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ABSTRACT
Since its inception, European Union membership conditionality has played a major role in bringing EU candidate countries from former communist Eastern Europe in line with international human rights norms. In spite of such progress, those societies harbour significant inconsistencies in both their perception of what constitutes human rights and the role public trust in domestic and international actors plays in those perceptions. By highlighting those inconsistencies and discussing their origins, this paper aims at filling an explanatory gap related to instances when we should expect that EU membership conditionality would serve as an agent of human rights jus cogens, and when it would fail to do so. By relying on a probability simple random sample of public opinion data that we collected in Albania in 2016, we test our propositions with the case of people’s support for ethnic minority rights, homosexual rights, Syrian refugees seeking women rights, asylum in Albania, and the reinstatement of the death penalty.
Acknowledgment
We are grateful to Sonja Grover for her patience with us during our process of preparing the manuscript for this special issue. Also, we are grateful to our colleagues who worked with collecting the data, namely Habibe Ademi, Teuta Agushi, Liri Kosovare Bllaca, Bujeta Buja, Saranda Fazliu, Erjon Fejzullahu, Shpëtim Kadriu, Erza Kqiku, Ridvan Marevci, Shkëlqim Mehmeti, Shkelzen Musliu, Ariana Orllati, Shëndriza Prokshi, Arbenita Qeriqi, Shqipdona Reshani, Valdet Rexhepi, Samire Sadiku, Elma Salihu, Erza Salihu, Berta Sopa, Gresa Sheqiri, Anduena Zeka, Blerina Zeqiri, and Antoneta Zhjeqi. A special gratitude goes to Eno Minka of the Vodafone Albania who helped us with technical issues during the survey process.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Ridvan Peshkopia teaches Political Science subject with University for Business and Technology, Kosovë. He received his PhD with the University of Kentucky, and spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow with the Elliott School of International Affairs, the George Washington University. His research interests cover international relations, political behaviour, EU eastward enlargement, institutional reforms, intergroup relations, public opinion and migration studies. His most recent publications have appeared in Journal of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Punishment and Society, Policy Futures in Education and Framework: A Journal of Cinema and the Media. His book, Conditioning Democratization: Institutional Reforms and EU membership Conditionality in Albania and Macedonia was published in 2014 by Anthem Press.
Drin Konjufca is a graduate student with University for Business and Technology, Kosovë. His research interests cover international relations and comparative politics. He has presented papers in several international conferences.
Erblin Salihu is a graduate student with University for Business and Technology, Kosovë. His research interests cover international relations and public opinion. He has presented papers in several international conferences.
Jonida Lika received a MA in Sociology from University of Tirana, Albania. Her research interests cover social theory, European Union politics and public opinion data gathering. She has presented papers in several national and international conferences.
Notes
1 Anthony D’Amato, ‘Human Rights as Part of Customary International Law: A Plea for Change of Paradigms’, Georgia Journal of International Law 25 (1996): 47.
2 Ridvan Peshkopia, ‘The Ontology of Human Rights Socialization: The Case of Albania’, in European Institutions, Democratization, and Human Rights in the European Periphery’, ed. Henry F. Carey (Laham: Lexington Books, 2014), 337.
3 Shareen Hertel, Lyle Scruggs, and C. Patrick Heidkamp, ‘Human Rights and Public Opinion: From Attitudes to Action’, Political Science Quarterly 124 (2009): 443.
4 Brad R. Roth, ‘Sovereign Equality and Non-Liberal Regime’, in Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2012, ed. J.E. Nijman and W.G. Werner (The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press, 2012), 25.
5 William E. Conklin, ‘The Peremptory Norms of the International Community’, The European Journal of International Law 23 (2012): 837.
6 Ibid.; James Crawford, The International Law Commission’s Articles on State Responsibility: Introduction, Text, and Commentaries (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002), 209.
7 Othon Anastasakis, ‘The EU’s Political Conditionality in the Western Balkans: Towards a More Pragmatic Approach’, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 8 (2008): 365.
8 Dinah Shelton, ‘Are There Differentiations among Human Rights? Jus Cogens, Core Human Rights, Obligations Erga Omnes and Non-Derogability’ (report presented in the UNIDEM seminar ‘The Status of International Treaties on Human Rights, Coimbra’, Portugal, October 7–8, 2005).
