CANAJ v. ALBANIA
Inadmissible
George Nicolaou;Ineta Ziemele;Ledi Bianku;Nona Tsotsoria;Paul Mahoney;Zdravka Kalaydjieva
1. The applicant, Mr Mero Canaj, is an Albanian national, who was born in 1944 and lives in Fier. He is represented before the Court by Mr V. Kosta, a lawyer practising in Tirana. 2. The Albanian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their then Agent, Ms L. Mandia and, subsequently, by Ms A. Hicka of the State Advocate’s Office. 3. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. 4. It would appear that, between 1960 and 1986, the applicant served a total of twenty-one years in prison. He submitted a criminal history record (vërtetim i gjendjes gjyqësore) in support of this claim. The applicant stated that, while in prison, he had mostly worked in mines, labour camps or other State entities. From 1965 to 1967, on the strength of a court decision, he performed his compulsory military service. From 1986 to 1990 he was sentenced to internal exile (internim) and performed corrective labour at an agricultural cooperative (kooperativë bujqësore). 5. On unspecified dates the applicant requested the authorities to count the work he had undertaken during his imprisonment as insurance years for the purpose of assessing his pension rights and obtaining an old-age pension. 6. On 27 June 2007 and 23 January 2009 the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (“the Ministry”) informed the applicant that, having regard to a considerable number of former prisoners who had not obtained an old-age pension, an inter-ministerial working group had been established to examine the possibility of recognising work undertaken during imprisonment in the communist period in the calculation of insurance years for the purpose of obtaining an old-age pension. A draft proposal was made and submitted in 2007 to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry instructed the applicant to contact his local authority to seek ways of obtaining financial assistance (ndihmë ekonomike). 7. To date, no legislative act has been adopted either by Parliament or the Government as regards the affiliation of former working (non-political) prisoners of the communist period to the old-age pension system. 8. On an unspecified date the applicant was awarded assistance in the form of financial aid by his local authority, having regard to his family’s financial difficulties. The family consisted of his wife and his son born in 1996. 9. On 20 June 2009 the applicant’s wife left the country to join her brother in Italy in the hope of finding employment. However, she fell ill and it would appear that she has been unable to work since. 10. On an unspecified date the financial assistance was revoked. 11. On 27 July 2009 the Ministry informed the applicant that he was not entitled to an old-age pension, as he had not accumulated the required number of insurance years. He was further informed that, by virtue of a Government decision of 2005, financial assistance was not awarded to families whose members had left the country, unless they had gone away for the purpose of pursuing studies or receiving medical treatment. The applicant was invited to submit supporting documents to prove that his wife was ill in Italy and to seek a further award of financial assistance from the local authority. 12. On 22 January 2013 the local authority indicated that the applicant was in receipt of financial assistance in the sum of 3,200 Albanian leks per month, approximately 23 euros per month. 13. The Social Insurance Act has been amended at least fifteen times since its first enactment. According to the Act, a male is entitled to: (i) a full old-age pension at the age of 65, after having accumulated thirty-five insurance years; (ii) a reduced old-age pension at the age of 65, after having accumulated thirty-two insurance years; or (iii) a partial old-age pension at the age of 65, after having accumulated between fifteen and thirty-five insurance years. Insurance years comprise the period in which contributions have been paid. Under section 58, the Government may recognise other periods as insurance years, provided that the payment of social insurance contributions is borne by the State budget. 14. Section 5 of the Act provides that families in need, with no source of income or with insufficient means, are entitled to financial assistance (ndihmë ekonomike), which can be total or partial. It consists of a monthly payment in cash or in kind. The head of the family makes an application for financial assistance to the social administrator of the local authority where the family resides. A decision refusing an award of financial assistance is amenable to appeal before a court. 15. Recital 10 (c) of Government decision no. 787 of 14 December 2005 provides that families, one of whose members lives abroad for whatever reason, other than for the purpose of pursuing studies or receiving medical treatment, are not entitled to financial assistance. 16. The Prisoners’ Rights and Treatment Act governs the rights and treatment of prisoners, as well as the responsibilities and duties of the competent authorities. 17. Section 34 recognises prisoners’ right to work (të gjithë të dënuarve u njihet e drejta për të punuar), which can be undertaken within or outside the prison facility. Work is remunerated in accordance with criteria defined by a separate Government decision. 18. Section 35 provides that work undertaken in prison is taken into account in the calculation of an old-age pension. Government decision no. 396 of 27 July 2000 sets out the criteria for the calculation of benefits for the old-age pension. 19. In an effort to recognise the innocence of former politically persecuted persons and former political prisoners and to publicly ask those people to forgive them for the suffering they experienced during the communist period, Parliament enacted the Rehabilitation Act. Section 5 recognised their time spent in prison as insurance years for the purpose of obtaining an old-age pension.