Report: human rights not fully protected in Balkan countries

09/03/2009

The US State Department's annual report on human rights practices finds police abuse, intimidation of journalists and corruption are still problems in many Balkan countries.

(Financiarul, Makfax, B92, Sofia Echo, SNA - 26/02/09; US Department of State - 25/02/09)

Prisons in most Balkan countries suffer from overcrowding, the report said. [Getty Images]

Last year was marked by a growing demand for greater personal and political freedom across the globe, the US Department of State said on February 25th in its annual Human Rights Report. It pointed to a number of ongoing human rights problems, including corruption, restrictions on press freedom, and burdensome legislation aimed at curtailing NGOs.

The 2008 report includes six regional overviews, with the one on Europe and Eurasia finding that "strengthening new democracies" and "addressing hate crimes and hate speech while protecting fundamental freedoms" remained key challenges in this part of the world. The document also urges governments to refrain from enforcing curbs on human rights NGOs and to allow them to operate without repression.

The country reports on eight Balkan nations concluded that the authorities in six of them -- Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia -- "generally respected" the citizens' human rights, but that problems remained in some areas.

The Romanian government "addressed some human rights problems" in 2008, the State Department said. It added, however, that abuses continued to occur in the country. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, meanwhile, the authorities' human rights record "remained poor" last year, despite improvements observed in certain areas.

Even though laws across the Balkans prohibit police abuse, it remains a problem for all countries except Croatia and Kosovo, the report said. In Albania, for example, suspects -- particularly homosexuals, or members of the Roma and Balkan Egyptian communities there -- were mistreated during their arrest or initial detention.

Roma also suffered at the hands of police in Romania, as did some other detainees. In addition, the report cited "mistreatment of abandoned children with physical disabilities in state institutions and of prolonged incarceration for misbehavior within state orphanages".

By law, schoolchildren of all ethnic communities living in Kosovo must have equal conditions regardless of their mother tongue. [Getty Images]

There was no evidence of suspects or detainees being abused by local police, UNMIK, EULEX, or KFOR officials in Kosovo, the State Department said, while noting allegations of prison inmates experiencing harassment or maltreatment.

In general, Kosovo was the only country among the eight where prisons "reportedly met international standards", according to the State Department. Prisons in most of the other countries, suffered from overcrowding, with those in Croatia also said to be experiencing shortage of capacity.

Freedom of speech and of the press is embedded in the national legislation of each of the eight countries and the governments of Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia and Romania "generally respected these rights in practice" in 2008, the report said. However, increased harassment and intimidation of journalists were observed in some of these and the other countries in the region.

Romania saw isolated cases of attempts on the part of the authorities to threaten or censor the press, or to attack journalists. Government influence on the media continued to be observed in Croatia, while press in Montenegro continued to be subject to certain restrictions.

In Macedonia, media coverage viewed as "antipatriotic" was subjected to harsh criticism by the authorities, negatively impacting press freedom in the country.

"Government respect for freedom of speech and the press declined during the year" in BiH, the State Department found. In Serbia, it said, there were indications that the government interfered with these freedoms.

Corruption remained a major problem for all countries in the region, despite national laws barring corrupt practices and providing for significant penalties. In BiH, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity, the State Department said.

"Despite several arrests of high-level local and central government officials, corruption remained a major obstacle to meaningful reform and a serious problem," it said.

In Croatia, the government undertook further improvements to the official agency tasked with fighting corruption. Nevertheless, according to the report, the problem remained serious. Government institutions, the judiciary and the business sector often found themselves at the centre of corruption cases.

Increased harassment and intimidation of the media was observed in some of the countries in the region. [Getty Images]

Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU in 2007, are still subject to a special European Commission mechanism for monitoring their progress in judicial reform and fighting corruption.

The State Department described Romania's efforts in combating corruption as "generally ineffective" and criticised the Bulgarian government over its failure to "aggressively prosecute high-profile organised crime or corruption".

Macedonia was criticised over the June 2008 parliamentary elections, which were marred by incidents of violence, intimidation, and electoral irregularities and "failed to meet key" OSCE standards.

Trafficking in persons, discrimination against persons with disabilities and minority groups and violence against women were other common problems for the region. The State Department also found that some national governments failed to fully meet their commitments to children's rights and welfare.

By law, schoolchildren of all ethnic communities living in Kosovo must have equal conditions regardless of their mother tongue. Students from minorities groups also have the right to native-language public education through secondary school. While schools teaching in Serbian, Bosnian, and Turkish operated during the year, minority education in some parts of the country suffered for lack of facilities.

Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian children attended mixed schools with Kosovo Albanian children but were reportedly threatened and mistreated in some majority Albanian areas. Many children from poor Roma families had to start work at an early age to contribute to family income and thus did not attend school.

"Kosovo Serb and Kosovo Albanian children [both] attended schools with inadequate facilities that lacked basic equipment. A few schools housed both Kosovo Serb and Kosovo Albanian pupils, who studied different curricula and rotated class schedules," the report said.

To view the entire 2008 US State Department Human Rights report, click here.

Editor's note: In the second part of this series, which will be published later this month, we will cover the US State Department report's findings on Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.