9 Predrag Zenović, ‘Human Rights Enforcement via Peremptory Norms: A Challenge to State Sovereignty’ (master thesis, Riga: Riga Graduate School of Law, 2012).
10 Shelton, ‘Are There Differentiations among Human Rights?’
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.; William E. Conklin, ‘The Peremptory Norms of the International Community’, The European Journal of International Law 23 (2012): 837.
13 Shelton, ‘Are There Differentiations among Human Rights?’
14 Conklin, ‘The Peremptory Norms of the International Community’.
15 Andrea Bianchi, ‘Human Rights and the Magic of Jus Cogens’, The European Journal of International Law 19 (2008): 491.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Roth, ‘Sovereign Equality and Non-Liberal Regime’.
19 Preamble of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at paragraph 1; Preambule of ICCPR, paragraph. 2: ‘recognizing that these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person’; Shelton, ‘Are There Differentiations among Human Rights?’ The American Convention on Human Rights proclaims that the essential rights of man are not derived from one’s being a national of a certain state, but are based upon attributes of the human personality, and … they therefore justify international protection […]. See American Convention on Human Rights, 22 November 1969, OASTS 36, O.A.S. Off. Rec. OEA/Ser.L/V/11.23, doc. 21, rev. 6 (1979), reprinted in 9 I.L.M. 673 (1970).
20 Zenović, ‘Human Rights Enforcement via Peremptory Norms’.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 Shelton, ‘Are There Differentiations among Human Rights?’
24 Roth, ‘Sovereign Equality and Non-Liberal Regime’.
25 Ibid.
26 Zenović, ‘Human Rights Enforcement via Peremptory Norms’.
27 For instance, Dinah Shelton recognises that equality and non-discrimination is both sanctioned in the UN Charter and runs through the jus cogens prohibitions of genocide and slavery.
28 Philip Alston and J.H.H. Weiler, ‘An Ever Closer Union in Need of a Human Rights Policy, The European Union and Human Rights’, in The EU and Human Rights, ed. Philip Alston (Oxford: University Press Scholarship Online, 1999); Mark Bell, Anti-discrimination Law and the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); Gráinne De Búrca, ‘Fundamental Rights and the Reach of EC Law’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 13 (1993): 283; Ulrich Everling, ‘The Maastricht Judgment of the European Court and Its Significance for the Development of the European Union’, German Constitution and European Law (1994): 1; Armin Von Bogdandy, ‘The European Union as a Human Rights Organisation? Human Rights and the Core of the European Union’, Common Markets Law Review 37 (2000): 1307; Weiler, ‘Does Europe Need a Constitution? Reflections on Demos, Telos and the German Maastricht Decision’, European Law Journal 1 (1995): 219; Williams, ‘Enlargement of the Union and Human Rights Conditionality: A Policy of Distinction?’ European Law Review 25 (2000): 601.
29 Tawhida Ahmed and Israel de Jesús Butler, ‘The European Union and Human Rights: An International Law Perspective’, European Journal of International Law 17 (2006): 771; Indrė Skersytė, ‘Human Rights as Conditionality in European Union Enlargement Process’ (master thesis, University of Tilburg, 2012).
30 Ahmed and Butler, ‘The European Union and Human Rights’.
31 Skersytė, ‘Human Rights as Conditionality’.
32 The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. Treaty of the European Union, Article 2.
33 Treaty of the European Union, Article 2, states: ‘The Union recognizes the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union of 7 December 2000, as adapted at Strasbourg, on 12 December 2007, which shall have the same legal value as the Treaties’.
34 Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, ‘The European Union and Human Rights after the Treaty of Lisbon’, Human Rights Law Review 11 (2011): 645.
35 However, scholars have pointed to new problem with the new human rights regime; it appears that there exists not a lack, but possibly a surfeit of human rights protection within the European legal space. A pertinent question might be whether fundamental rights are indeed ‘lost in complexity’. There are now at least three possible judicial avenues for European residents to assert their human rights. First they have their national courts; secondly, if this fails, once they have exhausted domestic remedies, they may proceed in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg; third, if the matter is one that falls within the competence of the EU, they may have a claim under EU law, either in their national courts, in the CJEU, or both. See Douglas-Scott, ‘The European Union and Human Rights’.
