Project: “Human rights and freedoms in South-Eastern Europe – problems and solutions”
COUNTRY REPORT
ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND
FREEDOMS
REGARDING
YOUNG PEOPLE IN MACEDONIA
Stability and respecting of human rights and freedoms are the base of developing an democratic country. The power that moves the country toward progress is youth. Everything that concerns the young people in each society has essential impact on the progress of that society.
The situation in the region, considering the human rights and freedoms is not on a satisfying level.
According to the information of the World Audit Organization (www.worldaudit.org) Macedonia is ranked at 70th position in the worldwide democracy rating (out of 149 observed states in the world). Only 6 other European states (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Moldova, Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine) are ranked lower. In respect of the corruption issue Macedonia in ranked 98th. (in this area only one European state is ranked lower than Macedonia-Albania). As regards the issue of freedom of information, Macedonia is ranked 72nd. Followed by 5 European states (Turkey, Moldova, Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine). There are marks from 1 to 7 (one is the best) for civil freedoms and political rights - Macedonia is ranked with 3 (followed by four European states -Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Russia and Belarus).
We found a common ground that the roots of the problems that young people are facing in the region are similar and we want to make wider approach to this issue.
§ Improving the situation with human rights and freedoms in the region;
The information in this report are taken from 4 sources:
· “Baseline study on Youth trends” by Agency For Youth And Sports, 2003
· Helsinki Committee Reports- 2004
- Economics, social, cultural
1. The rights to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to just and favorable remuneration;
Most of the youngsters think that it is almost impossible to find employment. The rest believe that getting employed is possible, but not through employment mechanisms, which are common in societies with stable labor markets. There is almost no trust in the advertisements for job vacancies published in printed media. There is little belief that employment can be obtained through personal contact with companies in need of adequate work force. The confidence in the Employment Bureau is on the lowest level. That’s why two basic ways for getting employment are engagements in political parties and family and friendship relations.
Young people express bitterness of external offers for political involvement and of the politicised environment which puts pressure on them to choose sides and hope to find solution to their life problems, and to employment as one of the basic problems.
Influence of ethnicity on the opinion about employment possibilities is significant. Additional influence in this respect has the concentration of groups by regions.
The pessimism in terms of employment opportunities is most characteristic for members of the Macedonian community. Still, members of the Albanian community in regions where they are minority express large pessimism.
Considering the gender there are no differences. Young females from Skopje think that they have less employment perspective than young males. Only young people from Stip have an opposite view because in the past few years a number of textile factories were open so the opportunity to be employed for the females is rising.
§ Right to equal pay for equal work
Most of employed people are satisfied with their working post. However, their satisfaction is a result of their awareness that being employed is a privilege that not many people have, than a result of opportunities offered by their job positions for secure life and social promotion. The working post of the most of the employees is not in correlation with their level of education or their residence, because people are working anything just to be paid and be employed.
Mainly young people do not complain about their working conditions and most of them think that their working conditions are good, and that their work is not boring and monotonous. Some degree of dissatisfaction express people with completed secondary education and big dissatisfaction is showing people with completed primary education.
Employed ones like and appreciate their work, and they are satisfied of it, not considering the fact that there are many things not in their favours. But the ones that are not employed have different point view towards work. Their sight for the working post is that it should be adequate to the education and valued properly. Only small percentage of the unemployed will accept least valued and any kind of offered work. Engagements as physical workers (in construction business, warehouse, and carriers) or agricultural work would accept most of the young unemployed people. Still, in case they cannot find employment adequate to their education, most of them would continue their education in order to obtain other qualifications.
Also young people are not ready for own initiatives in the economic area, and they are feeling lack of possibilities for self-employment (opening a private firm) because they can’t get the necessary support for realising their ideas.
2. Lack of employment criteria is existing, including such regarding to education, qualification, etc. Young people as powerful criteria pointed political affiliation and family and friendship relations.
3. From a regional aspect, the only region where the Employment Bureau is functional is the Tetovo region. Strumica region is in worst position in terms of possibilities for employment of young people. It is the region with highest representation of the agricultural population.
4. There are no significant differences noted on the labor market in terms of gender. Only exception from the previous statement is Stip, where females have higher opportunities for employment, which are result of increasing development of textile industry.
5. The bad condition of the labor market has impact on the criticism of young people with respect to their working post taken and work done. They accept work without demands, such as: its adequacy with acquired education and qualification, meeting certain working conditions, appropriate location of the work etc.
