A/HRC/20/24/Add.1 18. Established under the Ministry of Labour, migration counters (sportele migracioni), located in all 36 Regional and Local Employment Offices, serve as focal points for registration, information, advice on and referral to employment opportunities and social services for returning Albanians, Albanians wishing to emigrate, and immigrants. The migration counters are mandated to provide information and advisory services. IV. Cross-cutting concerns A. National human rights culture and protection system 19. While considerable progress has been achieved in harmonizing national laws and policies with international and European human rights standards, the Special Rapporteur was informed of persisting gaps in their effective implementation and monitoring. Albania did not attain its candidacy status for European Union integration in 2010, owing in part to the need to improve its political and human rights performance. Insufficient institutional capacity and lack of resources in all sectors were main factors in this regard. 12 The Special Rapporteur recognizes the young democracy of Albania and the challenges facing a country, in the words of his interlocutors, “neither had a Ministry of Justice, nor a Ministry of Labour, twenty years ago”. 20. In this context, the Special Rapporteur was concerned at the lack of a comprehensive national human rights strategy. Support for the work of the People’s Advocate – the country’s national human rights institution – and the recently established Commissioner for the Protection from Discrimination is critical to this end. Within the realm of migration, the People’s Advocate has mainly focused on Albanian migrants abroad, but has also carried out visits to places of detention, including centres of undocumented migrants and asylumseekers in its capacity as the national preventive mechanism under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The work of the Commissioner in three priority fields – education, employment and services – and planned training programmes for social workers and border police will further be of importance to strengthening protection of the human rights of migrants. 21. The Special Rapporteur commends the programmes and activities of these entities, but remained concerned at their limited resources and donor dependency. Half of the budget of the Commissioner is donor-funded. Similarly, the Special Rapporteur was concerned at a lack of sustainability of civil society organizations. B. Awareness and information on the human rights of migrants 22. The absence of a strong human rights culture in Albania has repercussions on the level of awareness of and information on the human rights of migrants, specifically. Awareness among Albanian migrants abroad of their most fundamental rights is reportedly very low and the Government has acknowledged that there is currently “very little in terms of structure, official body or information resource dedicated to promoting and upholding [their rights]”.13 Indicative of this, the Special Rapporteur’s meeting with the Albanian Bar Association was the first time that the rights of migrants were brought to the attention of the Bar Association. The Special Rapporteur noted a correlation between the lack of awareness 12 13 8 See also National Human Development Report, p. 26. Information and Communication Policy Document (2010), p. 24.