Albania

August 2016: Outreach by Fred Abrahams, HRW – a meeting with Minister Bushati and a follow-up letter which was shared with contacts in Netherlands and Norway. September 2016: Albania endorses.

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools.

September 2017 UNSC: GCPEA sent a letter to the Ambassador of Albania in NY asking to raise the issue of attacks and military use, draw attention to Declaration and Guidelines during the Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict.

July 2018: Joined Argentina’s joint statement to the SC during the open debate on children and armed conflict. Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018)

March 2019: Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the SRSG CAAC Virginia Gamba, HRC Geneva: joined Norway’s joint statement on the Safe Schools Declaration.

December 2021: positive statement at arria meeting on the protection of education during conflict citing SSD. “Urgent and concrete measures are needed to mitigate the negative consequences caused by the military use of schools”. “As a signatory country of the Safe Schools Declaration, Albania remains committed to strengthen education from attack and ensure the continuity of safe education during conflict”.

November 2022: Endorsed the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (EWIPA) on 18 November during an International Conference hosted by Ireland, the leader and penholder behind the Declaration.

February 2023: Belgium and Albania (OSCE delegations): Nevena requested the meeting to discuss the work of the newly established Group of Friends on Children and Armed Conflict within the OSCE (it was created in December 2022 and it comprises of Italy, Belgium, Albania, Poland, and Norway). She underlined how GCPEA can support them in integrating the protection of education from attack within the institution. One of the ideas is that a few states can suggest a questionnaire on children and armed conflict to the Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security. Every year states on a voluntary basis submit information on the Code of Conduct’s questionnaire. In this new questionnaire on CAAC, states could potentially report if they have endorsed the SSD and how they have been implementing its commitments or any other measures they have taken to protect education. The answers to the questionnaires are publicly available on the OSCE’s website. Secondly, she urged them to look into the training manuals of OSCE field operations officers and include the SSD and Guidelines. Third, they agreed that a side event on protecting education from attack during the Human Dimension Committee Implementation meeting in October could raise awareness about the issue.