Based on issues that have been raised by the clients, but also based on researches and continuous studies, the ADRF has initiated, lobbied and advocated for the improvement of policies and legislation in the field of accessibility, inclusive education, election processes, employment of persons with disabilities, social services, social assistance, etc. ADRF has influenced the drafting and adoption of the First Comprehensive National Strategy of the Persons with Disabilities in 2005 and has lobbied to the Government to further sign in cooperation with the UNDP the ratification of the CRPD in 2012. Over 25 legal and sub-legal acts, as well as policy papers related mainly to the rights of persons with disabilities, have been improved due to the lobbying and advocacy efforts of ADRF.
A few of the legal proposals that aimed and addressed the drafting and amending of the legal and political framework are in the following areas:
(a) Accessibility: Through a constant advocacy process initiated since 2002, ADRF has influenced the drafting and adoption of a series of political and legal documents that guarantee the right for access of the persons with disabilities on the physical environment/ built environment, transportation, information and communication. The advocacy campaign and the legal expertise have promoted the drafting and the adoption of the following: (a)The Package of Urban and Architectonic Norms (adopted by the Territorial Regulation Council, in December 2003);(b) Urban Planning Regulation that includes the Package of Urban and Architectonic Norms, adopted by the Council of Ministers in June 2004; (c) The Law on Territorial Planning, adopted in 2009; (d) Regulation for the Utilization of Spaces by the Persons with Disabilities. The document was adopted in November 2009; (e) The Law on Inclusion and Accessibility in 2014 etc;
(b) Inclusive Education: Article 57 in the Normative Provisions for the pre-university education, for the inclusive education of children with disabilities (September 2002); Legal Expertise, Lobbying and Advocacy through the Coalition for the Disability and Development in Albania, together with ‘Save the Children” that enabled the adoption of the law on the pre-university education in 2012, guaranteeing inclusive education for the disabled children;
(c) Participation in the civil and political life: the amendments proposed by ADRF in the Electoral Code were partly reflected in Articles 100, 108, 103 (amendments were carried out in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012);
(e) Employment: The amendments in: the basic law on the Promotion of Employment (in 2019), in the Labour Code and the adoption of the secondary legislation that influences the employment of persons with disabilities (DCM No. 248, in the application of the Law on Promotion of Employment); the Law on Social Assistance and Services in 2016 and the Law on Social Assistance 2019;
(f) Rights of children with disabilities: ADRF has influenced in the inclusion of the rights of disabled children in the disability agenda and in the Child’s Government’s and Civil Society’s agenda with the focus on the inclusion of these children at the national and the local level. ADRF has advocated on the local and national level the implementation of specific and inclusive approaches to guarantee the rights of disabled children, and more specifically, it has influenced the drafting and adoption of Law No. 18/2017 on the rights and protection of children, and the National Agenda for the Rights of Children 2017-2020;
(g) Rights of the disabled girls and women: Through the advocacy, the ADRF has promoted the gender equality, by empowering disabled girls and women and by assisting them to get a leading role in the determination of the important public issues in partnership with representatives of the state institutions and civil society. The issues of violence against disabled girls and women have been included in Law No. 47/2018, “On Measures Against Violence in the Family Relationships”, amended and in the National Strategy for the Gender Equality and the subsequent Action Plan 2016-2020;
During 2003-2005, ADRF played a fundamental role to promote and guarantee the drafting and adoption of the National Strategy for the Persons with Disabilities, as the first comprehensive policy to guarantee the fundamental rights of the persons with disabilities. ADRF had a coordinating role to also guarantee the inclusion of a larger number of individuals, groups, organizations and institutions in this process. The National Strategy for the Persons with Disabilities and the Action Plan 2005-2015, aimed at improving the living conditions of persons with disabilities in the fields of education, employment, social and health care services and to guarantee a life without barriers.
ADRF has actively been involved in the drafting of the National Action Plan for the Persons with Disabilities 2016 -2020, and the National Disability Action Plan 2021-2025, as well as in the drafting of a series of political and legal documents, inclusive of the Constitutional Reform, the Political Document for the Social Inclusion 2016-2020, the Law on the Legal Aid, the Law on Housing, the Standards of Services, the Standards for the Daily and Residential Centres for the persons with Disabilities, the Standards of the Community Services for Persons with Disabilities, etc.