36 Zenović, ‘Human Rights Enforcement via Peremptory Norms’.
37 Ridvan Peshkopia, Conditioning Democratization: Institutional Reforms and EU Membership Conditionality in Albania and Macedonia (London, New York, and Delhi: Anthem Press).
38 Othon Anastasakis and Dimitar Bechev, ‘EU Conditionality in South East Europe: Bringing Commitment to the Process’ (unpublished manuscript, Oxford: University of Oxford, 2003).
39 Heather Grabbe, ‘A Partnership for Accession? The Implications of EU Conditionality for the Central and East European Applicants’ (Robert Schuman Center Working Paper 12/99, European University Institute, 1999).
40 Heather Grabbe, ‘Europeanization Goes East: Power and Uncertainty in the EU Accession Proccess’, in The Politics of Europeanization, ed. Kevin Featherstone and Claudio M. Radaelli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 303.
41 Andrew Moravcsik and Milada Anna Vachudova, ‘The Causes and Consequences of EU Enlargement’, in The Politics of European Union Enlargement: Theoretical Approaches, ed. Frank Schimelfenning and Ulrich Sedelmeier (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), 198; Frank Schimmelfenning, ‘European Regional Organizations, Political Conditionality, and Democratic Transformation in Eastern Europe’, East European Politics and Societies 21 (2007): 126; Martin Brusis, ‘The Instrumental Use of European Union Conditionality: Regionalization in the Czech Republic and Slovakia’, East European Politics and Societies 19 (2005): 291.
42 Geoffrey Pridham, Building Democracy? The International Dimension of Democratization in Eastern Europe (London: Leicester University Press, 1994); Paul J. Kubicek, The European Union and Democratization (London, New York: Routlegde, 2003).
43 Peshkopia, Conditioning Democratization; Grabbe, ‘Europeanization Goes East’.
44 Petr Kopecký and Cass Mudde, ‘What Has Eastern Europe Taught Us About the Democratization Literature (And Vice Versa)?’ European Journal of Political Research 37 (2000): 517; David R. Cameron, ‘The Challenges of Accession’, East European Politics and Societies 17 (2003): 24.
45 Andrew C. Janos, Democracy and Multinationality in East Central Europe’, in Political Democracy and Ethnic Diversity in Modern European History, ed. André W.M. Gerrits and Dirk Jan Wolffram (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press 2005), 94.
46 Moravcsik and Vachudova, ‘The Causes and Consequences of EU Enlargement’.
47 Peshkopia, Conditioning Democratization.
48 Peshkopia, Conditioning Democratization; Judith Hoffmann, ‘Integrating Albania: The Role of the European Union in the Democratization Process’, Albanian Journal of Politics 1 (2005): 56; Gregory Flynn and Henry Farrell, ‘Piecing Together the Democratic Peace: The CSCE, Norms, and the “Construction” of Security in Post-Cold War Europe’, International Organization 53 (1999): 505.
49 Ridvan Peshkopia and Arben Imami, ‘Between Elite Compliance and State Socialisation: The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Eastern Europe’, The International Journal of Human Rights 12 (2008), 353; Ridvan Peshkopia, ‘The Ontology of Human Rights Socialization: The Case of Albania’, in European Institutions, Democratization, and Human Rights in the European Periphery, ed. Henry F. Carey (Laham: Lexington Books, 2014), 337.
50 Peshkopia, ‘The Ontology of Human Rights Socialization’.
51 Peshkopia and Imami, ‘Between Elite Compliance and State Socialisation’.
52 Douglas-Scott, ‘The European Union and Human Rights after the Treaty of Lisbon’. See also Zolkos, ‘Bringing Human Rights’.
53 Peshkopia, ‘The Ontology of Human Rights Socialization’.
54 Velina Lilyanova, ‘Women in the Western Balkans Gender Equality in the EU Accession Process’, in Briefing (Brussels: European Parliament, 2018).
55 Evie Browne, ‘Gender in the Western Balkans’ (K4D Helpdesk Report, Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2017).
