Commissioner for Protection The importance of collecting data according to the grounds of discrimination, for a fulfillment of all competences and a strong impact to the society Irma Baraku Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination Albania Zagreb, 30 October 2017

The Assembly of the Republic of Albania approved the Law “For the Protection from Discrimination “, on 4th February 2010". This law is a concrete step on the protection of human rights in the Albanian legislation, under the inspiration of international documents and to harmonise the internal legislation with the European standards.   To ensure a more effective protection from discrimination in the country, this law established the office of the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination (here in after may be referred CPD) as a public institution, independent in the exercise of his duty and as the only authority responsible to "provide effective protection from discrimination and any form of conduct that encourages discrimination" (Article 21, Paragraph 1). The Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination exercises its powers pursuant to the Constitution and other legal acts in force.  The powers of CPD have been provided for in article 32 of the law “On protection from discrimination”. Under the provisions of this article, CPD is entitled to a number of powers that go beyond the provisions of Directive 2006/54/EC. If we perform a comparative study between CPD powers provided for in article 32 of the law “On protection from discrimination” and the powers provided for in article 20 of Directive 2006/54/EC, the following classification would be reached out:

  First, providing independent assistance to the victims of discrimination following their complaints related to discrimination; Second, conducting independent surveys related to discrimination; Third, publishing reports and providing recommendations about every issue that is related to discrimination. Forth, conducting awareness-raising activities on discrimination The Law "On Protection from Discrimination" (LPD), in Article 1, regulates the implementation and respect of the principle of equality in connection with gender, race, colour, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, political, religious or philosophical beliefs, economic, education or social situation, pregnancy, parentage, parental responsibility, age, family or marital condition, civil status, residence, health status, genetic predispositions, restricted ability, affiliation with a particular group or for any other grounds. As such, the list of grounds is non-exhaustive, but leaves open the type of grounds that can cause discriminatory behaviour.

In the perspective of the Albanian CPD, the importance of collecting data according to the grounds of discrimination is related to these aspects: First, it orients the CPD towards identifying the situation of discrimination and the most vulnerable groups in the country. Second, it helps to focus the activity of the institution, as regards the exercise of the legal powers, such as: Conducting awareness raising campaigns Initiating ex-officio cases Carry out monitoring and studies related to discrimination Making recommendations to improve the situation of discrimination and proposing legislative recommendations

Situation From the observation of the total number of complaints, separated according to the grounds of discrimination, it results that the main grounds of discrimination in the country, are: Race, which is the dominant ground and then economic situation, political beliefs, disability, age, ethnicity, educational status, gender, sexual orientation, affiliation to a particular group, social situation and other grounds remain in a lower level.

The CPD, as a member of Equinet is part of the Cluster on “Research and Data Collection”. Equality bodies carry out or commission research to develop knowledge of and highlight the situation of victims of discrimination. In the Equinet perspective, research establishes the context for the work of the equality body on a given issue. It communicates the commitment of the equality body to those issues and to those who are discriminated against. Furthermore, it enables an authoritative equality body contribution to policy making on discrimination concerns. Many equality bodies identify data deficits with regard to different groups. These are found to hamper research and survey work by equality bodies. Equality bodies also communicate a concern to improve these data deficits by working on new methodologies, including with national bodies responsible for data collection. This Cluster seeks to consider the difficulties in collecting data on intersecting inequalities due to the level of precision required to capture the experience of overlapping forms of discrimination.

The monitoring of enrolment of Roma children in school In 2012, the CPD initiated an "ex-officio" case, aiming to monitor the enrolment of Roma pupils in the 9-year-school in Tirana. The CPD, after the observation of the enrolment of Roma pupils in the 9-year school in Tirana, concluded that there is no tendency of segregation of them in a single school but it’s because Roma pupils are living closer to this school, therefore the number of Roma children enrolled in that school, is larger. The CPD concluded non-discrimination on grounds of race, ethnicity and colour, to Roma pupils in the 9-year Tirana but recommended to the Directorate of Regional Education of Tirana, to follow the enrolment of Roma pupils in the 9 -year school and the ratio between Roma pupils and non-Roma that have a largest number of Roma pupils in schools.

The monitoring of situation of discrimination in schools of Albania In 2011, the CPD carried out a monitoring aiming to assess the situation of discrimination in Albania (in six districts, 6 schools per each). The pupils ranked “race” as the main ground of discrimination in their schools. At the end of the monitoring, based on the results, the CPD came up with concrete recommendations to Regional Education Directorates to take all measures to fulfil the obligations prescribed under Article 19 of the Law "For the Protection from Discrimination", which states that: “The director of an educational institution is responsible for taking measures of a positive nature in the respective institution, in order to fight discrimination in connection with the right to education”.   The CPD has sent recommendations aiming to improve the situation of discrimination. Most of the recommendations were addressed to the local and central authorities to, such as: Regional Employment Offices Municipalities Regional Education Directories; Office of Civil Registration; General and regional Police Directorates and line Ministries.

The CPD has also sent legislative recommendations, on some amendments to the Labour Code regarding the definition of discrimination and addition of all the forms of discrimination, as foreseen in the anti-discrimination law, recommendations to the Administrative Procedures Code as regards the formulation of separate article on the principle of equality and non-discrimination, and shifting of the burden of proof, on the Penal Code in order to criminalize the distribution of materials through computer systems and homophobic insult through the computer system because of sexual orientation and gender identity.  The CPD has signed Cooperation Agreements with civil society organizations operating in the field of protection against discrimination of Roma and Egyptian.