On March 16, 2022, the Network for Protection against Discrimination organized a conference entitled: “With cooperation and partnership to quality policies and practices for prevention and protection against discrimination.” The purpose of this event was to promote the work and role of the Network and to announce new activities for 2022, which are aimed at advancing policies and practices for protection against discrimination and promotion of the right to equality.
The event was attended by legal experts as well as representatives of various institutions working on various aspects in the field of discrimination. The network had dedicated a special panel for talks with representatives of the Ombudsman’s Office and the office of the Commission for Protection against Discrimination.
On behalf of the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia, which has supported the Network for more than a decade, the program director Danče Danilovska Bajdevska gave a speech. “The Foundation Open Society – Macedonia especially aims to provide access to justice for all citizens and therefore we pay special attention to providing support and legal aid for citizens who are marginalized and powerless to deal independently with the discrimination to which they are exposed. We confirm this with today’s announcement of the financial and program support provided by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia and in 2022 for the implementation of the project “Network for Protection against Discrimination: Advancing policies and practices for protection against discrimination and promotion of equality.” This year the Network will upgrade its work. That is, based on last year’s public policy document on the challenges of harmonizing Directive 2010/41 / EU in the field of social protection and maternity benefits in the Republic of North Macedonia; this year, as a follow-up to the activities of the Network, an analysis of the obligations of the Directive will be prepared, as well as a review of the case law of the EU Court of Justice, and the national laws that need to be harmonized with the EU Directive will be mapped.”
Danilovska Bajdevska added: “The joint initiative of the Foundation, the Network for Protection against Discrimination and LAG Agro Leader from Krivogaštani for changes in the legal framework for women holders of agricultural homes and registered -farmers to acquire the right to paid maternity leave, which will protect them from discrimination, and will contribute to respecting the principles of the rule of law and the concept of a welfare state. This initiative will redress the injustice of 10,000 women of childbearing age and ensure the right to paid maternity leave.”
Nataša Boškova, a legal expert, addressed the event, explaining all the activities that the Network will carry out this year. The annual program of the Network for Protection against Discrimination aims to contribute to an equal society through introducing measures in several areas: legislative changes, capacity building of institutions and monitoring the situation in order to improve policies and practices for protection against discrimination and promotion of equality. The activities that the Network will undertake are also aimed at harmonization with EU law, which means harmonization of our national legislation with the legal norms of the Union, which is one of the conditions for a country to become an EU member.
Marina Tašeska, a representative of LAG Agro Leader, referred to the fact that discrimination is considered the strongest in the agricultural sector. Discrimination against women farmers is an invisible statistic, and a visible reality. It is an indisputable fact that parenthood and maternal protection is a fundamental right of working women enshrined in key universal human rights treaties and given the developmental benefits of motherhood and parenting, countries globally in access to social protection legislation introduce special regulations for benefits and cash compensation for maternity leave for health insured with non-standard contracts, insured from the sector of agriculture and forestry, etc.
Liljana Jonoski from the Rural Coalition stated: “Women from rural areas do not recognize the systemic opportunities, tools, institutions that are available to them when faced with various forms of discrimination. Most of them do not even have information about the existence of such institutions, and on the other hand the institutions themselves are difficult to access in rural areas, i.e. there are no regional offices, local offices and the like. Regarding the legal framework and strategic documents, especially if we take into account the new Law on Gender Equality, which we call for urgent adoption, as well as the Strategy for Gender Equality, which is also not adopted, and covers the period 2021- 2026 (2021 has already passed), it is really favorable for the promotion of the position of women in rural areas and the elimination of forms of discrimination, including the new Law on Labor Relations, as well as the already adopted Law on Protection against Discrimination.”
The network will continue to provide free legal aid to marginalized citizens, provide legal aid and counseling to people living with HIV, represent cases in court and create new public policy documents that will benefit state institutions in dealing with discrimination. The new public policy document was promoted at the event: “State Labor Inspectorate as a Protector of Workers from Discrimination”, by the author Natasha Petkovska, Legal Advisor at the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. This year, the Network will pay special attention to the cooperation with the State Labor Inspectorate in order to improve the situation with discrimination of workers.
The Network for Protection against Discrimination will continue to advocate for addressing systemic discrimination through extensive cooperation with all stakeholders.
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18 March 2022