Local Profile

Mediation in Albania : the main issues

According to the Foundation “Conflict resolution and Reconciliation of disputes” mediation in Albania deals with the resolution of civil cases, the resolution of family conflicts and disputes, the resolution of cases in the penal area ( in cases which are tried at the court on the request of the plaintiff and when penal proceedings start only on the victim’s complaint), and action in blood feuds.
The target groups are individuals, private entities or social groups involved in conflicts and disputes of different types, social groups in the community, and elementary, secondary and university school age groups.

The conflicts in Albania

The last statistics show that more and more conflicts are transferred by institutions such as court, prosecution office, police and local authorities and school to mediation centers: The Mediation Centers aimed at having 15-20% of the cases transferred by these institutions. The tables for the year 2004 show that 705 conflict and disputes cases or 27.2% of the total were transferred.

Situation of mediation in Albania  (*)

Concerning mediation continuous work is carried out in the training area. All the mediators of the Mediation Centers are trained at different levels. The training has been mainly focused on the role of mediator, the best methods and ways of dealing with conflicts and the conflicted parties.
Several trainings have been conducted at national and international level on the new approaches to resolution of conflicts and disputes, such as restorative justice and its main methods, like community conferencing, victim-offender mediation, etc…
Nevertheless, the state institutions do not play a really effective role in spreading and accepting the mediation approach.

Main challenges to mediation (*)

The enormous political and economical changes taking place in Albania have caused such a conflicting situation that necessarily needs mediation. The lack of a consolidated  state and of a more effective justice system makes the application of  the mediation approach, out of the judiciary, most important. Cooperation with the justice system, prosecution office and the police would make the resolution alternative of mediation more known in the community.
The most important in mediation is sensitizing individuals and social groups that resolution of conflicts through mediation is a very effective method, which helps the parties and the community, and educates them with the culture of peace, tolerance and understanding among each other. So the main challenges to mediation are raising awareness of institutional and social society factors with regard to positive values of mediation and the existing possibilities to use mediation in the resolution of conflicts and disputes. 
The areas for growth for mediation are: Mediation in family cases in regard to the growing domestic violence, and Mediation in property cases because of the complexity of the property relations and the legislation in Albania.

(*) : Texts taken from a presentation of Rasim Gjoka, director of the AFCR, at the networking workshop (SEEMF) in Sarajevo on the 27-30th October 2005