56 European Commission, ‘Albania 2018 Report’ (Strasbourg, 17.4.2018, SWD, 2018), 151 final, https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/20180417-albania-report.pdf.
57 European Commission, ‘Key Findings of the 2018 Report on Albania’.
58 European Commission, ‘Albania Progress Report’, October 2014, https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-albania-progress-report_en.pdf.
59 European Commission, ‘Key Findings of the 2018 Report on Albania’, Brussels, April 17, 2018, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-18-3403_en.htm.
60 Cecilie Endresen, ‘Status Report Albania 100 Years: Symbolic Nation-Building Completed?’ in Strategies of Symbolic Nation-Building in South Eastern Europe, ed. P. Kolstø (Furnham: Ashgate Publishers, 2014), 201; Konstantinos Giakoumis, ‘Current Issues on the Protection of Minority Cultural Heritage in Albania’ (paper presented at conference ‘La Protection de la diversité culturelle dans le sud-est européen. Cadre juridique et réalités du terrain’, Strasbourg, December 2–3, 2010). Miranda Vickers, ‘The Greek Minority in Albania: Current Tensions’ (Balkan Series of the Research and Assessment Branch, UK Defence Academy, 2010), http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/Greek_minority_in_Albania.pdf.
61 Giakoumis, ‘Current Issues on the Protection of Minority Cultural Heritage in Albania’.
62 Vickers, ‘The Greek Minority in Albania’.
63 Ibid.
64 Ibid.
65 Ibid.; Giakoumis, ‘Current Issues on the Protection of Minority Cultural Heritage in Albania’; Peshkopia, Conditioning Democratization.
66 Giakoumis, ‘Current Issues on the Protection of Minority Cultural Heritage in Albania.’
67 Ibid.
68 Peshkopia, ‘The Ontology of Human Rights Socialization’.
69 Ibid.
70 Christian K. Vinther, ‘Between Liberal Policies and Conservative Values: The Role of the EU in Improving Sexual Minority Rights in Albania’ (master thesis, Prague: Charles University, 2015).
71 Ben Andoni, ‘Homophobia in Albania’, Gays Without Borders, December 5, 2007, https://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/homophobia-in-albania/.
72 Peshkopia, ‘The Ontology of Human Rights Socialization’.
73 Sot News, ‘“Martesat gay”, homoseksualët zbardhin tradhtinë e Ramës: Do ta ndëshkojmë’ [‘Gay marriages’, Homosexuals Reveal Rama’s Betrayal: We’ll Hold him Accountable], August 14, 2016, https://sot.com.al/opinion-editorial/%E2%80%9Cmartesat-gay%E2%80%9D-homoseksual%C3%ABt-zbardhin-tradhtin%C3%AB-e-ram%C3%ABs-do-ta-nd%C3%ABshkojm%C3%AB.
74 Panorama Online, ‘Dështon parada gay, myslimanët: Në BE me vlera, jo me homoseksualë’ [Gay parade fails. Muslims: In Europe by values, not homosexuals], May 18, 2912, http://www.panorama.com.al/ambasadori-per-paraden-gay-spahia-injorante-ka-gjithandej/.
75 Rosemary Byrne, ‘Future Perspectives: Accession and Asylum in an Expanded European Union’, in The New Asylum Countries? Migration Control and Refugee Protection in an Enlarged European Union, ed. Rosemary Byrne, Gregor Noll, and J. Vedsted-Hansen (The Hague: Kluwer, 2002), 403; Liv Feijen, ‘Asylum Conditionality: Development of Asylum Systems in the Western Balkans in the Context of the European Union‘s External Dimension’, ERA Forum 8 (2007), 459.
76 Peshkopia, Conditioning Democratization.
77 Ridvan Peshkopia, ‘Albania and the Balkan Route’ (paper presented in the Conference on Albanian Societies in Transition, December 19–20, 2008, New York).
78 John Morrison and Beth Crosland, ‘The Trafficking and Smuggling of Refugees: The End Game in European Asylum Policy?’ (working paper no. 39, New Issues in Refugee Research, UNHCR, 2001).
