TIRANA, March 19 – The Finance Ministry reported that it is trying to fulfill the financial obligations of verdicts against the state issued by the European Human Rights Court, where hundreds of Albanians have sued the government as a last resort after having their property and other rights violated.
The cases won by Albanians at the court have mainly covered complaints on the property restitution or compensation.
The ministry said they have already paid on the decision for 38 verdicts while two are still in the process.
The government has planned to spend some 2 billion leks covering verdicts of the courts. The ministry said there are no overdue financial obligations left at this point.
By law, if the government does not pay the money of the court’s verdicts within three months, there is an interest rate added to the principal.
The Albanian government has created an inter-ministerial working group to deal with such issues.
The European Court of Human Rights is an international body established by the European Convention on Human Rights. It hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights provisions concerning civil and political rights set out in the convention and its protocols.
As a member of the Council of Europe, Albania has a legal obligation to comply with the verdicts.
An application can be lodged by an individual, a group of individuals or one or more of the other contracting states.
In addition to property rights, Albanians have used the court to fight extradition and to seek compensation over deaths where the state was perceived at fault.
Most Albanians perceive the country’s judicial system as corrupt, and often resort to launching appeals to the Strasbourg court to seek justice once they have exhausted all the judicial steps inside Albania.
