TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN ALBANIA: THE LUSTRATION REFORM AND INFORMATION ON COMMUNISM FILES

Abstract

This paper aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of the concept of transitional justice, of the international legal instruments that address the obligation of former communist states to take measures for the eradication of the communist past as a necessary condition for the construction of a functional democracy that has peace and social prosperity at its fundaments. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the legal reform of lustration and the right to information on the files of the communist regime, focusing specifically on the arguments that justify the emergence of these reforms, reviewing their content, delineating specifically the category of subjects whom these reforms addressed as well as the rights and obligations that they created, by also outlining the progress and effectiveness of these reforms in relation to the time when they were initiated and were enforced This paper seeks to identify whether it has achieved or not the purpose for which these reforms were born in order to consolidate the new democratic state and to build a future in peace and social and economic prosperity. This paper supports the hypothesis that political interest has been the foundation of transitional justice reforms in Albania, while the wider interest of the public and of the different stakeholders has had little impact on the formulation of the transitional justice policies and on their effective implementation. To substantiate this hypothesis, the paper is organized as a study based on the desk research method, namely theoretical consultation with important legal documents as well as historical interpretation of them. The main finding of this paper is that, despite the fact that there is a legal basis for lustration and the right to information on state security files this right has not yet become effective, not only because the Albanian Parliament has been postponing for about 1 year and half the election of members of the relevant state authority charged with this task, but also because the mechanism has proved to be ineffective or at its worst unwilling to realize the purpose for which this important mechanism was set up, namely that of uncovering the truth over the communist period and banning on the exercising public functions by former state security collaborators.