Eight years ago, in 2018, the Albanian Helsinki Committee began the legal battle for the confirmation of the discrimination and indemnification of citizen A.B. who has been issued a medical security measure and is kept since 2000 not in a psychiatric hospital, as the law requires, but in the prison system, as well as of his brother who maintains custody K.B.
The Commissioner for Protection From Discrimination has confirmed direct discrimination toward citizen A.B. and the category of individuals with mental health problems, demanding that the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, take measures to adapt two special buildings where these citizens are kept in the prison system (Special Health Institution Tirana and IEPD Lezha), for the treatment of these citizens under the care of the Ministry of Health, according to law no. 44/2012 “On mental health.”
After the successful reprensetation of this citizen on the complaint filed against the decision of the Commissioner with the Aministrative Court of First Instance by the State Advocate Office, lawyers of the Albanian Helsinki Committee’s Free Legal Clinic inisitated a judicial process to seek non-material indemnification in the form of moral and moral damages, as a result of discriminatory behavior, as well as the immediate implementation of the medical measure in a psychiatrict institution. The lawsuit was accepted partially and it was decided that the two citizens (A.B. and K.B.) be indemnified in the total amount of 5.5 million leks. The Administrative Court of Appeals, following an appeal by the General Directory of Prisons, changed the decision of the first instance court, and decided to declare discrimination of the citizen, immediate execution of the medical measure in a psychiatrict hospital, and the indemnification of the citizen and his brother, in the same amount as decided in the administrative court of first instance.
It is a positive fact that the latest decision communicated to AHC, no. 3704/2025, of the Administrative College of the High Court, upholds the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeals, rejecting the appeal filed by the State Advocate Office.
The latest decision of the High Court confirms important conclusions that had been addressed earlier by the Albanian Helsinki Committee, the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination, and the People’s Advocate, regarding essential issues of respect for and protection of the life and health of people, toward the unlawful and discriminatory conduct of state institutions toward vulnerable individuals, and the urgency to establish special institutions for mental health care. This decision of the High Court emphasizes the need to implement the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens who have been issued a medical measure, treatment free of discrimination, with multi-disciplinary teams, and in as non-coercive premises as possible, for accessible and effective health care services.
The treatment of the petitioner and many other individuals who are kept in the prison system with medical measures of mandatory medication, unlike other patients with mental health disorders, represents direct discrimination due to “belonging to a special group” nad the “denial of reasonable adaptation.”
This decision of the High Court represents special significance with regard to a very important case – that there is no special medical institution established, and it opens the way to pursuing the same judicial practice of indemnification by citizens with health measures who are kept in contravention of the law in penitentiary institutions as well as by their family members who have custody over them. As long as a special psychiatrict hospital (outside the penitentiary system) does not exist, the establishment of this institution remains an obligation of the state.
It is worth emphasizing that AHC continues the legal pursuit of this case with a new administrative adjudication, actio popularis.
Ealier, AHC also represented the Strazimiri case, which was successfully concluded in January 2020, whereby the European Court of Human Rights imposed a responsible measure and asked our country to establish the “special institution” by equipping the existing buildings or building a new specialized building for sheltering individuals with health measures of “mandatory medication” for the improvement of their living conditions. However, although five years have passed from this decision, the Albanian state has not yet established such an institution, but it has transferred male citizens with medical measures to two buildings in the IEPD Shën Koll.
Photo sourced from the Albanian Center for Quality
