Full Coverage: Albania

24.02.2006 The Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania – CRCA, a major child-rights organisation in the country, issued today its latest report on the situation of child labour and street children. This is the very first in-depth research-report published by a national organisation in Albania, on the situation of the rights of child labourers and street children in Albania. The research is funded by Palme Center and SIDA Sweden, as part of the programme 'The Rights of the Child a Democratic Right'.

23.02.2006 Albanian Ministry of Education announced the constitution of the National Learning Committee, an advisory body in matters of operation and organization of national learning, led by Emil Llamani from the Polytechnic University.

21.02.2006 Last Saturday, 18 February, Albania signed February the technical part of the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso visited Tirana for talks with Albanian Foreign Minister Besnik Mustafaj on Albania's progress toward greater integration into the European Union.

16.02.2006 The Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania declared today the winners of the 2005 Child Rights Media Awards. This initiative of CRCA, supported by Palme Center and SIDA, has as its main aim to increase a better reporting of children issues and children rights in the mainstream printed and broadcast mass media in Albania.

15.02.2006 The MJAFT Movement remains deeply interested in the problems and debates related to the education reform in Albania. MJAFT believes that education should be treated as a matter of first order and requests maximal attention and engagement not only by the political actors, but also by the whole society.

08.02.2006 Last week, Genc Pollo, Albanian Minister of Education and Science, met with Bill Gates, the President of Microsoft Corporation, during his visit to Lisbon, Portugal. In the meeting, Gates reiterated that the improvement of quality of education globally remains one of the priorities of his company.

08.02.2006 In general, there is a good understanding and interplay between NGO's and different media in Albania. This is especially true for activities related to everyday living in Albanian society, where Ngo's concentrate their attention and seek support from the public opinion.

06.02.2006 Three major civil society organisations in the country held a major meeting of national NGO's, women and youth political Forums of different political parties in Albania and minorities organisations, with the aim to establish the largest coalition of civil society and political organisations for the promotion of women, youth and minorities in politics. The round-table was held on 1 February 2006, in Tirana, Albania.

03.02.2006 The Turkish Company "Kurum" closed down its operations in Elbasan, a move that resulted in the laying off of 1000 workers. The reason for the closing, according to Kurum, lies with the high price of electricity. Kurum (steel and metallurgy industry) was charged to pay 9 Lek per kW/h of electricity, while the other companies in the region pay less than half that price.

02.02.2006 Genc Pollo, Minister of Education and Science, declared two days ago in the 'Korrieri' daily that the Ministry of Education will need a period of consultations with all interested parties before making a decision on the senior year high school exams.

01.02.2006 The Office of the Ombudsman of Albania receives a huge number of complaints in 2005, from employees that have been sacked from their jobs in the adminsitration upon entry into office of the new Government. The public sector and Customs and Taxes Bureau seem to be striken the most by this practice.