Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

In Republic of Macedonia the legislation and general legal framework for protection against discrimination has not been adopted as yet. Part of the problem represents the inexistence of law for protection against discrimination as well as unified definitions and terminology. At the beginning of the year, within the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, a working group was formed responsible for preparation of a general Law on Non-Discrimination. The civil society organizations have their own representatives in this body.

The overall goal is further development of supportive environment for equal opportunities of all people, i.e. non-discrimination in Macedonia. The objective of the project was contribution to establishment of a strategy and legislation for non-discrimination in Republic of Macedonia. The target group is civil society organizations and representatives from the bodies of the state administration. The target area is Republic of Macedonia.

The project implemented the following results: produced Glossary of Expressions related to discrimination; produced reviews and recommendations regarding the draft Law on Protection against Discrimination, based on a produced analysis of international standards and best practices and an analysis of the domestic legislation; organized round table on the Law on Protection from Discrimination in cooperation with the Ombudsman.

The project consisted of the following activities:

- Produced Glossary of Expressions related to discrimination
The preparation of the Glossary of Expressions related to discrimination represented an activity which involved all member organizations to the coalition Macedonia Without Discrimination. The draft Glossary was prepared by Prof. Dr. Mirjana Najcevska. and Bekim Kadriu, Mc. On the two workshops held in May and June, the organizations provided their comments and suggestions for consolidation of the proposal. In July and August, regular e-mail communication was organized in order to prepare the final version. The Glossary was printed in October in 1100 copies, of which 800 in Macedonian language and 300 in Albanian language. The promotion of the Glossary took place on December 10th as part of the joint celebration of the world human rights day. The Glossary was distributed to the civil society organizations, members of parliament, representatives from the state administration bodies, judges, public prosecutors, experts, media and international community in Republic of Macedonia.

-    Preparation of Law on Non-Discrimination
In order to provide contribution to the preparation of the Law on Protection from Discrimination, the coalition Macedonia Without Discrimination held several meetings in the period of May – October. As the proposed Law on Protection against Discrimination was assessed not to contain the required provisions which were strongly advocated by the civil society organizations, in September 2008 experts and representatives of the civil society organizations produced draft recommendations for amendments to the draft Law. The recommendations are based on a comparative analysis of similar law, mostly of the countries in the region, as well as an overview of the domestic regulation. The draft recommendations were submitted to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Moreover, three representatives from the coalition participated at three public debates related to the draft Law in Bitola, Kumanovo and Shtip. Additionally, the stances and opinions of the civil society organizations were presented before the experts of the Venetian Commission of the Council of Europe and ODIHR. 
In the framework of the project a roundtable was organized in conjunction with the office of the Ombudsman, where the key debate discussed the need for adoption of the Law on Protection against Discrimination.

-    Not implemented activities
In the framework of the project organization of a study visit to a country in the region was foreseen, in order to point out the advantages of establishment a body for protection against discrimination which is to function according to the Paris principles. However, it was not realized due to postponement of the deadlines for adoption of the Law on Protection against Discrimination.

The time period of the project implementation was April 1st – December 15th 2008.

The activities were conducted in coordination with the included civil society organizations.

The total budget amounts to 269.000 MKD.

Извршно резиме од проектот.