The report contains state of play information at the national and bilateral/international levels in Albania and Montenegro with regards to systems, structures, practices and mechanisms, followed by conclusions and recommendations. This is the Volume 3 in the SPMU Publication series.
This project focused on the professional interaction between Judiciary, Prosecutors and Police in the investigation of Organised Crime with a special emphasis on Human Trafficking.
With the aim of gathering information on the current status and to become familiar with the mechanisms in both countries, several meetings with representatives of the corresponding agencies were scheduled to take place during the last two weeks of September and the beginning of October 2007. These interviews were conducted in the Police Directorates, Basic, High and Supreme Courts, Special Prosecutors, Investigative Judges, Legal Advisers, NGOs and civil society.
The internal structures designed to face organised crime and to protect the victims were analysed. The identification of inter-institutional co-ordination mechanisms between judges, prosecutors and police was studied with special interest, as well as the cooperation and understanding level between police and judicial authorities from Albania and Montenegro.
Two national level roundtables took place, on the 20th September in Podgorica (Montenegro), and on the 25th September in Tirana (Albania). In both roundtables, the implementation of the Palermo Convention and its Protocols was reviewed, the current legal framework and its efficiency was analysed, highlighting the current gaps and contradictions, specifically the legal coverage of the special investigation techniques was evaluated, as well as the convenience of its use in the crime investigations. Also, the importance of the protection of victims and witnesses and the need for promoting the use of direct channels of communication in transnational co-operation was emphasized.
A draft report was produced and discussed in a meeting in Shkodra (Albania) with national and international experts from both, Albania and Montenegro, IOM, NGOs, OSCE presence in Albania, OSCE mission to Montenegro and the Strategic Police Matters Unit. As a result of this meeting, a series of recommendations were agreed by the participants.