True Story

One of very busy days at Tirana Legal Aid Society appeared a man around 30 years old, who could not speak, but emanated only sounds. He was physically mutilated, with immovable hands and walked with difficulty, gliding the legs. It was not easy to communicate with him and it took some time to talk to him, making question of yes and no answers, so he could answer by nodding or moving hands. A sweet smile was stamped in his face, and his eyes reflected satisfaction and appreciation, anytime we understood what he meant to say.
By the passport, we understood that he was E.E. HE had several official documents, written in Greek language and he insisted to read and reveal their content.

1. Admission and applicants interview:

E.E was registered and admitted as a client of TLAS.
We requested the family relatives’ contacts.
We promised to him that his issue would be resolved by TLAS.
All the initial expenses and other expenses would be covered by TLAS.

The documents in Greek language were translated and notarized. We learned from the documents that E.E. had suffered a very grave car accident in Greece. The document was a request from a medical clinic of the prison in Greece, addressed to the Police and Prosecution Institution of the area and for knowledge to the Ministry of Justice for the urgent transportation of the inmate E.E for specialized treatment. In the document it was specified the diagnosis and the type of medication (cure).

From the interview, it resulted that E.E had illegally, passed the border for working reasons. After the accident and the treatment that saved his live, living him mutilated, he was transferred to Albania by the Greek authorities. He lived alone in Tirana, slept in the streets and kept with him a bag with a few personal belongings. His family (mother, father, sister, brothers and the daughter) lived in Greece.

1/a. Services provided to E.E. by TLAS:

Passport data to mediate with the General Department of the Civil Status at the Ministry of Interior.
An inquiry in the National Register of Civil Status resulted in finding that E.E was habitant of the Municipality Unit No.x of Tirana.
We started the procedure for the collection of the necessary documentation to address the case to the Medical Commission for the Determination of the Work Ability (KMCAP), in order for him to gain the invalidity status for the economical assistance.
A clarification letter was addressed to the employees of the civil status office of Unit no.x, where it was demanded the supply of E.E. with the necessary certificates to continue the initiated procedures.
It was prepared a letter for the county physician, escorted by the medical documents translated of E.E.
Both above instances were very cooperative and eager to assist E.E.
E.E. appeared at KMCAP, following the TLAS instructions and he was classified to benefit the disability status with a monthly economical assistance of 8.700 ALL.

E.E. was a very cooperative person, intelligent and understood all the criteria he had to satisfy; he was correct and insistent to follow all the TLAS instructions. Therefore, the successful completion of the first case was a very important achievement, because he had a financial resource to provide for his living.

1/b. The other case was E.E’s housing.

He slept in the streets in occasional places. How could he be helped?

The only legal way was the identification through the official registration in the homeless list. The registration in the list was necessary; otherwise he could not be recognized as homeless by the proper housing structures, even though the registration in the list does not mean that he could benefit, immediately a home.

It was taken the following steps:

TLAS started the procedures to identify him as a household, i.e the separation from his family, as a household person.
Completion of the form prepared by the Tirana Municipality;
Certification of the form by the notary public and the submission to the Municipality Unit No.x Housing Office, where he was registered in the database and officially recognized by the Municipality as homeless.
Meanwhile, considering the fact that such steps could not fully resolved the difficult situation for the housing of E.E., he was recommended at the Albanian Disability Association (ADRIF), that could provide to E.E. a staying place for a few months.

1/c. The other case of E.E was his unregistered daughter with the civil status office.

Today, his daughter lives in Greece with E.E’s parents. The girl was born out of the wedlock, when E.E. was in good health conditions. The mother of the girl left the home, abandoning the girl under the care of the father. E.E had a birth certificate of the child issued by a civil status office in Greece.

Advices:

The document was not sufficient to register the child.
The certificate had to be certified by the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Greece, in order to continue with its legalization by the Albanian Consulate in Thessalonica, where the child was born.
The child could be registered, only by her mother or by the mother’s family relatives.

