The Network for Protection against Discrimination demands from the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia to urgently conduct the procedure for selection of the remaining two members of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination.
The open call was published on February 15 and lasted until March 15, 2023. Pursuant to Article 18, paragraph 3 of the Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination, the Parliament’s Committee on Elections and Appointments must submit the shortlisted candidates to the Parliament. The Elections and Appointments Committee should organize a public hearing on the applicants, inviting all the interested parties to attend, particularly the civil society organizations that work in the area of human rights, equality and non-discrimination. Taking this into account, the Election and Appointment Committee is already behind schedule, meaning that it has not complied with the deadlines stipulated in Article 18 of the Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination.
We would like to take advantage of this opportunity to urge the Committee to undertake a merit-based selection process and choose professional and independent experts as members of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination. We would also like to remind that the members must have at least seven years of work experience in the area of human rights, five of which in the area of equality and non-discrimination (Article 17 of the Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination). Furthermore, we would like to remind that the election of members who do not meet the criteria, i.e. are selected based on their parti affiliation, jeopardizes and nullifies the role of the Committee, its independence guaranteed by law, directly affects the citizens’ (dis)trust in the institution and leads to inadequate implementation of the Law, thus hindering the process of promoting equality in society. On the other hand, we would also like to remind about the lack of gender equality among the members of the Committee, which consists of a single woman and four men. Moreover, we emphasize that in the previous procedures for election of members of the CPPD, several women and members of marginalized groups had applied according to the eligibility criteria, but were not selected as members. Hence, these two open positions should be filled with women and/or women from marginalized groups, if there are female candidates with these characteristics who meet the requirements for expertise and independence.
The task of the Parliament is to elect two members of the Committee for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination to fill the positions that have been vacant for a long time, which is why this body has been forced to work with insufficient capacity in exercising its legal powers. We believe that any delay in the election of members of the Commission would constitute undue action by the Parliament and the Members of Parliament, because in this way the Parliament fails to comply with the laws that it adopts itself, and hinders the overall functioning of this body, thereby indirectly affecting the exercising of the human rights and liberties of the citizens.
We also remind about the remarks and recommendations from the Report by the European Commission on North Macedonia for 2022, where it was pointed out that the Parliament failed to fill the vacancies in the Committee and that overcoming the problems with the financial and human resources of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination should be a priority.
Skopje, 6/4/2023
Contact person: Dragana Drndarevska dragana.coalition@gmail.com 078200675