any future violations of the treaty’s norms.[4]

Albania also attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2012, where it gave an update on its progress on victim assistance.

Albania is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war, but has never submitted an Article 13 report for Amended Protocol II.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention

Production of antipersonnel mines in Albania was suspended in 1990 and officially ceased in 1991.[5] Albania may have been a minor exporter of antipersonnel mines in the past. The last use of antipersonnel mines in Albania occurred in 1998 and 1999 in the northeast of the country during the Kosovo crisis.

Albania completed the destruction of its stockpile of 1,683,860 antipersonnel mines on 4 April 2002, more than two years before its treaty deadline.[6] In its initial Article 7 report, Albania stated that “there are no justifiable reasons for the retention of APM [antipersonnel mines] for training or any other purpose” and has therefore not retained mines since becoming a State Party.[7]

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Albania signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 16 June 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered entry into force of the convention on 1 August 2010.

In 2013, Albania declared that it considers existing legislation sufficient to implement the convention’s provisions.[1]

Albania provided its initial Article 7 report for the convention in January 2011 and annual updated reports in April 2012 and April 2013.[2] As of 17 June 2014, Albania had yet to submit its latest updated annual report due by 30 April 2014.

Albania actively participated in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the convention and made many strong contributions from the perspective of a state affected by cluster munitions.[3]

Albania continued to engage in the work of the convention in 2013 and the first half of 2014. It attended the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013 and the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2014. Albania chaired sessions on stockpile destruction and retention at both meetings in its capacity as co-coordinator together with Spain. At the intersessional meetings, Albania gave a presentation on its landmine stockpile destruction experience.

Albania also attended a regional workshop on the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and Mine Ban Treaty in Croatia in April 2014.[4]

At the Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Albania condemned for the second time the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, stating that it “would like to strongly condemn once more the use of cluster munitions, which causes unacceptable harm to innocent civilians, by any State, Party or not, to the Convention.”[5]

Albania has also voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning Syria’s cluster munition use, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at the Syrian government’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[6]

Albania has not yet stated its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the need for retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.

Albania is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

Albania has declared that it has not produced or stockpiled cluster munitions.[7] In December 2008, Albania stated that it has never used or transferred cluster munitions.[8]

Cluster munitions were used in Albania in 1999 by forces of the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia and by states participating in the NATO operation.[9] In December 2009, Albania announced it had completed the clearance of all known cluster munition remnants on its territory.[10]

Contamination and Impact

Mines

Albania declared that it had completed clearance of all known mined areas in accordance with its Mine Ban Treaty obligations in October 2009.[1] Albania became contaminated by mines and other ordnance mainly as a result of the Kosovo crisis of 1998–1999 when forces of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia laid extensive minefields in the northeastern border districts of Has, Kukës, and Tropojë.[2] In a decade of demining operations started in 2000 by the Albanian Armed Forces (AAF) and which continued with several demining organizations such as RONCO, HELP, Swiss Foundation for Demining (FSD) and DanChurchAid (DCA), Albania released through survey and clearance a total of 16.6km² of land, destroying 12,452 antipersonnel mines, 152 antivehicle mines, and 4,965 items of unexploded ordinance (UXO), including cluster munitions.[3]

Cluster munition remnants

Albania declared completion of clearance of all known unexploded submunitions in November 2009.[4] The northeast of the country had been contaminated with unexploded submunitions from at least six NATO cluster munitions during the conflict over Kosovo;[5] this left 44 areas covering 2.1km² affected by unexploded submunitions, including BLU-97B, BL755, MK118 Rockeye, KB-1, and KB-2 submunitions. Between 1999 and 2005, there were 32 incidents involving submunitions, which resulted in nine deaths and 44 people injured.[6]

Other explosive remnants of war

Clearance of explosive remnants of war (ERW) in the northeast border region of Kukës, mainly UXO resulting from the conflict in Kosovo in 1999, was completed by the end of 2009.[7]

Albania still faces a threat from abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) around former army ammunition storage sites which were destroyed and looted during internal turmoil in Albania in 1997, leaving tons of dangerous munitions scattered around. The AAF conducted surface clearance of 15 so-called hotspots in 2003, but technical assessment conducted by the Albanian Mines and Munitions Coordination Office (AMMCO, formerly the Albanian Mine Action Executive, AMAE), which visited most of these hotspots in 2011, showed that the areas still contain live and abandoned ammunition which attract the attention of scrap metal collectors and pose a serious risk of injury to civilians.[8] Albania plans to complete hotspot clearance by the end of 2014.[9]