Steps taken:

TLAS contacted the sister of E.E, who lived in Thessalonica, asking to her to take the necessary actions for the legalization of the child’s certificate.
After this step, TLAS will contact the mother of the child or the mother’s relatives to finalize the registration with the civil status office.

The case, is still being addressed by Tirana Legal Aid Society, and we are pleased that the life of E.E has started to change and normalize.

During the year 2009, specific targets were identified for the eligibility criteria, addressing of the cases or for the priorities that such cases occupy in case of court representations. As an attorney at law for more than 7 years at TLAS, I have visualized that such priorities have not been static but dynamic. What has remained unchanged is the eligibility based on the poverty level of the individual or the family that must be represented. And, truly, since the poverty is escalated in the negative direction of the axis and the TLAS capacity is limited, care is taken to select the more extreme cases of poor individuals and families. In this real story, I want to tell a case that represents a whole group of children that are not obliged to be represented in court for the registration of the fact birth, while require representation for the appointment of their “mentor ”. It is a necessity the representation of these categories of cases and why TLAS has considered it one of its top priorities during 2009?

For instance, during 2007, 2008 the birth registration in the Fundamental Registry of the Civil Status Offices, through court procedures occupied the main workload of the TLAS attorneys. In 2009, when in line with the amendments of the civil status law, such phenomena was reduced, TLAS started to pay more attention to the new legal issues, which existed even before as cases to be brought before the courts.

Amongst our partners, we can rank, especially, the residential centers for children and senior citizens. In the TLAS offices requested legal services the Representatives of the “SOS” Village for a complex group of cases for the children residing in this residential center. The cases are different from each other, depending on the origin of the child and reasons of their sheltering in this institution. I am telling the story of only one of them.

Why the children are sheltered in the “SOS” Village?

In the SOS Village were sheltered 3 children of the Z. family. They were orphans and did not have any kind of support. The minors were originating from Puka, and they moved for better living conditions. As a result of the blood feud, because of an armed conflict with their neighbors, three of six members of their family were dead, the father, the mother and one sister. The other three minors of the Z. family were present in the crime scene and watched the tragedy. The children are of 8, 11 and 14 years of age. The uncle and the aunt of the minors are the closes relatives to take care of them and have the parental responsibility. However, they’re economical and social conditions did not satisfy the minimum criteria, necessary for the raise and education of the children. This situation, forced the relatives to demand assistance from TLAS, in order the shelter the three children in the “SOS” Village.

Here, it starts the “holistic” approach or addressing of this type of cases, which means that TLAS, commences, step by step, the solution by legal means for the protection of the rights of children, considering, always, the best and highest interest of the children.

The first steps taken by the TLAS Paralegal Counselor:

It was recommended that the children be resided in the “SOS” Village, after the verification that children satisfy the criteria to be sheltered in this institution, such as the age, lack of guardianship, bad economical conditions, etc.
Several data and documents were retrieved from the Civil Status Office, such as family composition certificate, marriage certificate, death certificates, birth certificates for each of the children, various evidence that they did not benefit from any economical assistance or social care, etc.
The health of the children was examined trough a series of medical examinations. It was obtained the medical record of each of the children from the family physician to evaluate the records of their medical and health history.
The “SOS” Village decided to admit the application and continued to further evaluate the social and economical conditions of the children and their family relatives.

Today, the children live at “SOS” Village and are fitting with the environment and the educators. However, the “SOS’ village does not enjoy a full legal tutorship status, which impedes it to fully protect and represent the rights of the three minors in relation to the state institutions or third parties. In such conditions, the representatives of this institution appeared at TLAS offices to continue the cooperation through the legal assistance.

Other steps taken by the TLAS attorney:

The TLAS attorney thoroughly, studied the case and the provisions of the Family Code, which provides that: “the death of the parents that exercise the parental responsibility over their minor child and the impossibility of the relatives to take care of them, is the main reason that must be assessed by the court to place the minors under the custody of a licensed institution of social care, considering the highest interest of the child”.

