INTRODUCTION
The analysis of the Plan of Measures of the 2021-2025 Cross-cutting Justice Strategy was carried out in the context of the “All Eyes on Justice” project funded by the MATRA Program of the Dutch Embassy in Albania and was implemented by the Institute for Public and Legal Studies (IPLS). The project covers the 2020-2022 period, when the 2021-2025 Cross-cutting Justice Strategy (CJS II) was drafted and its five-year implementation begins.
CJS II is a continuation of CJS I and is developed as an answer to the needs of justice reform, already considered by all national and international stakeholders as currently the most important reform in Albania. The progress and outcomes of this reform affect to a considerable extent the process of Albania’s integration into the European Union. Led and coordinated by the Ministry of Justice and supported by the EU Euralius program, the 2021-2025 Cross-cutting Justice Strategy is a result of the cooperation among all current institutions of the justice system, as well as a consultation process with various international stakeholders and members of the Albanian civil society. This strategic document becomes more concretely implemented through an integrated Action Plan and a considerable number of indicators which will enable the monitoring and evaluation of its implementation.
In this context, the Institute for Public and Legal Studies (hereinafter “IPLS”), as one of the interested civil society stakeholders, is committed, in the context of the “All Eyes on Justice” project to support and assist in the most effective implementation of 2021-2025 Cross-cutting Justice Strategy, primarily by providing justice institutions and other stakeholders engaged in this reform with: a critical constructive analysis of the strategic and operational document itself (Action Plan and its indicators); a methodological basis for a more objective and efficient monitoring of a significant number of key measures of the Action Plan; and, on this basis, a one-year independent and objective monitoring process of the implementation of the Action Plan. In relation to the latter, the methodology selected in this project does not prejudice the methodology that the government will employ to monitor the measures and outcomes of the Action Plan, but rather offers an alternative that reinforces and perhaps complements it. The implementation of the project is based on an effective cooperation with the institutional stakeholders of CJS II.
As a first step in its implementation, the project’s group of experts has prepared a detailed analysis of the 2021-2025 strategic document, its action plan and indicators of its implementation. The analysis aims to: clarify to a wider public the meaning of the goals, objectives, outcomes and measures of CJS II; point out the strengths but also the incomplete or inappropriate elements in relation to the needs of the justice system; and, suggest possible improvements to decision-makers. Also, this analysis will serve as a basis for drafting a monitoring methodology and a more efficient cooperation with justice institutions that are the focus of this project.
The analysis below is structured according to the CJS II strategic document and its action plan, and follows its ranking, selecting four (4) policy goals, nine (9) specific objectives, nineteen (19) outcomes, forty-one (41) measures and eighteen (18) indicators. The selection made from the complete list of CJS II is based on the special interest presented by these objectives, outcomes, measures and indicators for the purposes of monitoring by civil society of the progress made by justice institutions in the implementation of the 2021-2025 Strategy.