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Interior Minister Taulant Balla emphasized the need for a special law to cover the aspects of online violence, especially against girls and women, who are deeply affected by this phenomenon.
Balla said that for this issue we must have a comprehensive approach, of all political wings, as this is a very sensitive issue for the opinion of our society. Underlining the importance of approving legal acts, Balla said that all institutions have their own drafts.
"When it comes to the translation into Albanian, cyberbullying, cyberbullying, what is it? And I've been researching for a long time now that I've had to deal with this issue. Cyberbullying is the term used to define various forms of psychological abuse online (harassment, threats, intimidation, insults, insults, sending obscene messages, which in some cases reach blackmail) with the aim to attack in an open, repeated form, a person or a group of persons. We had a tragic case a few months ago in Durrës, it is a typical case. The definition of cyber violence as an online harassment, online messages inciting gender-based hatred, non-consensual publication of information and intimate photo content, illegal interception of communications and personal data, which is a form that occurs frequently", stressed Balla. .
Regarding the experience of other countries and the mechanisms that can be applied to online violence, Balla said that "once we fix the legal aspect, we have all the mechanisms to intervene to prevent and make it impossible for everyone involved on the Internet not to broadcast or use social platforms or e-mail, with the intention of embarrassing, intimidating, threatening a victim. This should be the essence of a law regarding the prevention of cyber violence. The experience of other countries is rich, especially with the acquis communautaire".
The figures of gender-based violence, namely the denunciations, are sad, said Minister Balla, appealing for an immediate reaction.
"But as far as the numbers are concerned, I am only taking the figures of the first two months of 2024. These data show that there are 890 people, damaged by violence and other crimes in the family. Among them, 629 are women/girls. So, the number of women victims is over 3 times higher than that of men. Another data, for the year 2024, is that of the issuance of protection orders by the judicial system. Even here we have the same sad panorama, since out of 465 injured people who received a protection order, 350 were women/girls. Statistical data on sexual assaults also confirm that women and girls are again the most affected. During the year 2023, 125 victims of sexual crimes were registered and of these 103 were women/girls", the Minister of the Interior informed.
Regarding the measures taken by the Ministry of the Interior and the State Police, Balla emphasized that "for this purpose, in the first days of my duty as Minister of the Interior, I asked the State Police to draw up a detailed protocol for the treatment by starting from the state's first contact with the victim of psychological or physical violence. That is the key moment that makes the difference."
Balla also underlined that "the trend of criminality in the field of cybercrimes, in recent years, has experienced an increase not only in our country but throughout the world. Thus, with the reorganization of the State Police structures at the central and local level, in June 2023, the Directorate of Cybercrime Investigation was created, which is organized into 3 sectors that conduct cybercrime investigations divided according to criminal offenses. "
During the year 2023, 765 criminal offenses were recorded, 413 or 54% were discovered, with 440 perpetrators in total, of which 18 perpetrators were arrested, 20 perpetrators were detained, 330 perpetrators were prosecuted while at large and 72 perpetrators are wanted.
Balla informed the attendees about the cooperation with foreign partners and the development of our capacities.
"For the next two years, Albania leads Empact's operational activity for strengthening cooperation and real-time information exchange between LEAs and CERTs of the Western Balkans and EU countries. Digitization and the phenomenon of online bullying have highlighted a number of challenges that we are working to address," he said.
At the end of his speech, the minister had an appeal for the cooperation of the whole society to face gender-based violence.
"Violence against women remains a complex and deep-rooted issue that requires continuous efforts and cooperation with all sectors of society and existing mechanisms," stressed Balla.
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