The Firth Steering Committee meeting of the EU and Council of Europe joint action ‘Promotion of Diversity and Equality in North Macedonia’ took place in Skopje, gathering key beneficiaries and partners to discuss the achievements, co-operation and next steps that would further enhance the fight against discrimination and hate speech.
The event was opened by Ms Lejla Dervisagic, Head of Operations of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje who greeted the participants and expressed the importance on continuing the excellent co-operation with the beneficiaries and the EU Delegation to Skopje and highlighted the most important achievements so far. Ms Sanja Frkovic Gelevska from the EU Delegation in Skopje also expressed that the EU is closely following and supporting the developments and reforms in the area of non-discrimination and also highlighted the importance of strengthening the role of the institutions in combating hate speech and discrimination, the public awareness and the mechanisms for protection.
Ms Svetlana Cvetkovska from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy as one of the main beneficiaries of the action presented the implemented activities and discussed some of the future activities of the Ministry for Labour and Social Policy, highlighting the Strategy for Equality and Non-Discrimination. Ms Cvetkovska highlighted the good co-operation with the Action and that the documents produced so far has given very good insights and information and are very helpful in the fight against hate speech and discrimination.
Ms Vesna Bendevska from the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination also elaborated on the co-operation with the Action, highlighting the benefits and conclusions from the Meeting of Equality Bodies from North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro, which happened on 4 and 5 April in Skopje, where representatives from Equality bodies of the three countries exchanged good practices. She also mentioned that it is very important to continue working on this topic and to jointly map out the most pressing needs in this area.
The members of the Steering Committee discussed about the new developments such as the launching of the Block the Hatred. Share the love campaign and its implementation and promotional events, the preparation of the Anti-Discrimination Manual and the Data Analysis on Hate Speech and Hate Crime, as well as the recommendations for the harmonisation of 13 laws with the Law on Prevention and Protection from Discrimination. The members of the Steering Committee also discussed the upcoming trainings on anti-discrimination and the follow-up activities, and exchanged ideas on how to strengthen and expand the co-operation for better effect in combating hate speech and discrimination.
The action ‘Promotion of Diversity and Equality in North Macedonia’ is part of the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, a co-operation initiative of the European Union and the Council of Europe, implemented by the Council of Europe, which aims at assisting beneficiaries in the Western Balkans region and Turkey to comply with the Council of Europe standards and European Union acquis in the framework of the enlargement process, where relevant.
