OSCE Presence holds Youth Talk event on enforced disappearances under the communist regime in Albania and role of youth in transitional justice processes
Around 80 students from the University of Korça participated in a Youth Talk session focused on the issue of missing persons during the Communist regime, on 26 May 2022. The event – organized by the OSCE Presence in Albania and its Youth Advisory Group – aimed at increasing youth engagement in the transitional justice processes in the path towards coming to terms with the past, democratic consolidation and peacebuilding.
Following the screening of a documentary on the missing persons, the students heard from Presence-commissioned researchers about their findings in this field, with a particular focus on missing women, legal and sociological aspects of political persecution and international standards. The Youth Advisory Group presented on the role of youth in transitional justice processes and led discussions with students.
The Youth Talk discussed in depth the systematic gross violations of human rights during the communist period in Albania, resulting in more than 6,000 missing individuals. Young discussants noted on how citizens were extra-judicially imprisoned or executed, a number of detained victims lost their lives owing to exhaustion, malnutrition and disease, many children born in forced labour camps were never registered and could not survive in those places. They also dwelled on stories of victims who perished while attempting to escape the regime by leaving the country, and who were executed at border crossing points; prisoners who were executed while attempting to flee from places of detention; and individuals who disappeared during military service.
“Enquiring about and locating persons unaccounted for constitutes a state’s obligation under national and international legal framework. Since the beginnings of its democratic consolidation in the 1990s, Albania has made continuous attempts to engage in dealing with its past and the fate of the missing. Yet, a lot remains to be achieved,” said Cailean Maclean, Head of the Presence’s Rule of Law and Human Rights Department.
This was the second forum with youth on the issue of missing persons that the Presence organized this year. The first one held with Tirana University students in February. The Presence recognizes the role of younger generations in shaping the democratic future of the country, and works to bring them together to explore the issue of missing persons, their role in transitional justice processes, and the implications it has for public discourse on human rights, rule of law and the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda in the country.
The activity is part of the Presence project “Strengthening human rights protection in Albania” and of “Youth in Focus II” project, funded by the Austrian Development Agency, the Greek Embassy in Tirana, and the Permanent Mission of Italy to the OSCE.