6. There is no security for the working post for most of young people. Employed young people are mostly without social and health insurance, as well as without permanent employment.
7. Opportunities for career development are minimal.
8. Awareness of bad conditions on the labor market minimizes the choice of young people in search of employment. Higher criticism in this respect is expressed by those still in process of education, who, in their projection of the future working post, are not ready to include "any kind of employment", but a kind of employment which corresponds with their qualification.
9. There is lack of considerable criticism in terms of living conditions. Young people regard their environment as adequate to their living needs.
10. Young people have accepted a system of value that is very similar to the traditional system of values of their parents. Their life dream is life in accord with the values: love, health, marriage, family and children.1
The Helsinki Committee has several times pointed out to the inappropriate treatment on behalf of the Government for the Internally displaced persons during the attempts for their forceful return. Condemning the lack of preparedness of the Government to take the responsibility for the suffered damages during the conflict of 2001, as well as its indolence with regard to the conditions of life in the collective centres. To illustrate, the Helsinki Committee was approached by a person who was forced to leave the State Student Dormitory "Pelagonija" – Skopje, after forcing the door (on basis of the notification of the Dormitory of 04.07.2003, which is based on Conclusions of the Government from the 18th session and lists published on 03.0-6.2003). The same person has submitted a document from the Ministry of Transport and Communication of 23.12.2003, which clearly shows that his home still has no electricity counter installed and the building is still not connected to the water supply!!! After being forced out of "Pelagonija", during the last 6 months the person was forced to seek accommodation with distant relatives.
At these centres were the internally displeased persons are situated the conditions OF life is the worst it can gets. The worst conditions of life are the ones in the Centre "Cicino Selo" where mostly Roma are accommodated. After the performed inspection of the centre, the National Ombudsperson finds that "due to the low level of hygiene in this centre, several months ago among the internally displaced persons appeared mange-cases and were forced to pay themselves for the medication for its treatment."
The latest is that that they done get any food because of the strike of the company that was providing it.
Representatives of the IDP's from Matejce and Lipkovo present their views on the problems. They underlined that:
a) the local population still does not show positive signs that it accepts the IDP's (on the contrary the desecration of the Matejce cemetery is interpreted as a clear message that they should not return);
- The security situation in areas of displacement has been improved significantly and this is not the primary ground for the non-return of the displaced persons.
- Some of the displaced persons (whose houses are reconstructed) would return to the place of living if they would receive minimal material support from the authorities for basic household items (stove, bed, table, chairs).
- Some of displaced persons would start the return process if they were provided with minimum means for farming (seed material, seedlings, and mechanization rental).
- Some of the displaced persons wait for the outcome of court proceedings instituted against the state for compensation of damage.
- Some of the displaced persons (in the families of whom there were police and army officers in the 2001 conflict) do not intend to return to their places of living.
The general conclusion about the situation of the internally displaced persons is that the state does not assume its own responsibilities both in respect of the 2001 events and in terms of the consequences of these events, attempting to shrink the responsibility for appropriate resolution of the problems of the internally displaced persons.”[1]
In terms of nationality, in rural or urban area, young Macedonians live with their parents (89.9 %), and a smaller percentage live with their spouses (6.85 %). As to Albanian population, the situation is even more drastic: 95 % of the young people live with their parents, while 1.7 % live with their spouses. As to Roma population in rural areas, 100 % of young people live their parents; in urban areas, 73.3 % live with their parents, while there are individuals among the older who live with their spouses, alone, or in another way.1
The lack of the economic possibilities for separate life is giving this kind of situation, not the wish for living with parents. Even married young people are forced to live with parents, as they don’t have the means for individual and independent life (they are unemployed or have low income).
One of the factors contributing to this situation is certainly the cultural sample, where the intensive connection of children with parents is evident throughout a long period of life. In smaller settlements, especially in Albanian families, there is an additional element that reinforced this connection, that is, the feeling of responsibility of children to take care of their old parents. The relation parent-child (child-parent) shows a two-way dependence, financial and emotional.”
Results from the survey "Development of children and young people". The general conclusion, which can be derived from the presented data, is the following:
- The economic situation, according to the opinion of the young people influences the onset and spreading of the pathological phenomena;
- The economic situation in the country has an influence of the criminal behaviour and the prostitution among the young people (68.8 % of the young people think that the economic situation in the country influences the young people to act criminally, a large percentage, or 62.4 % think that the prostitution among the young is closely linked to the economic situation)[2]
- The pharmacist did not want to give information in which other city pharmacy the medicine could be found,
- The pharmacist did not want (refused) to identify herself to the citizen, in order that he can exercise his rights in appropriate legal proceedings.
