A Crowd Against Blood Feuds > Campaign 2015 > About > Launch of the Raising Awareness Campaign 2015
Launch of the Raising Awareness Campaign 2015
Operazione Colomba works in Albania since 2010 to facilitate the eradication of the phenomenon of blood feuds. In order to achieve this goal, the volunteers of Operazione Colomba conduct various nonviolent strategies, such as:
- Forgiveness and reconciliation paths, addressed to families living in conflict situations;
- Raising awareness activities addressed to civil society, through public demonstrations and campaigns regarding nonviolent conflict management, aimed at spreading a culture based on the respect for human rights;
- Raising awareness actions among National and International Institutions to adopt effective measures to overcome the phenomenon.
Every year Operazione Colomba organizes national raising awareness campaigns to join and direct the efforts from civil society and national institutions towards the fight against the phenomenon. Among these campaigns, we recall the signature campaign in 2013, called “5000 Signatures for Life” and the Peace March in 2014 “A crowd moves for Peace, against blood feud”. During the first event, almost 6000 Albanian citizens signed the petition, committing to not using violence in conflict circumstances and asking for the support from Institutions to fight the phenomenon. During the second initiative, the volunteers of Operazione Colomba reached more than 10.000 Albanian citizens, raising awareness on blood feud issues, peace and respect for human rights. Moreover, in only 10 days almost 2700 Albanian citizens subscribed a petition demanding the implementation of the Law n. 9389 dated 4/5/2005 which provides the establishment and implementation of the Coordination Council for the fight against “blood feud”. The strong participation of Albanian citizens and their representatives during these events have demonstrated the desire of a real change of this custom that still today violates fundamental human rights, first of all the Right to Life.
Consequently, this year, on the occasion of the 2015 Mayoral Elections, Operazione Colomba has decided to submit a number of questions on blood feud issues to all the candidates -of each political faction and of each Albanian District- in order to urge, among the future Albanian representatives of the population, a real commitment to uproot this practice, as already emphasized by a large of Albanian citizens, during the events mentioned above.
Through these questions each candidate will have the chance to show civil society his/her active interest in tackling and containing the phenomenon that in several areas of Albania provokes death, pain, violence, fear and risks among the citizens the candidate will work for.
For this-year-campaign, the volunteers of Operazione Colomba will send to all electoral candidates: letters via mails from our Association, explaining the initiative; the questions related to the phenomenon; and the 2015 report entitled “Descriptive document on the phenomenon of ‘hakmarrja’ and ‘gjakmarrja’ to raise awareness among Albanian and International Institutions”, based on the analysis of data collected by Operazione Colomba from 2010. Thereafter, we will wait for the answers of the candidates sent to us via e-mail or mail. Moreover, in some areas where the phenomenon is more widespread (Shkodër, Tiranë, Tropoja), the volunteers have organized recorded interviews with the candidates of the areas.
All the answers received by the volunteers from the candidates will be published on-line on this website.
We hope that the commitment of the Institutions for the fight against the phenomenon of blood feuds will soon become more tangible and a real priority!
