The Reduce Case Backlogs and Improve Efficiency in the High Court of Albania project is a three-year project funded by the Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. The project aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Albanian judiciary by providing support to the High Judicial Council (HJC) and the High Court to improve the sublegal framework that guides the work of the High Court, address the High Court’s case backlog, and develop practices and procedures to prevent backlogs from recurring.
Albania
EWMI Programs in Albania
2020-2022
EWMI’s Strengthening Media Integrity Standards in Albania Project is an 18 month project, and the fourth in a series of related projects, that seeks to contribute to the empowerment of champions of change – media professionals – to become more capable, aware, and resilient. The Project aims to improve the integrity standards of media professionals in Albania through enriched investigative journalism capacities, enhanced fact-checking services, and support for legal aid to protect journalists’ rights, press freedom, and journalistic integrity.
The project is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
2016-2021
East-West Management Institute, Inc. implemented the USAID Justice for All project in Albania, a five-year project designed to improve court performance through implementation of comprehensive judicial performance standards in efficiency, transparency, accessibility and accountability. The project also provided assistance to investigative journalists and media outlets to strengthen their roles as important actors in the justice reform process and as watchdogs for implementation of reforms. The ultimate goal of the project was to increase public confidence in Albania’s judicial system.
2004-2007
Under a subcontract from Casals & Associates, EWMI worked to reduce corruption in Albania by providing on-site technical assistance to the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets (HIDAA). A long-term advisor worked side-by-side with officials at HIDAA, the governmental agency in charge of implementing two important anti-corruption legal mandates for the public sector – the Asset Declaration (Financial Disclosure) Law and the Conflict-of-Interest Law. These two laws require politicians, senior government officials, and the judiciary, almost 4,000 individuals, to annually declare their assets and private interests.
2003-2005
EWMI provided comprehensive assistance to Albania’s courts and judicial system through a combination of administrative and judicial training, automation, computer network installation and public outreach under the three-year USAID-funded Albania Pilot Court Administration Reform Project (APCARP). EWMI’s approach to this project began with detailed assessments of potential pilot courts. Once the pilot courts were chosen, extensive baseline surveys were conducted in order to best assess key challenges and measure progress. EWMI also supported efforts to improve the Case Management Information System (CMIS) of Albania’s courts, and provided CMIS to the project’s pilot courts.
1999 -2002
EWMI assisted Albania in its efforts to create an efficient, impartial, knowledgeable and transparent judiciary through its USAID-funded Albania Judicial Court Administration Training Program (JTP), and its follow-on, the Albanian Legal Systems in Support of Market Reform (LSSMR) Program. Through both programs, EWMI used a three-tiered approach: (i) judicial institution building; (ii) training of judicial personnel, and; (iii) access to and knowledge about the judicial system and laws.
