Albania, Countering Discrimination and Protecting LGBTI Rights

The wider objective of the project is : To enhance the effectiveness of national and local authorities in countering discrimination and protecting LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexual) rights in Albania.

The specific objectives:

• Improving reporting, registration, investigation and prosecution of incidents of discrimination and hate crime at national and local level
• Improving cooperation between institutions and civil society organisations involved in reporting and handling incidents of discrimination and hate crime at national and local level
• Establishing or improving local public policies for the protection of LGBTI persons against discrimination and hate crime
  Improving cooperation between national and local public authorities and local LGBTI communities or organisations
• Exchanging experiences gained in the course of the project between stakeholders and with other countries and stakeholders in the region

The expected results of the project are:
1. Improved reporting, investigation, registration and prosecution (or other types of follow-up) of incidents of hate crime and discrimination in Albania, in particular at local level
2. Improved cooperation between the police and other stakeholders involved in fighting LGBTI discrimination, at central and decentralized level

For outcome 1:

• Raising knowledge and awareness of police officers on LGBTI orientation, by specially designed information campaigns based on applied sociological and marketing insights.
• Achieving coverage throughout the countries of police officers specifically skilled to deal with discrimination complaints and hate crime in a victim-oriented way, by training events geographically spread across the country.
• Improving the interface between police and the criminal justice chain, by information to and discussion with judges and prosecutors, with presentations by local and international (Dutch) experts at professional meetings where the project will add on this element to already existing meetings.
• Increasing sustainability by steps towards inclusion of relevant knowledge, attitudes and skills in the curriculum of the Police Academie, with a study visit to the Netherlands and reciprocal visits to Albania and subsequent online accompaniment by Police Academy staff.
• Reporting according to OSCE and Council of Europe standards will be introduced by a workshop, and accompanied through the end of the project period.

For outcome 2:

• Raising interest among municipalities for the concept of municipal LGBTI policies, by presentations at meetings of National Associations of Municipalities and an offer of trainings to municipalities.
• Formulating of recommendations on municipal LGBT policies, including a study visit to the Netherlands to get acquainted with Dutch experience in this field.
• Local LGBT communities will be offered trainings on self-organizing, setting up a local NGO and interacting with local government in a productive way. Municipalities will be chosen in which LGBTI communities not or not well organized; locations in which municipalities themselves are undergoing training will be prioritized.
• Finally, a major conference on local LGBTI experiences will be held at which the local policies and practices will be presented and highlighted together with best practice from the Netherlands and from other Western Balkans countries. This effort will be focused on all western Balkans countries given the relative ease of involving these additional countries. Well-designed paper and audio-visual records on municipal experience in LGBTI policies will be produced.