Enhancing the role of equality bodies for better prevention and protection from discrimination at the focus of the OSCE regional conference in Skopje
SKOPJE, 7 September 2022 – State bodies for equality in the region play an important role in the fight to create more equal societies, free of discrimination. These bodies in North Macedonia and throughout the region face numerous challenges in relation to resources, inter-institutional co-operation, loopholes in legislation, which could seriously affect the efficiency of their operation. To tackle this, they need to intensify mutual co-operation and with domestic court instances. This is one of the conclusions of the regional conference that took place in Skopje.
At the three-day event, organized by the OSCE Mission to Skopje in co-operation with the national Commission for Prevention and Protection from Discrimination, representatives of equality bodies from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, as well as experts working on human rights and protection against discrimination, discussed ongoing challenges related to enhancing the role of equality bodies in preventing and protecting from discrimination.
“The Mission`s longstanding commitment towards promoting equality for all, irrespective of sex or gender, disability, age group, ethnicity, religion or belief or similar, and work with the institutions and civil society organizations, has shown that discriminatory practices affect many lives, especially women and girls, minority groups such as Roma, persons with disabilities, but also others,” said the Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, Clemens Koja at the launching of the regional conference.
“The fight against discrimination concerns the society as a whole, not only one institution or a group. Therefore, I am calling on all state or non-state actors to fully engage and take the responsibility for achieving equality and ending discrimination. We should all commit to take a stand for zero tolerance against discrimination,” he added.
Commission member Igor Jadrovski added: “Successful co-operation in exchanging experiences and sharing common challenges and best practices between equality bodies from South-Eastern Europe is a key aspect of strengthening equality bodies in preventing and protecting against discrimination.”