Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

As part of the program “Macedonia without Discrimination”, a study visit was organized to Vienna, Austria from April 20 to 22, in organization of the Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation and Polio Plus.

The purpose of the visit was to present to the participants the system and the tasks of the Fundamental Rights Agency in Vienna in order to support the reforms to the Macedonian legislation on equal opportunities, which should contribute for the development and building of efficient and independent bodies on equal opportunities, taking into consideration the comparative experiences and the best practices.

“The study visit was of great importance for me. We not only learned about the different mechanisms built for protection from discrimination, including the Fundamental Rights Agency, but we also visited the regional offices of the Ombudsman, which are much closer to the citizens and have easy access to the information from the discriminated people. Maybe a similar system should be implemented in Macedonia with capacity building of the regional offices of the Ombudsman,” said Lulzim Haziri, from ADI, Gostivar.

“The visit was a really positive experience for us. We had an opportunity to see the Austrian experience and their model for protection from discrimination, with a possibility to use this positive practice in Macedonia in the adoption of the Ant-Discrimination Law,” said Duško Minovski, State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.

As part of the study visit, the participants visited some of the national and regional institutions. Besides the Fundamental Rights Agency, tasked with creating a database on protection from discrimination, also a visit was paid to the Ombudsman on Equal Rights. The participants also visited the civil society organizations that have direct cooperation with these institutions, including the Anti-Discrimination Association ZARA, dealing with the persons with special needs.

The participants in the study visit were: Duško Minovski, State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy; Vesna Bendevska, Chair of the Standing Committee for Protection of Civic Freedoms and Rights; Mirdita Saliu, from the Equal Rights Sector within the MoLSP; Zagorka Tnokovska, Chair of the Inter-sector Commission on Human Rights in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia; Slavica Biševska, Secretary of the Standing Committee for Protection of Civic Freedoms and Rights; Snežana Teodosievska-Jordanovska, from the Ombudsman office; Mirjana Najčevska, human rights expert; Lulzim Haziri, Association of Democratic Initiatives; Muhamed Toči, HDZR “Mesečina” and Nataša Postolovska, Polio Plus.