79 Sandra Lavenex, ‘Asylum, Immigration and Central-Eastern Europe: Challenges to EU Enlargement’, European Foreign Affairs Review 3 (1998): 275; Stephan Anagnost, ‘Challenges Facing Asylum System and Asylum Policy Development in Europe: Preliminary Lessons Learned from Central European and Baltic States (CEBS)’, International Journal of Refugee Law 12 (2000): 280.
80 Kosta Barjaba and Russell King, ‘Introducing and Theorizing Albanian Migration’, in The New Albanian Migration, ed. Russell King, Nicola Mai, and Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2005), 1.
81 INSTAT. Popullsia e Shqipërisë, 1 Janar 2018 [Population of Albania, 1 January 2018], http://www.instat.gov.al/al/temat/treguesit-demografik%C3%AB-dhe-social%C3%AB/popullsia/publikimet/2018/popullsia-e-shqip%C3%ABris%C3%AB-1-janar-2018/. INSTAT Migracioni në Shqipëri, Maj 2014 [Migration in Albania, May 2014], http://www.instat.gov.al/media/3078/migracioni_ne_shqiperi.pdf.
82 Joana Hanson, ‘Kosovo Albanian Refugees: Perceptions of the Motherland’, The RUSI Journal 146 (2001): 28.
83 Gjergj Erebara, ‘Albania Would Welcome Refugees, Rama Says’, BalkanInsight, September 16, 2015.
84 Peshkopia, Conditioning Democratization.
85 Myria Georgiou and Rafal Zaborowski, ‘Media Coverage of the “Refugee Crisis”: A Cross-European Perspective’ (council of Europe report, Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2017).
86 Leonard Ray, ‘When Parties Matter: The Conditional Influence of Party Positions on Voter Opinions about European Integration’, The Journal of Politics 65 (2003): 978.
87 Carolyn Smith Keller, ‘Perceived Immigrant Threat: On the Gender Difference among Political Elites’, in National and European? Polish Political Elite in Comparative Perspective, ed. Wlodzimierz Weselowski, Kazimierz M. Slomczynski, and Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow (Warsaw: IFiS Publishers, 2011).
88 Ridvan Peshkopia and Arben Imami, ‘Between Elite Compliance and State Socialisation: The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Eastern Europe’, The International Journal of Human Rights 12 (2008): 353.
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid.
91 Giorgio Malinverni and Hanna Suchocka, ‘Opinion on the Compatibility of the Death Penalty with the Constitution of Albania’, http://www.venice.coe.int/docs/1999/CDL(1999)001-e.asp.
92 Peshkopia and Imami, ‘Between Elite Compliance and State Socialisation’.
93 Ibid.
94 See for instance, Bota Sot, ‘“Dënim me vdekje për kriminelët”, të afërm të viktimave kërkojnë kthimin e denimit kapital’ [“Death penalty for criminels”, relatives of the victims demand the restoration of capital punishment], August 13, 2018, https://www.botasot.info/shqiperia/935262/denim-me-vdekje-per-kriminelet-te-aferm-te-viktimave-kerkojne-kthimin-e-denimit-kapital/.
95 Ora News, ‘Basha i gatshëm të mbajë referendum për kthimin e dënimit me vdekje’ [Oposition leader] Basha ready to hold a referendum on the reinstatement of the death penalty], October 13, 2018, http://www.oranews.tv/article/basha-i-gatshem-te-mbaje-referendum-kthimin-e-denimit-me-vdekje; Tema Online, ‘Saimir Tahiri u përgjigjet komentuesve që kërkojnë rikthimin e dënimit me vdekje’ [Minister of the Interior] Saimir Tahiri addresses commentators who seek the death penalty restoration], July 7, 2015, http://www.gazetatema.net/2015/07/07/tahiri-iu-pergjigjet-komentuesve-qe-kerkojne-rikthimin-e-denimit-me-vdekje/.
96 Ora News, ‘Basha Ready to Hold a Referendum on the Reinstatement of the Death Penalty’.
97 For a more detailed description of data collection methodology, questions asked and variable values, please contact the first author.
98 Zenović, ‘Human Rights Enforcement via Peremptory Norms’; Roth, ‘Sovereign Equality and non-Liberal Regime’. D’Amato, ‘Human Rights as Part of Customary International Law’.
99 Peshkopia and Imami, ‘Between Elite Compliance and State Socialisation’.