A Round Table held on 5 February 2021 in Skopje brought together 33 representatives from the Directorate for the Execution of Sanctions (DES) of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the Ministry of Education and Science, Ombudsman’s Office, the National Coordinator for countering violent extremism, as well as the civil society and donors community, to discuss the Draft National Strategy for the Development of the Penitentiary System in North Macedonia (2021-25).
For over a year, the working group tasked with the development of the strategy has been focusing on shaping the joint vision and mission, setting the strategy’s objectives in twelve areas and designing the actions to systemically address the challenges of the penitentiary system.
The event was opened by the representatives of the EU Delegation to the Republic of North Macedonia and the Criminal Law Co-operation Unit of the Council of Europe, as well as the DES Director, who provided the participants with and overview of the structures and the main elements of the document. The input received during the constructive and topical discussion will be reflected in the final version of the Strategy, which in the upcoming weeks will be presented to the Government for adoption.
This activity was organised as a hybrid event within the scope of the Action “Enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system and the external oversight mechanism in North Macedonia”, that is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and implemented by the Council of Europe.