- The information of unauthorized import of cytostatics, forged receipts of unknown foreign pharmacies, overpaid and not refunded drugs and other medications is only a part of the information that points out the grave problems in the positioning and the functioning of our pharmacies.
The Health fund is instead focused on other issues - the control and sanctioning of the pharmacies, which, apparently do not work according to the law. However, with such an action, it appears that the main issues are being ignored. Namely, do our health organizations have systematic and actual potential to respond to their obligations? It appears that the Ministry of Health, the Clinical Center and the Health Insurance Fund, instead of making efforts to fulfil their legal obligations, decided to "punish" the patients by introducing (or at least announcing) rigorous control over the issuance of prescriptions.
The Helsinki Committee considers that by such behavior, the human rights for adequate health care of the citizens are directly violated, and especially the rights of the children which are the victims of the last case in the department of oncology. The obligations steaming from the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child should seriously be implemented especially in the field of health, where the drop of the quality of treatments and services to the patients is evident.”[3]
“Surgeon from the Clinic of Urology asked 300 euros from the patient to make urgent surgery.”[4]
Natasa Kmetovska, 19 year old girl from Pobozje, village near Skopje died because of non-professional medical care in the Clinical Centre in Skopje. This young girl was shoot, accidentally, during the New Year’s celebration on the square Macedonia in Skopje. She was took to the hospital immediately but the doctors didn’t predict the injury caused from the bullet inside the body and they didn’t make surgery. Natasa died two days later. So far none took the responsibility for this case. Investigation is still ongoing.
We gave up everything; we do not celebrate birthdays, we communicate with our friends only if absolutely necessary, we o not buy anything for me or my wife. Maintaining the house is difficult, and I do not remember when was the last time we went on vacation. At home we always argue with my wife about money. The children are always demanding money: for books, clothes, going out and whatnot. We can not meet their demands although they are modest. Everything is expensive. Consider our middle daughter is a solid student, we have to enable her to go to university. Only God knows how will we manage with two university students. There is nothing more that my wife and me can give up.’[5]
There were similar stories present in the urban and rural areas.
The number of children in the classes with programs in Macedonian and Serbian language is not much variable, while the number is increasing in those of Albanian and Turkish. Analyses of the ethnic structure show that highest numbers of children not attending teaching in primary schools are those of Roma nationality.
School dropout of pupils in primary education is about 1%, while about 80% of those enrolled in the first year of secondary schools, finish it. Highest dropout rates are observed in schools of three-year programs and those that offer unattractive vocations.
The most significant problem related to young people is the big percentage of those “getting lost” in the moment of transition from primary to secondary education.
According to 1998/1999 data, the following percentages of the total number of students who finished secondary education applied for enrolment in the faculties: 94.2 % of all Macedonian students, 56.4% of Albanian students and 72% of the Turkish students. Universities accepted enrolment of 51% of the applicants.2
It seems that each educational institution is a separate world and that its efficiency and content of young users mostly depend on the quality of management, training of teachers and amount of funds invested in its modernization (most of all with help of foreign donations).
Several groups of issues/problems can be differentiated and situated in a certain educational subsystems, applicable to each educational institution. These directly impact the status and satisfaction of young people in our country. At the same time, pointing of the problems will mean giving priorities for future actions in the education system.
Primary education
Rehabilitation of institutions. The network of primary schools in Macedonia is deteriorated. Very little has been done for school rehabilitation in the past period. Working conditions are not adequate (especially in rural areas and smaller towns), and children work and study in extremely difficult conditions. Equipment and laboratory facilities are minimal.
In large number of schools (such as the schools in the Struga village of Jablanica, in the Tetovo region - the village of Brodec, in the Bitola region - the village of Dolno Orizari, in the village of Matejce in the Kumanovo region, in the Kuzman Josifovski School in Kicevo, in the village of Beli in the Kocani Region and in the Geras Cunev School in Stip), there was a boycott of the instruction because of the disastrous conditions (leaking roofs, damaged floors, bad sanitary facilities) due to which for a longer period it is impossible to carry out the instruction.
In the schools in the villages of Urvic and Jelovjane in the Tetovo region, the instruction was boycotted because of introduction of combined classes (in which pupils from different grades attend instruction together).
