EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Albania’s mine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination problem is a result of the 1999 Kosovo conflict. Armed forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) laid landmines along both sides of Albania’s border with Kosovo, in the north-eastern Kukës region.

The Albanian Mine Action Committee and the Albanian Mine Action Executive (AMAE) were established by the government in 1999. In 2002, the UNDP initiated a capacity building project to build mine action coordination and monitoring capacity.

This report covers the period 01 January 2011 to 31 December 2011.

Programme summary

Disaster preparedness and response remains the priority area of the Albanian Red Cross Society.

February 7th 2012, Budapest - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has increased its emergency support and operations across Europe as temperatures remain in double digits below freezing across much of the continent.

A total of 576,000 Swiss francs (477,300 Euro, 625,000 USD) is being disbursed from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to help national Red Cross Red Crescent societies bring direct relief to some 50,000 of Europe’s most at-risk. More allocations are expected in the coming hours and days.

Budapest, Tirana, Vilnius, 7 February 2012: The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and national partners sent letters to Albanian and Lithuanian authorities expressing grave concerns over the forced evictions of Romani individuals during extreme weather conditions.

This report covers the period 01/01/2011 to 30/06/2011

In brief Programme outcome: The National Society programmes are aligned with the strategic aims of the Strategy 2020 to save lives, protect livelihoods, and strengthen recovery from disasters and crises; enable healthy and safe living; and promote social inclusion and culture of non-violence and peace.
The capacity-building efforts are in line with the enabling action one to build strong National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The International Federation's Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) is a source of un-earmarked money created by the Federation in 1985 to ensure that immediate financial support is available for Red Cross and Red Crescent response to emergencies. The DREF is a vital part of the International Federation's disaster response system and increases the ability of national societies to respond to disasters.

Human Rights Council

Seventeenth session

Agenda item 3

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Summary

The visit of the Special Rapporteur to Albania focused primarily on extrajudicial executions in the context of blood feuds and domestic violence.

Press Release No:2011/433/ECA

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2011 – Every country in the Emerging Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region is expected to grow in 2011, but some countries are vulnerable to rising food and energy prices, said the World Bank at a press briefing during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings 2011.

This report looks at the current state of volunteerism in South-Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). These countries are collectively referred to in this report as 'the Region'. It considers volunteerism as a very important form of pro-social behaviour. In particular, it focuses on volunteerism for development. It examines who in the Region volunteers, how they volunteer, and in what legal and social circumstances they volunteer. It also addresses the impact that this volunteerism has on the Millennium Development Goals. Finally,