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To: Mr Talat Xhaferi, President of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia

 

Subject: Request for priority placing of the draft law on the declaration of nullity and annulment of legal acts, actions, measures and legal consequences of lustration procedures on the agenda of a session of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia

 

Dear Mr Talat Xhaferi, President of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia,

The Foundation Open Society – Macedonia, the Institute for Human Rights, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, the Macedonian Association of Young Lawyers, the Coalition “All for Fair Trials”, the Center for Legal Research and Analysis and the Institute for European Politics, members of the Blueprint group of civil society organizations for judiciary reforms, submit to you a request for priority placing of the draft law on the declaration of nullity and annulment of legal acts, actions, measures and legal consequences of lustration procedures on the agenda of a session of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia.

It is known that the report of the expert group from the European Commission (the Pribe Report) emphasized the politicization of the lustration process that was carried out in the country accompanied by the absence of an independent lustration commission. The expert group suggested to the authorities to consider a complete withdrawal and revision of the lustration. As a consequence of the political will, the need to establish a legal basis for the annulment of the legal acts, actions, measures and legal consequences of lustration procedures was established in the Justice Sector Reform Strategy (2017-2022) with a deadline for implementation until December 2017. In addition, civil society organizations that are members of the Blueprint group for judicial reforms in the past 3 years have reacted due to the absence of a legal mechanism for the abolition of the legal consequences of the lustration process which was in operation for the persecution of political dissenters with the then government, and they demanded the adoption of a legal solution to annul the lustration before the self-dissolution of the Assembly in February of this year.

Hence, in order to protect the rights of the victims and their families and minimize the consequences and damages they suffered, as well as for the protection of their personal integrity and dignity, we emphasize again that it is necessary to immediately adopt and then implement the draft law on the declaration of nullity and annulment of legal acts, actions, measures and legal consequences of lustration procedures.

 

 

Respectfully,

 

On behalf of the Blueprint group of civil society organizations for judicial reforms,

 

Fani Karanfilova-Panovska, Executive Director

 

Foundation Open Society – Macedonia

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11 November 2020