The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has today made public a decision concerning progress achieved by Albania in the execution of certain judgments of the European Court of Human Rights concerning notably excessively lengthy civil proceedings and the absence of enforcement of final judicial decisions – cases Gjonbocari and Marini.
The Albanian Government presented the latest reforms in the two areas at issue and the Committee encouraged the authorities to pursue their efforts.
The Committee noted, however, the continuing absence of effective remedies for those considering themselves victims of excessively lengthy judicial proceedings, but also that there existed, awaiting legislative changes, interesting recent developments in the case law of the Albanian Constitutional Court.
In addition, as regards a case in which the Constitutional Court had been unable to render justice because of a tied vote, the Government indicated that the Constitutional Court had taken practical measures to avoid this type of exceptional situations. The Committee nevertheless encouraged reflection on further measures, notably addressing the necessity of changing also the legislation governing the Constitutional Court.
Under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the respondent States have undertaken to abide by the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The compliance with this obligation is supervised by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. (Press release)