Albania is also still tackling contamination that resulted from the 15 March 2008 explosion at a military depot used for demolition of munitions in Gerdec village, about 13km from the capital, Tirana. The explosion killed 27 people, injured some 300 others, and scattered up to 600,000 projectiles/pieces of 9,000 tons of UXO across four other villages, contaminating an area of approximately 3.5km². The explosion completely destroyed some 200 houses and damaged approximately 1,500 to some degree (as well as 32 businesses and 34 farms), inflicting damage estimated at that time at US$18.75 million (€12.7 million).[10]

The AAF conducted emergency clearance from 17 March to 3 April 2008;[11] DCA carried out some emergency clearance in 2008;[12] and Sterling International/Explosive and Ordnance Demilitarisation Solutions (EODS) took over clearance in 2009.[13] There is no available estimate of the current size of the contamination.[14]

Albania has also had to dispose of substantial stocks of obsolete munitions held in poorly maintained military depots near populated areas. As of the end of 2010, it still had about 74,000 tons of these dangerous surplus munitions, but by the end of 2011 stocks had fallen to 26,000 tons (26 million kg).[15] Albania has planned to complete destruction of these stocks by the end of 2013.[16]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The Albanian Mine Action Committee (AMAC), an interministerial body formed in October 1999, serves as the “executive and policy making body for mine action” in Albania.[17] In 2008, AMAC contributed to the emergency response to the Gerdec explosion but responsibility for the operations in Gerdec was with the Ministry of Defense[18] until mid-2011.[19]

The AMAE, set up at the same time as AMAC, coordinated and monitored mine action in Albania until completion of demining at the end of 2010. In December 2010, the Ministry of Defense engaged AMAE to assist in tackling hotspots to help ensure that clearance and ammunition disposal was conducted according to international standards. In addition, AMAE was converted to AMMCO.[20] The Ministry of Defense and UNDP signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2011 which will run to December 2013 under which UNDP will give AMMCO technical and financial support and help to develop a humanitarian framework and standards for clearing hotspots. The Ministry of Defense provides storage for unexploded ammunition and is responsible for its destruction.[21]

Under an agreement between the Albanian Ministry of Defense and the United States (US) State Department, the International Trust Fund: Enhancing Human Security (ITF) contracted Sterling International/EODS in 2011 to clear ammunition hotspots. Sterling International/EODS subcontracted DCA, which had conducted mine clearance until 2009, to clear two hotspots in Ura e Gjadrit (Shkoder) and Gjeroven (Berat) in 2012.[22] Under this process, the AAF explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams are responsible for transporting ammunition found during clearance for disposal. The role of the AAF EOD teams was expected to increase in 2012.[23]

Sterling International/EODS also supports the Albanian Armed Forces in UXO/ammunition clearance and removal in Gerdec.[24]

Land Release

No mine clearance or cluster munition clearance activities were conducted in Albania during 2011. As noted above, major clearance operations were completed in 2009.[25]

Five-year summary of clearance[26]

Survey in 2011

In July to December 2011, an AMMCO team supported by a senior technical advisor from the Swiss Armed Forces conducted technical assessments of 15 hotspots in 11 locations, with three more remaining to be conducted during 2012. Of the 15 assessed, three were rated as high risk and therefore a high priority for clearance; two were discounted as presenting no risk; the remainder were categorized as either low or medium risk.[27] The assessments were designed to identify the exact location of hazards, determine clearance requirements, develop standing operating procedures for quality assurance and control, and determine the impact of hazards on the community and the need for risk education (RE) and victim assistance.[28]

In general, the assessment team found that all hotspots contain dangerous, scattered ammunition despite several surface clearance operations conducted in the past by the AAF. Ammunition attracts scrap metal collectors with the consequent risk to life and limb.[29]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Albania was required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2010. Albania reported completion and the fulfillment of its Article 5 obligations in October 2009.[30]

Compliance with Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Albania became a State Party on 1 August 2010 upon entry into force of the convention with a deadline for clearance of all unexploded submunitions of 1 August 2020. A general survey in 1999 had identified 44 areas contaminated by cluster munitions covering 2.1km². Albania stated in November 2009 that it had already completed clearance of all remaining contaminated areas with the destruction of 4,869 unexploded submunitions.[31]

