Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

The confidence survey of MCIC showed that majority of citizens of Macedonia is intolerant towards certain groups. Most of the respondents (around 90%) point out the drug addicts and alcoholics as people they would not want for neighbors. High percentage of citizens said that homosexuals are also not welcomed in their neighborhood (83%), while people of different ethnic or religious background will not be tolerated by one quarter of the population (26%). The intolerance towards the foreigners is also on the rise (18%). The wide spread intolerance is very often a consequence, but also a reason, for unequal treatment and unequal opportunities provided to the citizens for exercising their rights.

One of the methods to examine the progress made in implementing the anti-discrimination measures undertaken by the state and civil society organizations, apart from the monitoring and analysis of specific cases, is the regular public opinion poll. This is especially true when examining whether the objectives were met i.e. whether long-term changes occurred towards higher tolerance of citizens.

Overall objective was to further develop enabling environment providing equal opportunities for all people, i.e. non-discrimination in Macedonia.

The project purpose was to examine the situation of equal opportunities in the Republic of Macedonia.

The target group was the general public. Direct beneficiaries were the marginalized groups and civil society organizations representing their interests. The target area was the Republic of Macedonia.

As part of this project, a public opinion poll was conducted, surveying the perceptions, experiences and attitudes of the citizens of Macedonia on discrimination and inequality. The idea came from the similar study commissioned by the European Commission conducted on the territory of the EU members states in 2006 and 2008 and published in the Special Eurobarometer 296 as “Discrimination in the European Union: Perceptions, Experiences and Attitudes.” The first survey in EU was conducted prior to 2007, which was designated as the “European Year of Equal Opportunities for All”, while the second was in 2008 after the completion of the campaign in order to see to what extent a one-year campaign may affect the attitudes of the citizens on anti/discrimination.

The activity, i.e. the survey in Macedonia “Barometer of Equal Opportunities” was conducted in April 2009 on a representative sample of 1,606 respondents, examining the perceptions, attitudes and awareness of discrimination and inequality in Macedonia. This survey was based on the same instrument (with small additions) and the same methodology as the survey of the European Commission conducted in the EU member states. The survey explored the same six forms of discrimination examined in the EU context: discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnic origin, religion or beliefs, age, disability (impediment in the development) and sexual orientation. Due to the current context, the research in the Republic of Macedonia also examined the discrimination on the basis of party affiliation, a frequent phenomenon in the country.

After adjusting the methodology, the Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, in cooperation with Brima from Skopje conducted the survey on equal opportunities. The survey in the Republic of Macedonia was conducted in April 2009 on a sample of 1,606 respondents. During the selection of the representative sample, special attention was paid to the following socio-demographic features: gender, age, education, place of residence, ethnic origin and religion.

One of the conclusions of the “Barometer of Equal Opportunities” is that discrimination on the ground of party affiliation is not only seen as being the most widespread type of discrimination in the Republic of Macedonia, but also as much more frequent now, than five years ago (78% of the respondents believe that this is frequent), followed by discrimination on ethnic grounds (55%). One cannot neglect the age based discrimination (48.5%), discrimination on the grounds of disability (45%), gender and sexual orientation (40%).

After the survey and data processing, the expert team has prepared the survey report and MCIC published the report. The publication was released in 500 copies in Macedonian language, with translation in English and Albanian in June 2009. The survey was also released on 500 CDs in Macedonian, Albanian and English language. The “Barometer of Equal Opportunities” was also distributed to all relevant institutions, civil society organizations, governmental institutions, media, Ombudsman, international organizations.

MCIC coordinated and monitored the project implementation, while the activities were realized in coordination with the Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution. The survey results were presented and the report was promoted on 14 September 2009. In the introductory remarks, Aleksandar Krzalovski from MCIC presented the project purpose and the objectives of the report. More detailed information on the survey results were provided by the authors: Prof. Dr. Violeta Petroska Beška. Prof. Dr. Mirjana Najčevska.

The project result was improved monitoring of the discrimination cases and implementation of anti-discrimination measures. The survey helped to get insight into the level of discrimination in Macedonia and the findings were presented to the general public. The survey was a starting point for the measures that should be undertaken by the civil society organizations and governmental sector in future to prevent and reduce discrimination in the Macedonian society.

Bottleneck of the project was the fact that many of the citizens do not know what is discrimination, they are not ready and do not know how to react in situations of discrimination. This is particularly true for discrimination on certain grounds (e.g. age), where the respondents have no clear perception on whether this type of discrimination exists. The implementation period was February 1 – October 31, 2009. The total costs of the project amounted to MKD 1,153,294.

Извршно резиме од проектот