Juvenile Justice 4 Swe.authorities implementation

Between July 2020 and August 2021, the Programme Implementation Team including the resident coordinator and experts from the Swedish agencies, have continued to work online due to the restrictions imposed from the COVID situation. The Resident Coordinator has mainly worked from Sweden with short returns to Albania in fall 2020 and before summer 2021. Due to the circumstances created by COVID, some activities have not been completed as planned and have been extended further in time. However, the Programme has adjusted well to distant working methods and continued the implementation of activities even in the current situation by for example focusing on the development of guidance materials and expert advice as well as using other measures. The Monitoring Plan developed during 2018, specified data needed to measure progress on output, outcome, and impact level, but has been utilized only partly due to accuracy problems with manual data collection. The problem has been addressed during 2020 with a revised Monitoring Plan developed and implemented. The Programme Document was revised during the first half of 2020, to reflect the Programmes justice chain approach more accurately. The focus during 2nd half of 2020 and until August 2021, has been to support the Albanian Ministry of Justice, and the Albanian counterpart agencies to apply the new legislation, on interview techniques, the new juvenile sanctions, and the instrument of diversion introduced by the new Code. Assistance has been provided to the Probation Service in the development of high-quality templates for Individual Assessment Reports/Pre-sentence Reports, as a requirement in the new Code. Training on the application of diversion, precautionary measures, and juvenile sanctions targeting judges and prosecutors were conducted throughout Albania. The new Case Law Compilations were introduced and discussed, where all judgements and decisions on precautionary measures from the pilot courts during the first years of practice have been compiled and analyzed. Similarly, the workshop on developing a template for Individual Assessment Reports involved several agencies in the justice chain prosecution, courts, and probation.During the same period the programme has strengthened internally the inter-agency cooperation and joint working methods. Sammanfattande resultatuppdatering Conclusion on Performance Contribution ID: 55130009 2 (15) The Programme has been active in the on the site Juvenile Justice events organized by the Albanian stakeholders, including the Ministry of Justice, like the one in June 2021 in the Institute for Minors in Conflict with the Law, in Kavaja, where the event was also used by the programmes presence to boost the dialogue with the different stakeholders and promote the required coordination in the area of Juvenile Justice. The programme has made concrete efforts to strengthen and improve the coordination with UNICEF, when it comes to streamlining of methods and unified application of the New Code for Juveniles. The Embassy has also backed up this coordination with dedicated meeting with UNICEF, considering its importance in the field as a long-term influencing actor. During the end of 2020 and the first half of 2021, a lot of work was carried out between the Swedish agencies in order to agree on a realistic programme implementation plan with new activities for the extended period, up to June 2022. Considering the budget deficit between the original amount allocated to the Programme and the cost of new activities during the extended period, the Embassy has appraised a proposal for additional funding resulting in an additional amount of 6 300 000 SEK granted to the programme. The respective amendment of agreement was signed in July 2021 and the funds have been already disbursed in August. From September, depending on the COVID situation in both countries, it is expected the return of short-term missions from the Swedish agencies experts. However, many activities are expected to be still caried out in a distance or through a hybrid modality. 1.3 Assessment of the likelihood that the objectives will be achieved by the end of

Enhanced capacity of Albanian law enforcement agencies and Courts to meet human rights standards in juvenile justice through a comprehensive justice chain approach that targets each individual agency in close interaction with the others.