Representatives of prison management, including 11 prison governors from across the country, met with representatives of the External Oversight Mechanism (EOM) - prosecutors and Ombudsman office staff, in Skopje on 17 March 2022. Their discussion was focused on their respective roles in preventing and reporting and investigating cases of ill-treatment in prisons. The event was opened by the Director of the Directorate for the Execution of Sanctions of the Republic of North Macedonia.

It was underlined that prison governors have crucial responsibility in reporting allegations of ill-treatment to the prosecutors, since it is important all such allegation to be duly investigated by the competent authorities. Still, relevant data over the last three years shows that reporting ill-treatment cases in prisons is not frequent practice, meaning that certain steps should be taken to address the issue.

Following the presentation of the activities of the EOM public prosecutors and the representatives of the EOM Unit at the Ombudsman’s Office, prison governors agreed to promptly share information on any potential case of torture or ill-treatment with the EOM staff and to ensure that signs of ill-treatment are properly recorded. Moreover, an awareness raising camping was launched within the project, with aim to inform inmates and detained persons on the EOM role and mandate.

Established in 2018 with the support of the European Union and the Council of Europe, EOM investigates cases where persons with police authority, being on or off duty, use force, coercion or serious threat, leading to death, serious bodily injury, bodily injury, unlawful arrest, torture and another cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

This activity was organised under the action on “Enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system and the external oversight mechanism in North Macedonia”, which is a part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022".