CCPR/C/127/D/2444/2014
the Covenant. The Optional Protocol entered into force for Albania on 4 January 2008. The
authors are represented by counsel.
1.2
On 21 July 2014, pursuant to rule 94 of its rules of procedure, the Committee, acting
through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures, requested
the State party not to evict the authors from their homes while their communication was
under consideration by the Committee.
1.3
As the eviction orders were revoked after the Committee’s request for interim
measures, the authors’ counsel asked on 6 August 2014 that the request be lifted.
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
The authors are of Roma origin, living in Elbasan, Albania. They are all unemployed
and live with their families, numbering 32 people including children, in impromptu houses
built without permission in the early 1990s. All authors have filed requests for the
legalization of their dwellings. The authors have been living there for more than 20 years.
Throughout this period, the authorities have de facto tolerated if not acknowledged the
authors’ residence there, and the houses are connected to the main electricity grid and to the
municipal water mains.
2.2
On 2 July 2014, the Council of Ministers decided (decision No. 432) that one of the
main roads in Elbasan – Qemal Stafa Street – should be extended and widened as part of
renovations of the football stadium. On 16 July 2014, the Elbasan municipal urban
construction inspectorate served the authors with notices to vacate their properties within
five days. According to these documents, the demolition of the houses was necessary on the
“grounds of public interest”. 1 The authorities neither consulted with the authors nor
provided them with any form of assistance, compensation or alternative accommodation.
2.3
The authors argue that no remedy was available for them to challenge the eviction
notices, as domestic law explicitly states that administrative or judicial appeals against an
eviction order do not have suspensive effect. Furthermore, the Agency for the Legalization,
Urbanization and Integration of Informal Zones and Buildings determined that while A.L.’s
home was eligible for legalization,2 the homes of the other authors were not because their
legalization would interfere with the construction work on Qemal Stafa Street, which was a
public interest project. While an open mayoral meeting was held on 18 July 2014
explaining the evictions and the possibility of granting the authors alternative
accommodation in the form of partial rental subsidies, the State party began to provide
assistance to the authors only after they had filed the present complaint. No alternative
accommodation was guaranteed before the date of eviction, and no reference was made to
whether the evictions were to be suspended. The rental subsidies did not cover the full rent
and there was no indication as to how long the subsidies would be provided. The municipal
council had not yet agreed to any of the mayoral schemes, and the release of funds for these
remedies would not happen quickly.
2.4
After the authors reluctantly acceded to the State party’s offer of alternative
accommodation, the State party demolished all but A.L.’s house on 5 August 2014. The
authors accepted a rental subsidy of 50 per cent.3
2.5
The authors refer to concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights on Albania and of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, in which the Committees expressed their concern regarding incidents of
forced evictions of Roma and Egyptian people from illegal settlements without the
provision of alternative housing, compensation or adequate legal safeguards.4 The authors
1
2
3
4
2
No further details are provided in this regard.
However, 100 square metres of A.L.’s property were not eligible for legalization as the land was
needed for part of the road-widening project.
These facts occurred after the registration of the case before the Committee. Subsequently, on
6 August 2014, the counsel asked that the request for interim measures be lifted.
E/C.12/ALB/CO/2-3, para. 29, and CERD/C/ALB/CO/9-12, paras. 19–20 and 27–28.