uL stration and eV tting in post-communist Albania inter-linked with civic trust in governmental institutions ABSTRACT In Albania, after the fall of communist regime began the discussion about Transitional Justice (TJ) measures. Different TJ laws are approved and implemented in post-communist Albania, including lustration and vetting laws. TJ and lustration laws passed in the parliament with an accelerating procedure and without political consensus about wrongdoings in the past as persecution, imprisonment, torture, death penalty, isolation and other forms of violation of human rights during communism. These laws were subject of many changes during the years in the parliament and constitutional court to soft and narrowing their main purpose. The Albanian process of lustration and vetting did not include the public in the debates about the communist past and a process of common narrative about the wrongdoings of the communist regime was not build. The implementation of lustration laws from 1995 until 2001 was not transparent and was conducted not from impartial institutions. Lustration and vetting procedures in the postdictatorial Albanian context meant the exclusion of perpetrators from public services. In this article, I argue that this process and the different procedures of lustration and vetting did not contribute in rebuilding civic trust in governmental institutions, because the process was not transparent, impartial and inclusive. Lustration and vetting in post-communist Albania is thus, and unfinished and ongoing process. Only 7 years after the two main lustration laws expired (1995-2001) the lustration process was back in discussion, and a new law was approved in 2008 that was declared unconstitutional. In 2015, the Albanian parliament passed the law with lustration measures within it and is being implemented. Key words: transitional justice, lustration, vetting, civic trust, Albania INTRODUCTION After the end of the totalitarian regime in Albania, legal TJ measures such as public apologies, amnesties, reparation and compensations, trials, lustration and vetting procedures, security and sector reforms, and memorials have passed in the parliament. Even so, these legal TJ measures could not guarantee for sure effective implementation. This paper will discuss different TJ measures laws and implementation, such as lustration and vetting. In post-communist and totalitarian Albania lustration as a definition was used in the first years of transition 1991-2001. A decade that was poorly used both by civil society actors and policy maker, due to the need to protect the new born democracy, break with the past, de-communization and to exclude the perpetrators from public services. Also, mentioned during 2002-2015 in public discussions. In 2015 lustration as a TJ measures is included in vetting procedures. Vetting in Albania after 2015 is define in laws1 as the re-evaluation process carrying out three components: asset assessment, background assessment, and proficiency assessment. The background assessment includes lustration procedures in excluding from public service former officers and collaborators of former State Security (Sigurimi) for the period 29 November 1944 until 2 July 1991. The laws after 2015 are vetting laws but contain lustration measures within. Lustration and vetting in Albania are a set of parliamentarian laws. The term lustration and vetting in Albania context in this paper will be used in the same meaning that is the screening of public officials that committed human rights violations during communist regime. In this article, I argue that different legal TJ measures after the end of the totalitarian regime in Albania such as the Genocide, Verification and lustration laws since 1995 have not let to 1. Law No. 45/2015: “On the right to information on the files of the former state security services during communist times – Sigurimi.”, Law No.84/2016 “On the transition of the judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania” 121