Citizens Petition to Support Domestic Violence Victims
Today, unfortunately like so many days, lawyers at Tirana’s Center of Legal Civic Initiatives in Tirana are providing legal advice to women hoping to escape physical and emotional abuse in their lives.
Surveys conducted by the Center indicate that approximately 15 percent of rural women and girls suffer from physical violence with more than half reporting economic or psychological violence. In December 2006, Albania, one of the last European countries without a domestic violence law, passed the law “On Measures against Violence in Family Relations."
“We see an average of four new women every day at the Center, seeking legal advice for themselves and their children,” said Aurela Anastasi, a law professor and executive director of the Center for Legal Civic Initiatives. “With the new law, this Center now has the power to do much more to help them.”
 |
| 20,000 citizens petition for legal protection for women in Albania |
USAID’s two-year Women’s Legal Rights Initiative was instrumental in drafting the law, raising public awareness, and organizing the citizens’ petition which allowed the law to be brought to Parliament for consideration. The project collected 20,000 signatures from Albanians who believed it important to protect the rights of women in and outside the home.
“This law on domestic violence is the first and, until now, the only time that a law has been approved after being introduced through a citizens petition of 20,000 signatures,” explains Anastasi. “It’s real evidence of democracy at work.”
Due to the concerted lobbying campaign supported through a USAID FORECAST grant to the Center, the law was approved in parliament and promulgated in June. Since then, victims have been able to get protection from the courts in normal, civil proceedings. Warnings or restraining orders may be served on the abuser and the law now stipulates that if the abuser violates the restraining order he can be arrested and prosecuted.
The grant has also enabled the Center to develop user-friendly forms for victims to request protection and to conduct trainings for legal professionals in Tirana and Shkoder on the new law and forms—all of which have reduced the impediments for women seeking protection.
Back to Top ^ |
