TIRANA, Oct 30 /ATA/-By Maela Marini/ The chairman of the parliamentary committee on Laws, Ulsi Manja, stated on Thursday that Parliament has the obligation to provide Albania with an independent Ombudsperson, who stands above all parties.
During the presentation in Parliament of the Ombudsperson, Erinda Ballanca, on the institution’s activities in 2024, Manja particularly praised her contribution to the protection of human rights.
He listed some of the achievements during his tenure as Minister of Justice in ensuring decent conditions for pretrial detainees and prisoners.
“We decommissioned the detention facilities in Sarandë and Tropojë, the Vaqarri prison, and the women’s prison in Ali Dem, transferring the female inmates to an open penitentiary and relocating them to a modern correctional institution such as Pjoska. These reforms were also driven by the sustained advocacy of the Ombudsman, who consistently emphasized in her reports that institutions failing to meet even the minimum standards of detainees’ fundamental rights and freedoms should be closed,” Manja stated.
Manja stressed that it is now the duty of the Committee on Laws and of Parliament to elect an Ombudsman who can pick up the work where Ballanca left off.
While responding to Democratic Party MP Jorida Tabaku, he also pointed out that “the opposition has taken over the chairmanship of the parliamentary committee on Human Rights.”
Manja emphasized that Parliament must elect an impartial and dignified Ombudsman to carry forward Ballanca’s work, serving the citizens rather than political parties, and stressed that institutions should no longer be divided along party lines.
/sm/
