Albania: New Coalition for Women, Youth and Minorities Participation in Politics

Three major civil society organisations in the country: Albanian Independent Women's Forum, Albanian Center for Population and Development and the Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania (CRCA) with the support of DFID, Palme Center and SIDA, 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. CRCA logo "I'm very pleased to see women and young people from almost all political parties in Albania attending this roundtable”, said Altin Hazizaj, Director of CRCA and moderator of the meeting. “Although there are differences between parties, we have one aim, to help more women, young people and representatives of minorities participate actively in politics. We at CRCA believe that increasing women, youth and minority participation in decision-making and political process, means that human rights and children's rights will be better respected.” Women and youth participation in politics in Albania is at its lowest level since after WWII. At the present there are only 10 women MP's and a similar number of young people in the Albanian Parliament. Meanwhile the only minority in Albania represented in the Parliament is the Greek one. Although there are other minorities such as Macedonian, Montenegrin, Roma and Gypsy, none of these communities has a representative in the Parliament. Civil society in Albania believes that increasing the political representation of women, young people and minorities will help change the face of Albanian politics, and will help promote friendly policies towards women and children rights in the country. The Coalition which will be known under the title 'For the Promotion of Women, Youth and Minorities in Politics' has as members representatives from major civil society organisations, women and youth political forums of all political parties in Albania, minorities organisations and experts. The main goals of the Coalition for 2006 is to strengthen the capacities of women, youth and minorities to participate in political process, campaign for the quota for women participation in local governance and establish a web page called 'I HAVE THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS' as a forum for NGO's women and youth political groups and minorities.