From this point of view and in virtue of the Article 263 and 271 of the Family Code, that provide:
Article 263: “A minor may be placed under guardianship and in the special care of the state when his/her parents are unable to exercise their parental rights, because of the death of both parents or because they are unknown, have been proclaimed as not found, have had their parental rights terminated or have lost their capacity to act, as well as for any other reason accepted by the court. The competent court to establish guardianship of the minor is the court located in the district where the child resides”.
Article 271: “Guardianship of a minor that has no relatives willing or able to exercise custody duty may be awarded, by the court, to a public or private institution licensed for the care of children”.

The attorney started to complete the necessary documentation, required by the procedure, to request the child custody through a court decision and she collected:

The Decision of the Central Commission of the Social State Service;
“Orphan” certificates memberships for each of the children.
Notary affidavit from the children relatives;
Drafted the lawsuit and filed it with the court.

The children are living in better conditions and their best interests are legally represented by “SOS” Village.

The couple P, is from Roma community. TLAS helped them during 2003 and 2004, to register tow of their children in the civil status office, while the mother was pregnant. The mother promised to register the new coming child without the necessity of the court procedures. She was aware and kept the promise.
The life is cruel! In December 2008 the mother of three children dies because of grave illness, living the three children orphans with the husband. Her husband was unemployed, homeless and not ready to take care for the well-being and safeguarding of the children.
TLAS recommended and intervened that for the best interest of the children, it would have been better to shelter them in the SOS Village. The father accepted to send to the institution only the two boys, S and E., reasoning that for the girl M., the aunt will take care.

In September 7, 2009, the working group of TLAS organized meetings and mobile services in the Roma community areas and met the little girl in the backyard of a house, washing the dishes. The girl M. have a very good memory and is a very clever child; she recognizes the TLAS staff members, because she had accompanied several times her mother to the office, in the meetings with the lawyers or paralegals; she is very enthusiastic when she sees the TLAS staff members, leaves the work and gets closer very admiring.

M. is 9 years old and when we asked her how she’s doing, she answers: “I work, wash dishes, garments, collect water and baby-sit the baby of N. and finger point a woman with many children in the backyard of a barrack.”

We were informed that the girl does not live with her aunt, or her father, but in a neighbor family, which kept her for pity, because their little girl was a friend of M.
This was a very noble gesture of this family, that, even, they could not feed her children and live in extreme poverty conditions, took care of M., who was happy with them. M. was being useful too, for them, working and taking care for their baby.

We were informed, also, that M. did not attend school, even she was 9 years old, and as a result she could read or write.
When we asked her, if she wanted to attend school, her eyes shined brightly. When we asked her, what she wanted to be, when she grows up, she, sincerely, answered: “I want to be a teacher”.
We asked her, why she wanted to be a teacher and she answered: “to teach the Roma children and not beat them up; I don’t want them to be beaten up and begging on the streets”.

Since this meeting, TLAS started to collect the documentation for the following of the procedures to settle, little M. in SOS Village and to join her with her brothers, so, one day, she could realize her dreams.

A range category of cases addressed by TLAS during 2009 appertain to the correction and adjustment of the personal data of the vulnerable individuals. It is known that the personal data of the individual are of primary importance to enjoy the fundamental rights, in order not to be “prey” of exploitation, abuse or shift.

The case of the client M.B, a member of the Roma community, is one of the most complex cases represented successfully by TLAS.

What M.B wanted from TLAS?
MB gave birth to two children during her illegal emigration in Greece, in very hard economical conditions and outside the state institutions, without having any contact with the physicians, because of the fear from the Greek authorities and risk of expulsion from that state.

TLAS evaluates that the only way to register the birth of the children of M.B is the court proceedings, based on the rules provided in the Cod of Civil Procedure and the Law “On Civil Status”.