Battle area clearance in 2011

Ordnance Demilitarization Solutions (based in the United Kingdom) was subcontracted by Sterling International/EODS to clear contamination at Gerdec; it continued operations in 2011 in cooperation with the AAF. This project is conducted under a Technical Agreement between the Albanian Ministry of Defense and the US State Department.[32]

In 2011, teams cleared or deep searched a total of 111,329m², finding a total of 4,339 items of ordnance, including 2,747 items found during deep search operations. Overall, 2,856 items were moved to storage and 1,474 munitions destroyed.[33] Since the beginning of the project, Sterling International/EODS has searched 273,760m² to a depth of up to two meters on flat ground and 1.5 meters on hills, finding 21,709 munitions.[34]

Sterling International/EODS started another project in Gerdec in September 2011 to assist the AAF to remove an estimated 300,000 fuzes. By the end of 2011, Sterling International /EODS had removed 723 live fuzes, 6,793 parts of fuzes, and 18 high-explosive shells.[35]

DCA, subcontracted by Sterling International/EODS and funded by the US State Department, started operating in November 2011 on a hotspot at Ura e Gjadrit, near the Gjader river covering 91,000m². The AAF had previously conducted surface clearance in the area, but an assessment in July 2011 found mortar rounds, small arms ammunition, and mortar fuzes.[36] As of 27 January 2012, DCA teams had cleared a total of 32,620m², removing 509 fuzes, 350 artillery shells, 68 mortars, 76 hand-grenades, and seven rocket-propelled grenades, as well as quantities of small arms ammunition.[37]

Quality management

An AMMCO monitoring team conducted six quality control and two quality assurance inspections of hotspot clearance operations in 2011. The AMMCO team consists of one team leader and two monitors.[38]

Safety of demining personnel

No demining accidents occurred during 2011.[39]

Risk Education

The AMMCO monitored and coordinated RE activities, conducted by the Albanian Red Cross (ARC) in 12 regions in Albania.[40]

The ARC implemented a data collection project in 12 prefectures. In addition, 5,000 leaflets prepared in consultation with AMMCO were distributed by ARC volunteers to areas affected by unexploded ammunition and containing messages for a safe behavior. The ARC, with funding from the ICRC, produced and distributed 2,000 new posters, mainly to areas around the hotspots where clearance operations were under way.[41]

Summary action points based on findings

·         Follow-up services are required to address the needs identified by survivors surveyed in 2013 and 2014.

·         Prosthetics and economic opportunities in the mine-affected northern region need to be made sustainable.

·         Technical support is needed to advance the progress in incorporating victim assistance into the national disability and development sectors.

·         Extensive knowledge of small-scale affordable prosthetics services developed though Albania’s victim assistance program should be replicated throughout the country for the assistance of other amputees and survivors of explosive remnants of war (ERW) and weapons.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Albania is responsible for landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other ERW. Albania has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Conventional Weapons Protocol V, and has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Casualties

Casualties Overview

In 2013, the Albanian Mine and Munitions Coordination Office (AMMCO) reported three casualties of AXO entered in the national database, including one injured boy.[1] AMMCO reported eight casualties of AXO for 2012 and six AXO casualties for 2011.[2] The last landmine casualties reported were in 2005. The national NGO ALB-AID recorded 10 accidents involving AXO or unexploded ordnance (UXO) through media monitoring in 2013; five people were killed, two of the casualties were children.[3]

A total of 982 mine/UXO and AXO/ERW casualties (146 killed; 836 injured) have been identified in Albania between 1997 and 2013. The Albanian Mine Action Executive (AMAE) casualty database for Kukës region contained information on 272 mine and ERW casualties (34 killed; 238 injured) for the period 1999–2005.

Cluster munitions casualties

There have been at least 55 cluster munition casualties in Albania. The Kukës database recorded 53 casualties from cluster munition remnants (nine killed; 44 injured).[4] Two additional casualties due to the use of cluster munitions were also identified.[5]

Victim Assistance

There are at least 836 mine/ERW (including AXO) survivors in Albania.

Victim Assistance since 1999[6]

Since 1999, Albania has made significant progress in developing all components of victim assistance in the northeast with the introduction of an initial victim assistance plan in 2003. Extensive data collection, used for program design and information sharing, contributed to the success of the regional victim assistance program in 2005–2009. Needs-based and comprehensive community-based programming, as well as linkages to broader development strategies, were applied to develop an exemplary victim assistance program. However, after the country was declared mine-free in 2009 resources for victim assistance in Albania declined and were insufficient to meet the needs of survivors.

