Missing Persons from the Communist Era in Albania as a Human Rights Challenge

Abstract

Although more than three decades have passed since the fall of communism in Albania, nothing is still known about the burial place of over 6,000 missing persons. Family members still do not know the truth about the fate of their missing relatives. Such a thing not only represents a serious violation of the right to life, but has been causing a continuous suffering to the relatives of the missing people. During the last decades, a number of international and domestic laws have focused on the state obligation to create the necessary approach and mechanisms to handle this issue. The paper aims to make an analysis of the legal status of the missing people from the communist era in international and domestic law. In particular, the paper aims to examine domestic measures about this issue. The paper supports the hypothesis that despite the legal and institutional measures undertaken, the issue of missing persons from the communist era in Albania still represents a social and human rights challenge.

Received: 25 December 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 23 April 2024