The judicial proceedings were estimated very complex and difficult and a series of indirect evidence ought to be submitted to prove the fact of the birth of M.B’ children, such as:

Certificates from the family physician in the health center of the district where the client live.
Certificate from the community liaison, to prove that the client was a resident of the district he covers and she has children to take care of.
Witnesses to testimony that they were present in the moment of birth of children by M.B.
Lawsuit filed with the court by the TLAS attorney.
The Court admits the lawsuit and certifies the fact of the birth of the children.
However, the court decision was not complete and correct. The court failed to express correctly, because of the lack of the fundamental data of the children. In the court decision were expressed the name, date of birth, gender and motherhood of the children and the place of birth was missing.
Place of birth is considered as an important data, under the law on civil status and consequently the civil status office refused to register the children in the registries with the missing data.
TLAS decided to address to the court with a second application, for the correction of the error of the previous decision of the Tirana District Court. Under the Article 312 of the Code of the Civil Procedure, the court must correct the obvious inaccuracy of the rendered decision, because this decision contained inaccuracies and was difficult to be enforced by the applicant.
TLAS bases the second application in the Law no. 8950, dated 10.10.2002 “On Civil Status”, where it is stated that the components of the civil status are: name, surname, date of birth, place of birth, gender, motherhood and fatherhood relations, death, etc. Lack of one of such components makes the decision unenforceable by the civil status office, and the children could not be registered in the registry.

After many court hearings, finally the court admitted the second application for the correction of the decision for the certification of the fact of birth, correcting the place of birth of the children. However, it was necessary to recollect all the evidence filed and used in the first trial, which cost time, money and work of the TLAS staff.

The two children were registered in the civil status registrars with the complete elements required by law, so now, they can benefit from the social, economic, health and education programs of the government.

The client Q.B came to TLAS offices with her daughter L.H. both were adults and from Roma community. They had a legal problem, while they were financially unable to afford a lawyer, because they were unemployed and had no financial resources.

20 years ago, Q.B gave birth to a child of female gender, named L.H. the child was born out of the health institutions, because the mother and the father of the child moved from one place to another.

Q.B failed to register the baby-girl with the civil status office, because she had no documents to prove the birth of the child. For more than 20 years, L.H was unregistered in the civil status fundamental registrar and did attend school, therefore she was illiterate. On the other hand, L.H lives with another man and she has three children, which are unregistered because the mother is unregistered.

TLAS attorney started immediately the court proceedings for the registration of L.H, the unregistered mother of the three minor children. Afterwards, TLAS delt with the registration of the three children, respectively of 6, 4 and 3 years old. The year 2009 was a very good year for the legal identification of the L.H’s family, which had several benefits from the successful registration in the civil status office, such as:

L.H. as a household, registered the three children in the civil status office registrars of Municipality Unit no. 7 and meets the requirements to be classified as a beneficiary of the Economic Assistance.
L.H. as a household started the housing procedures to be included in the Municipality of Tirana lists and, actually, is considered as a legitimate candidate for the social houses, in the future.
L.H. as a household was registered in the Employment office, which was a obligatory requisite to benefit and continue the economic assistance.
L.H. applied to sign up both her minor children in the state kindergarten; this right was denied to her for a very long time, because of the lack of legal identification.
L.H. signed up her biggest child in a pre-school course organized by Terre Des Home in her community.
L.H. became aware for the actions that will entitle her and her children for significant benefits, such as the right for social care, the right of housing, education and employment and she understood that begging was a mean to provide for the daily food, but not a mean to grow her children.

L.H. learned that the integration of her family in the society starts from the legal identification of the family to seek job, home, education, services, etc.
L.H. has recommended many her friends, that have the same legal problems, and now are TLAS clients.

Although, L.H is part of a very difficult category of vulnerable individuals to deal with, TLAS cannot refuse or close the door to vulnerable clients such as L.H. They are a priority of the work of TLAS.