The Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia at its 31st session scheduled for 12 January 2020 did not vote on the Draft-Decision on the election of members of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination. The session was interrupted due to the lack of a quorum for the work of the Assembly, which delayed the election of members of the institution again, thus delaying the start of the work of the Commission which has the mandate to prevent and protect against discrimination.
The voting on the Draft-Decision for the election of members of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination was the second item on the agenda of the Assembly session, immediately after the voting on the Draft-Decision for the election of President, Vice President and members of the State Election Commission. Considering that the President, the Vice President and the members of the SEC were unanimously voted by 95 MPs, who were present when voting on this item on the agenda of this session, it is extremely unserious and malicious that the Assembly did not achieve a quorum for work (from 61 MPs) during the voting for the Draft-Decision for the election of members of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination, i.e. that some of the MPs intensively left the Assembly Hall when this item was to be voted on.
From August 2019, the citizens do not have an available mechanism for protection against discrimination, which means that the Assembly must not allow the establishment of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination to be further delayed. Therefore, we appeal to the President of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia to immediately schedule the continuation of the 31st session, at which the Draft-Decision for the election of members of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination will be voted.
We remind all political parties in the Assembly, which before the elections supported the Declaration on the adoption of the Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination, that they have committed themselves to conduct a fast and transparent procedure for establishing a Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination. We expect that they will be present at the continuation of the session and will provide a quorum for voting on the draft decision.
Additionally, despite the numerous shortcomings in the procedure for the election of members of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination, we believe that this draft composition is significantly better than any previous composition of the Commission. We welcome the placement of the list of candidates with rich experience in the prevention and protection against discrimination, which also comes from associations that have established themselves as independent actors in the promotion of human rights of citizens. Our key remark is the lack of gender-balanced participation in the proposed list, although half of the candidates were women, and some of them with exceptional biographies in the field of human rights and non-discrimination.
We appeal to all MPs and parliamentary political parties to finally vote on the new composition of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination and to enable this institution to start working with the new and improved composition.
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15 January 2021