Racial Discrimination in Albania and the Role of the Commissioner of Protection against Discrimination (CPD) Analysis of Cases of Racial Discrimination Time Period 2010-2014

A large number of studies link the dynamics and trends of racial discrimination with the shield that the legal framework or political activity of the judicial institutions at the national, regional, or global level provide. The effect expected from the improvement of laws that determine the cases and precede the limiting of cases of racial discrimination and with the undertaking of concrete actions to protect individuals and groups exposed and vulnerable to racial discrimination, is the reduction of the level, types, shapes, and cases of racial discrimination. Despite this expectation, in Albania, although the legal framework and the concrete actions since a decade ago have marked improvement in the attitude, treatment and protection of discriminated individuals or groups because of their race, data from the institution of the Commissioner of Protection against Discrimination show a growing number of cases of racial discrimination during the period 2010-2014. What can explain this paradox? This paper examines racial discrimination in Albania in the light of the relationship between three internal factors: the legislative, the executive, and the Commissioner of Protection against Discrimination. Based on the data analysis, this paper argues that the increase in cases of racial discrimination in Albania, more than the result of the weak impact of the legislature and executive, is a result of the increasing role of the Commissioner of Protection against Discrimination (CPD) and it is the expression of two trends, one in the short-term plan, and the other in the long-term plan. In the short term one, growth in the number of cases of racial discrimination is explained with the growth and strengthening of the role of such internal factors. In the long run, the decline in the number of cases of racial discrimination is explained with the impact that internal factors such as CPD exercise on the activity of political and legal factors as the legislature and the executive.

Keywords: Albania, Commissioner of Protection, Racial Discrimination