Albania at the United Nations

The People's Socialist Republic of Albania joined the United Nations on 14 December 1955, and has participated in several UN peacekeeping operations. The current Representative of Albania in the UN is Ms. Besiana Kadare.

Republic of Albania

United Nations membership
Membership	Full member
Since	14 December 1955 (1955-12-14)
Former name(s)	People's Republic of Albania (1955–1976) People's Socialist Republic of Albania (1976–1991)
UNSC seat	Non-permanent
Permanent Representative	Besiana Kadare

History

After joining in 1955, Albania started to apply for membership in other organisations of the UN. On 16 October 1958 Albania became a permanent member of UNESCO.

From the 1960s onwards, the People's Republic of Albania under Enver Hoxha moved an annual resolution in the General Assembly to expel the "representatives of Chiang Kai-shek" (an implicit reference to the ROC) and permit the People's Republic of China (PRC) to represent China at the UN. Albania played an important role in the process of recognizing the PRC as "the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations" through United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, which was adopted on 25 October 1971.[1]

On November 1973 Albania joined the Food and Agriculture Organization.

During 12–13 May 1990 the UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar visited Albania.

In 1992 the Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by Albania, marking important progress on the human rights record of the newly democratic country.

In 1994 another resolution was prepared and introduced by the Albanian delegation to the UN, this time about the “Situation of Human Rights in Kosovo”. Albania served as the main sponsor of the resolution, which was adopted with a clear majority of the UN membership. In 1995 the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Albania to the UN was elected Vice President of the 50th session of the UN General Assembly.

Evacuations in the Albanian capital of Tirana after Resolutions 1101 and 1114

After the 1997 rebellion in Albania, the UN adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution 1101 on 28 March 1997, after reiterating its concern over the situation in Albania. The Security Council established a multinational protection force in the country to create conditions to facilitate humanitarian assistance.[2] On 19 June 1997 after recalling Resolution 1101 on the situation in Albania, the Council authorized an extension to the multinational force in the country for a further 45 days, beginning on 28 June 1997 through United Nations Security Council Resolution 1114.

In 2005 Albania was elected for the first time a member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, for a two-year term until 2007, and in 2012 reelected for the second time. In 2013 it also served as Vice President of the ECOSOC.

During 2007-09 it was member of the Governing Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On October 21, 2014, Albania joined the United Nations Human Rights Council for the term 2015-2017, and was elected Vice-President of its Bureau for 2015.[3]

Ambassador Besiana Kadare presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2016, and since then has been the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations in New York.[4] On 27 January 2019, marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Kadare co-hosted together with the World Jewish Congress and the United Nations Department of Global Communications a conference titled A Story of Humanity: The Rescue of Jews in Albania.[5][6][7]

Peacekeeping missions

Albania has participated in the following peacekeeping missions led by the UN:

Country	Current Mission	Organization	No. of personnel
Georgia	UNOMIG	United Nations	39 military observers[8]
Ivory Coast	UNOCI	United Nations
Liberia	UNMIL	United Nations
CAR, Chad	MINURCAT	United Nations	63 troops[9]
South Sudan	UNMISS	United Nations

Representatives

Ambassador	Term
Gaqo Paze	1955 - 1958
Reiz Malile	1958 - 1961
Halim Budo	1961 - 1970
Sami Baholli	1970 - 1977
Abdi Baleta	1977 - 1983
Xhustin Papajorgji	1983 - 1986
Bashkim Pitarka	1986 - 1992
Thanas Shkurti	1992 - 1994
Pellumb Kulla	1993 - 1997
Agim Nesho	1997 -2006
Adrian Neritani	2006 -2009
Ferit Hoxha	2009 - 2015
Besiana Kadare	2016–present[10]

See also

• Foreign relations of Albania

References

1. Winkler, Sigrid (June 2012). "Taiwan's UN Dilemma: To Be or Not To Be". Brookings Institution. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
2. "Security Council welcomes establishment of multinational protection force in Albania". United Nations. 28 March 1997.
3. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-06. Retrieved 2017-01-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. "Permanent Missions to the United Nations, No. 307". United Nations DGACM. 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-19. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
5. "'Leaders who sanction hate speech' encourage citizens to do likewise, UN communications chief tells Holocaust remembrance event". UN News. 31 January 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
6. "WJC and Albanian Mission to UN Held Special Briefing on Rescue of Albanian Jews During Holocaust". The Jewish Voice. 2019-02-04. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
7. "Besiana Kadare: "A story of humanity: the rescue of Jews in Albania"". Albspirit. 4 February 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
8. "Peacekeeping Contributor Profile: Albania". Providing for Peacekeeping. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
9. Albanian MoD website, accessed 22 February 2010
10. "Albanian Ambassadors to the United Nations - Permanent Mission of Albania to the United Nations - Official page of the Mission of Albania to the UN". Albania-un.org. Retrieved 2019-12-19.