BEING LGBTI IN ALBANIA: ABUSED, HATED AND FORGOTTEN BY THEIR OWN COUNTRY!

   On the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, the PINK Embassy published a 10-year Report on Human Rights Violations of LGBTI persons in Albania. The report states that despite improvements in many areas, the situation of LGBTI persons, especially transgender people, is extremely serious and in violation of all international human rights standards.

 

Tirana, 17 May 2021 - Eleven years after the adoption of the law on protection from discrimination, LGBTI persons continue to face violence, open discrimination and hate crimes both in the family and in the communities where they live, while state institutions at the central and local level are powerless to guarantee the enjoyment of equal rights for all LGBTI persons as other citizens. The situation was exacerbated during the pandemic time, where the lives of transgender people were seriously endangered due to a total lack of income. The government did not approve any special support for their food or shelter.

A World Bank study ranked Albania first in the region as a country that not only does not accept LGBTI persons, but that discriminates against them especially in health services. Social attitudes towards LGBTI people are generally negative and among the most extreme in Europe. Based on a series of reports of the Embassy PINK, UNDP, World Bank, etc., it results that:

- 94% of Albanian citizens would not support their child if they find out that he belonged to the LGBTI community

- 53% believe that "gays and lesbians should not be free to live life as they wish;

- 1 in 3 LGBTI persons are victims of physical violence in the family;

- 30% of Albanians do not agree at all with same-sex relationships, a figure that ranks Albania as one of the most homophobic countries in the region;

- 66% of Albanian teachers state that they remain silent when faced with bullying in schools on the grounds of SOGI;

- 70% of Albanian teachers state that they would not accept an LGBTI person even if it were their child;

- 25% of Albanian public administration employees think that LGBTI persons should receive disaggregated services from other people;

These shocking data show the reality in which LGBTI persons in Albania. Faced with this situation, at the opening of the Diversity Week, the PINK Embassy Albania, a national NGO protecting the rights of LGBTI persons, asks publicly the Albanian Government and policy makers the following:

• Adopt the law on recognition of gender identity

• Approve legal changes that guarantee the protection of intersex children

• Improve the Criminal Code to reinforce further criminalization of hate crimes;

• Approve new anti-discrimination national standards for every public institution, based on the principles of the Law on Protection from Discrimination;

• Establish a national program for the training and employment of transgender persons in Albania;

Today, at the opening of the 12th Festival of Diversity for LGBTI rights, the PINK Embassy Albania and its partners have decided to symbolically raise the LGBTI flag in Skanderbeg Square and to hold Tirana Pride for the 6th year in a row, albeit for due to the rules the pride march cannot be held.

The President of the PINK Embassy, ​​Altin Hazizaj, on behalf of all the organizers underlined: “On the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, Albania still continues to deprive LGBTI people of the enjoyment of equal rights. LGBTI people want nothing more than to live with dignity and respect, to love freely like everyone else. Such negative attitudes should make us all ashamed! ”

Under the motto "Raise the flag", the PINK Embassy and supporters of the LGBTI community in Albania have already established an annual tradition for the promotion and awareness raising of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.

In this day, PINK Embassy made public the 10-year Report on Human Rights violations of LGBTI people in Albania. The study analyses cases that PINK Embassy has handled, while emphasizing that despite improvements in many areas, the situation of LGBTI persons, especially transgender people, is extremely serious and in complete violation of all international standards.

 

For more info, contact:

Embassy PINK

E-mail: pink@pinkembassy.al

Phone: +355675002025

 

 

Supporters and Partners