Since 1999, progress in victim assistance was most prominent in the areas of medical care, employment, and economic support in the northeast. A prosthetic and rehabilitation center was built in the mine-affected region. Conditions at the National Orthotic-Prosthetic Center in Tirana, once the only such facility in Albania, had been deteriorating since 2005, and in 2010 the center lost ICRC support. A five-year project to build capacity in the rehabilitation sector through training of physiotherapists and the establishment of a prosthetics workshop in the mine-affected area was successfully completed by 2012. Some delays in implementation were attributed to general difficulties experienced by the overall healthcare reform process in Albania. However, a teaching program for physiotherapy was successfully established and integrated into the state Nursing Faculty. ALB-AID (formerly VMA-Kukës, founded in November 2000) provided direct victim assistance, including economic inclusion.

Economic inclusion and psychological support remained the most serious needs of survivors. Overall, widespread poverty, unregulated working conditions, and poor medical care posed significant problems for many persons with disabilities.

In 2012, ALB-AID developed a project to build a sustainable survivors network and has worked on expanding opportunities to access physical rehabilitation services for survivors and amputees in other parts of the country. A study on the transition from mine action to national ownership noted that Albania’s victim assistance program had the capacity to expand its focus beyond the mine-affected northern regions, and more recently to the Gerdec explosion site, to assist survivors of explosive ordnance and other persons with disabilities throughout the country. ALB-AID worked with local associations in AXO-affected areas to make rehabilitation more accessible to amputees in the other regions.

Assessing victim assistance needs

In 2013, ALB-AID conducted an assessment of socioeconomic and health needs of marginalized UXO/ERW victims in six counties (Korça, Dibër, Durrës, Elbasan, Berat, and Gjirokaster) of Albania, with 296 respondents among the 354 survivors that were visited. The survey was carried out by ALB-AID within the framework of the Albanian Mine Action Programme (AMAP) with financial support from Austria. Implementation of the survey was conducted through four stages: 1. the preparatory phase including liaising with the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth Department of Social Policies to ensure institutional support and design of the questionnaire—adapted to the Albanian context—in cooperation with AMMCO Victim Assistance Officer; 2. completion of the questionnaire through individual interviews; 3. Medical checks; and 4. Data processing and preparation of the survey report. The process was closely monitored by the AMMCO Victim Assistance officer. The survey also identified 189 people who are casualties of AXO previously not registered in the national database.[7]

From January to June 2014, ALB-AID implemented an assessment of social-economic and health needs of marginalized UXO/AXO victims in Lezha and Shkodra in counties. During the project, 168 mine/AXO victims were visited; of this total 126 survivors were interviewed (some did not wish to be interviewed) including 38 UXO/AXO survivors who were not previously registered in the national database.[8]

These projects resulted in detailed, consolidated socioeconomic data on survivors and their needs that was shared with Albanian line ministries and local municipal service providers for social support services. The project also raised awareness among local government institutions (social welfare departments) of their responsibilities to address the need for social and economic inclusion of UXO/AXO survivors.[9]

Victim assistance coordination[10]

AMMCO is responsible for coordination of victim assistance activities, resource mobilization, and liaising with the government. In 2013, AMMCO’s mandate continued to involve expanding Albania’s existing victim assistance program to include other AXO and UXO survivors and persons in need of assistance.[11]

The objectives of Albania’s National Victim Assistance Plan were aligned with the recommendations of the Cartagena Action Plan.[12] The national Mine Action Plan (2010) aimed to make victim assistance sustainable by building sufficient national capacity and by linking future progress with implementation of the National Strategy on People with Disabilities (NSPWD).[13] Albania signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 22 December 2009 and the Albanian Parliament adopted the CRPD on 15 November 2012, with ratification occurring 11 February 2013.

As at 1 July 2014, Albania had not submitted Article 7 transparency reporting for the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Cluster munitions for calendar year 2013.

