The 8th meeting of the National Co-ordination Body for implementation of the Law on Free Legal Aid (NCB) in North Macedonia discussed and agreed on important matters concerning access to justice for Roma community and victims of gender-based and domestic violence.
The activity, organised in the framework of the continuous support that EU and Council of Europe are providing to improve the Free Legal Aid services for the citizens of North Macedonia, gathered 37 participants from the key institutions in the field of free legal aid including the Ministry of Justice and its Regional Offices (ROs), Bar Association, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Legal Clinics authorized for providing free legal aid. They had the opportunity to discuss the improvement of the co-operation among free legal aid providers and local centres for legal, health, psycho-social, employment and other types of counselling and assistance for the Roma community.
During the meeting, a short presentation has been also made to the participants about the services offered by the Centre for victims recently opened by the National Network fighting violence against women and domestic violence. Possible cooperation with the legal aid providers have been discussed with the aim to improve the access to justice for this vulnerable category of people.
A discussion about the responsibilities of the primary legal aid providers (civil society associations and legal clinics) to meet the conditions for becoming authorized for the provision of legal aid, as well as the obligation to submit monthly reports, has been opened by the Ministry of Justice’s representatives. Furthermore, information on the achievements and challenges that were identified during the implementation of the Law on free legal aid in the last period has been shared and discussed.
The National Co-ordination Body will continue its work and commitment towards achieving better coordination and communication among the main actors in the Free Legal Aid system in future. NCB’s capacities will continue to be further strengthened to become entirely self-sustainable in the future beyond the end of the CoE project. Possibilities for providing sustainability of the National Co-ordination Body for FLA have been identified and discussed during this meeting as well.
The action “Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia”, part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” will continue to support public authorities and key actors in the efforts to enhance the efficiency, quality, accessibility, and awareness of free legal aid in North Macedonia
