Albania has ranked number 43 out of 163 in a global human rights index, compiled by the CATO Institute using data from 2019. It scored 8.14 out of a possible 10, noting a drop of two points since 2017.
The country scored dismal marks for the rule of law (5), civil justice (4.8) and criminal justice (4.3). It also performed poorly in the expression and information section. This includes government censorship efforts (4.5), media self-censorship (4.9), media freedom (6) and freedom of expression (6).
Albania did score well, however, in terms of security and safety (9.3), freedom of religion (9.6), freedom of assembly (10), and freedom to join or create a political party (9.1).
Taking a closer look at the rule of law issues, particular areas of concern highlighted by the report included a lack of judicial independence, partial courts, low protection of property rights, lack of legal enforcement of contracts, police unreliability, and lack of integrity in the legal system.
This is even though data comes from 2019, when the justice reform had already been in full swing for several years.
According to the data, other areas for improvement include labour market regulations, business regulations, regulatory costs, and inheritance rights.
Albania was outperformed by Croatia, Slovakia, Armenia, Georgia, Romania, Slovenia, and Uruguay. It beat Bulgaria, Poland, Montenegro, Greece, and North Macedonia. Top of the list were Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark and Estonia, while the bottom was Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, Sudan and Egypt.
In Eastern Europe, Albania ranked 10th out of 22 places. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia were top, while Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine were the bottom three.