Survivors were represented in victim assistance planning and implementation of services including the AXO survivor survey through participation in ALB-AID.[14]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[15]

Medical care and Rehabilitation

The National Trauma Center, located within the Military Hospital in Tirana, is responsible for treating people with injuries and trauma. Some physiotherapy is available in this center; however the service remained limited and was not specific to the rehabilitation needs of all patients. No psychological support is provided in this center and there are no doctors specializing in rehabilitation.[16]

In 2013, amputees from throughout the country, including mine/ERW survivors, continued to utilize the capacity of the Kukës Prosthetic Workshop. The Kukës Prosthetic Workshop, situated in the Kukës regional hospital and integrated into the hospital’s human resources funding, faced difficulties in securing enough raw materials and components to produce and repair prostheses.  Support from Austria through ITF Enhancing Human Security for the purchase of rehabilitation equipment resulted in the workshop receiving the supplies of materials in September 2013.[17] The Nursery Faculty of Tirana continued to implement a sustainable program of physiotherapy training in 2013.[18]

Overall, regional hospitals and other health centers did not provide physiotherapy services. As a result, not all those in need could readily access these services. Rehabilitation medicine remained at the beginning stage in Albania and was far from meeting the needs of survivors and other persons with disabilities. Some rehabilitation, mainly physiotherapy, was offered by small private clinics and professionals. More structured private services offered rehabilitation with other forms of therapy in addition to physiotherapy.[19]

Economic and social inclusion and psychological support

A law adopted in June 2012 requires assistant teachers in classes with children with disabilities. Previously, children with disabilities had not been integrated into the public education system.[20] The new law on pre-university education improved the opportunities for students with disabilities by ensuring that inclusive education will be made available while isolated special education will be gradually eliminated, that local authorities make schools accessible, and that educational institutions are obliged by law not to discriminate against students with disabilities (and such discrimination can include a lack of reasonable accommodation).[21]

ALB-AID initiated a survivor network advocacy and awareness-raising project with a small grant from the ICBL-CMC Survivor Network Project from August 2012 to July 2013.[22]

Generally, resource constraints and lack of infrastructure made it difficult for persons with disabilities to participate fully in many social activities. Governmental social services agencies were often unable to implement their programs due to lack of funding.[23]

A national strategy and action plan for the development of mental health services for 2013 to 2022 was adopted in February 2013. However, there was no progress towards the development of community-based mental health services in 2013.[24]

Laws and policies

Due to the differentiated status of certain disabled persons’ organizations and associations and the lack of official status for certain disabilities, there continued to be unequal access to rights among persons with disabilities.[25] Differences in legal status meant that most mine survivors with disabilities were not eligible for the state benefits available to some other groups of persons with disabilities.[26] For example, only those survivors who are registered as “labor invalids” due to an accident while at work may receive benefits, including free transportation, subsidies on utilities, and study scholarships for their children.[27]

This remained the main concern for survivors; if they were not working when they were injured, they are not recognized as persons with disabilities and therefore do not benefit from disability benefits. In early 2013, survivors publically declared their requests through the ALB-AID Survivors Network Project and sought the recognition of their rights in existing disability legislation and strategies.[28] However, differentiated status for certain groups of persons with disabilities remained in 2013. Delays in payment of the disability benefits were also reported.[29]

The European Commission (EC) reported that drafting new legislation and implementation of existing legislation should be priorities “with a clear focus on the rights of persons with disabilities.”[30] In 2013, employment offices and vocational training centers were trained in the law on promotion of employment, including the quota for persons with disabilities. The draft framework law on inclusion of and accessibility for persons with disabilities was not finalized.[31] Implementation and monitoring mechanisms needed to be in place to guarantee protection for socially vulnerable and/or persons with disabilities. The needs of persons with disabilities were not considered in program and budget plans of line ministries.[32]

Legislation prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to healthcare, and the provision of other state services. However, service providers did sometimes discriminate against persons with disabilities. The law mandated that new public buildings be accessible to persons with disabilities, but this was not regularly enforced.Widespread poverty, unregulated working conditions, and poor medical care posed significant problems for many persons with disabilities.[33] Persons with disabilities continued to face difficulties in accessing education, employment, healthcare, social services, or decision-making.[34]

Albania ratified the CRPD on 11 February 2013.

In 2009, the Republic of Albania declared that it had completed clearance of all known mined areas in accordance with its Mine Ban Treaty obligations; it is no longer thought to be affected by cluster munition remnants.[1] In 2012, Albania received some international assistance for victim assistance.

In 2012, Austria provided €125,000 (US$160,738) for victim assistance through the ITF Enhancing Human Security to Handicap International and the Albanian Red Cross.[2]

Summary of contributions: 2008–2012[3]