HISTORY OF INSTITUTIONS REPRESENTING FORMER CONVICTS AND PERSECUTED POLITICALLY FROM THE COMMUNIST REGIME
The government for the compensation and rehabilitation of all persons who have been unjustly accused, for the violations cited above, to provide priority, material and moral assistance and for the full integration into the democratic society, of the class of former political persecuted, became necessary, the creation of a Central State Institution.
This Institution would work on the basis of an organization approved by the Council of Ministers and would implement the Laws approved by the Assembly of Albania and the Decisions of the Council of Ministers, to exercise their civil rights, through legal channels, as a basis of restoring a free and democratic society.
From the end of 1991 to 1993, depending on the Council of Ministers and a little later, within this period, depending on the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, a Sector with several specialists began to work. With the issuance of legal acts, by-laws and decisions, which regulate the field of activity of this institution, and especially with the issuance of:
Law no. 7514, dated 30.09.1991 “On the innocence, amnesty and rehabilitation of ex-convicts and political persecuted”, with all the changes made to this law, it was deemed necessary to increase the number of specialists in the center and throughout districts of the country.
From January 1993 to December 1994, the Committee of Former Convicts and Political Persecuted was created and operated. In this period it was approved:
Law No. 7748 dated 29.07.1993 “On the Status of Former Convicts and Political Persecuted by the Communist System” and
Decision No. 184 dated 04.05.1994 “On the granting of Financial Compensation to former Convicts and Political Persecuted by the Communist System”.
About 120 specialists worked in all the districts and prefectures of the country, with all the Central Directorates. During this period, a rather voluminous work was done, in the collection of documentation of this layer, for the Granting of Status and Property Compensation.
January 1995 to December 1997, from the Committee of Political Convicts and Persecuted under the Council of Ministers, he became the General Director under the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. At this time, all the decisions regarding the granting of status were completed and the receipt of financial compensation for the former persecuted, divided according to status groups, continued.
The method of financial compensation of ex-convicts and political persecuted, in implementation of Law No. 7748, dated 29.07.1993, was done mainly with Securities and a small part would be compensated in cash.
January 1998 onwards, our institution from the dependency of the Prime Minister, passed under the dependency of the Ministry of Justice and since January 1, 2014 onwards it is dependent on the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth.
The most important basic law is:
Law No. 9831 dated 12.11.2007, “On the Compensation of Former Political Convicts of the communist regime”, amended by Law No. 10111 dated 04.02.2009.
The object of this law is the determination of the beneficiaries and the procedures for the benefit of the financial reward, for all unjust punishments by the communist regime.
The purpose of this Law is the granting of financial compensation by the Albanian state to former political prisoners of the communist regime, who remained alive, to the family members of executed victims and persons interned or deported to camps, as a commitment of the democratic state in punishing the crimes of the totalitarian communist regime and guaranteeing them a better life.
In this period, the structure of the directorate consists of 24 employees in the center, while district specialists were reduced.