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Albania parliament adopts controversial decommunization law

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Albanian Parliament on Monday adopted a law banning former members and affiliates of the nation's Communist-era secret police force from holding public office. The so-called lustration law will employ a 5-person commission to screen from political candidacy all associates of the Sigurimi secret service during Albania's Communist regime from November 1944 to December 1990. The bill passed in a 74-2 vote, with one abstention and 63 members of parliament boycotting the vote. Minority parties including the Socialists expressed fears that the law will be used as a political tool to suppress their faction. Several international parties, including the US Embassy in Tirana, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, urged Albania to proceed with greater care to ensure that the law meets international standards of constitutional protection. At least two dozen sitting judges and prosecutors face termination without a hearing under the law. Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, a supporter of the law, defended the text as a "moderated version" of the Czech lustration law of 1991, which has been upheld as legal. Poland passed its own lustration law in 2006, and though portions were found to be unconstitutional, provisions remained in force authorizing the disclosure of names of public officials who worked with the secret police. Last year, Poland's Institute of National Remembrance began officially publishing a list of public officials who worked with or were spied on by the country's Communist-era secret police. Similar measures also exist in Bulgaria and other former eastern bloc nations.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 23, 2008 (boomark / email).