Speech by the UN Resident Coordinator in Albania, Brian J. Williams at the opening of the scientific conference “Albanian Political Emigration in 1944-1990”
Tirana, 19 February 2020
Transitional justice – a necessary condition for creating accountable and democratic institutions in Albania.
Good morning everyone,
If I had a single message to convey today, it is that the United Nations firmly believes that the true exploration of the past has direct relevance for today’s efforts to build democracy.
The United Nations is an organization of peace that was built on the horrors of war and armed conflict. After the wars, the UN immediately began discussing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognizing the inextricable link between respect for human rights and sustainable peace.
At the same time as the Declaration was adopted, the UN also began discussing a binding treaty to protect human rights.
Building institutions that protect human rights and limit the powers of governments was no easy task.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, and it took until 1954 for the first draft of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to be formulated and submitted to the General Assembly, another 12 years (1966) for the text to be agreed upon, and another 10 years before this international treaty entered into force.
The ICCPR is relevant to your conference today. It includes the right to freedom of movement, to leave and return to a country. It also includes freedom of political belief, the right to a fair trial, the prevention of torture. These are all rights that were unacceptably denied under Hoxha’s regime.
And Albania only became a party to the ICCPR in 1991.
Today’s global development framework, the 2030 Agenda, or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also recognizes this connection between peace, democracy, and human rights.
SDG 16 is about peace, accountable institutions, and justice.
What must Albania do to achieve SDG 16?
It must build an efficient and independent judicial system, something that is already being done to an extraordinary extent.
But to achieve SDG 16, Albania’s institutions must also be accountable, and that includes answering for the crimes committed under Hoxha’s regime.
In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council’s independent working group on enforced disappearances visited Albania. They were frankly surprised to find that more was not being done to find and provide answers for 6,000 missing persons. They noted that not a single criminal prosecution has been undertaken for these disappearances. And they called for a broad, inclusive truth-seeking process in Albania (and here I want to underline and endorse everything my OSCE colleague said about the importance of dealing with the past and transitional justice).
I quote from the report:
“Overall, the Working Group noted a continuing reluctance by Albania to address its past of serious human rights violations and the lack of a national debate during the dictatorship.”
Albania’s history is of absolute relevance to today’s situation. How can citizens be expected to trust government institutions if those institutions cannot even illuminate and admit their past mistakes? Admitting is not a sign of error, it is not an act of weakness, it is an act of courage. Being accountable for transitional justice is a necessary condition for creating accountable and democratic institutions in Albania.
The United Nations has in many ways encouraged this idea that exploring the past and the truth is necessary for achieving reconciliation. In 2005, the Human Rights Council, in an effort to combat impunity, created a principle called: THE INALIGNABLE RIGHT TO LEARN THE TRUTH.
I would like to congratulate the Security Files Information Authority and the Government on its establishment. The Authority is doing exactly what these principles call for, to orient society towards a debate to shed light on Albania’s history. The UN has been a proud supporter of the Authority since its inception. UNDP has supported the Authority in documenting the crimes of communism, conducting research on the concept of forced labor in internment camps during the communist regime, collecting oral testimonies from survivors, and organizing public events.
As the UN throughout the Western Balkans, we are trying to secure more financial support from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund to work on reconciliation throughout the region and we hope to work more with the Authority here.
So, your conference is very important not only for its historical interest, but also for today, and I wish you a deep and full debate.
Thank you!
