Domestic Violence: International and Albanian Approaches

Domestic violence is still one of the state’s biggest challenges. During the new Millennium several legal changes have been made. In 2011, for the first time, European states took International responsibility under the standard of ‘due negligence.’ This criteria was inflicted by the “Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence” (Istanbul Convention). From then on, states could be directly considered as responsible for not being able to perform all the necessary acts and legal implementations in accordance with international obligations. In addition, this Convention is also important because is the first legally-binding document that focusses on gender-based violence. Albania, as part of the Council of Europe, has ratified this Convention in 2013. As a result, the Parliament has passed several bills. In specific, in 2018, the law introduced several new legal instruments to provide women a better protection against domestic violence. In the conclusions, the paper treats the recognition by the Albanian state of its international legal liabilities by adopting in its domestic law the previsions of the ‘Istanbul Convention.’