The ad hoc decision of the Ministry of Education for dislocation of several hundred pupils of the Secondary Physical Education School in Skopje also caused serious protests 1) that are still underway (current status: the parents of about 300 pupils of the I and II year).
The bad situation of the school infrastructure is set in conditions of increasing impoverishment of parents who have serious problems even in respect of buying of textbooks, manuals and school material. Namely, the minimum funds necessary for buying the above stated items range from three to five thousand denars (app. 50-80€). Compared to the average salary in the country 2) the amount might seem reasonable. However, if one takes into consideration the minimum wages in various branches of the economy where those working in the textile industry, for example, "lead" with monthly wage of 2.700 MKD (app. 44€), this would mean that the costs are more than a monthly salary of these workers!
In a situation when the Government is pursuing restrictive social policy and considering the growing category of employees with minimum salary the free of charge" character of education is put under question. Despite the fact that at the constitutional level Macedonia is declaratively a country in which primary education is "compulsory and free" 3), and although it has accepted obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 4), and ratified a series of international documents such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 5), the Convention against Discrimination in Education 6), Convention on the Rights of the Child 7), the authorities have not considered the question how such citizens, or at least the most impoverished ones, could cover the costs of the free of charge education. There is not a single word about this in the 2005-2015 National Strategy on Development of Education in the Republic of Macedonia and in the Amended Law on Primary Education.
Despite the fact that the Government of the Republic of Macedonia has signed all possible documents that guarantee the right to education and its provision free of charge, as stated in the September Report, it does not offer solutions or a concrete strategy for the full implementation of this right.
Although legally responsible before the citizens in respect of assumed obligations, the state continues not to fulfill its obligations. This month the Ministry has gone a step forward announcing that the state inspectors would punish parents that would not enroll their children or would not "allow" their children to attend school. 2) It is correct that in pursuance with the Law on Primary Education 3) parents may by fined with 5000 to 20.000 MKD if they do not enroll their children in first grade 4) or if their children do not attend classes regularly. However, the question is whether there is an inspector capable of punishing the Government for not abiding by the laws, for not respecting the ratified international documents, for not providing conditions for instruction, not providing minimal working conditions, for not providing funds for free of charge primary education, etc?
The restrictive policy that the Government applies from down up, will not help parents that have difficulties providing subsistence means, or funds for education of their children. Such a policy. i.e. threats are also an overt and evident demonstration of the Government's power.”1
Curricula modernisation according to concept of Learning Outcomes. Analyses show that the existing curricula has number of deficiencies which reflect: the weak connection of contents, lack of complex approach, lack of modern form of education, repetition of subject matters in programs, weaknesses in the evaluation system, weaknesses in defining the activities of pupils and teachers, organizational weaknesses.
Computerization. Supply of schools with modern information technology is minimal.
Teachers training. Teachers are the key problem and one of the highest priorities of the state. Any intervention for improving the teaching quality is impossible unless the problem of low professional and pedagogical preparedness of teachers is solved.
Professional and pedagogic development of teachers. So far, the Pedagogy Bureau of Macedonia covered this area. Despite efforts made, they can not meet the needs of all teachers. A priority issue is providing opportunities for creation and development of alternative forms for professional and pedagogical education of teachers with inclusion of more interested partners (donors, universities, private institutions). But not only theachers are the ones for which the training is needed: despite the efforts for improving the competencies of school directors in the past period, for various reasons (above all, political), these activities are still needed. Still, one of the key reasons for primary education problems is the weak school management.
Other problem is the weaknesses in infrastructure and equipment of schools, curricula weaknesses, and the insufficient skills of teachers to use modern models for teaching, have caused weaknesses in realization of the education process.
Regarding the children with special needs (disabilities), they are still on the margins and have difficult access to the regular forms of education. Numbers of them, especially those with lighter disabilities, obtain their education in specialized institutions. Their access to formal education has to be enforced, and the teachers have to obtain better training for working with this category of children.
Regarding support, schools are left on their own and/or depend on the government alone. Additional support for raising their quality is condition sine qua non nonexistent. Apart from some efforts made by the Pedagogy Bureau of Macedonia, which gives modest contribution to overcoming this problem based on predefined working plan set by the Ministry of Education, there are no other defined forms of support for pupils and teachers. This condition is particularly difficult in smaller settlements and rural regions.
Secondary education
• A lot has been invested in improvement of infrastructure and equipment in high education institutions in the past years. A serious problem is, however, the modernisation of curricula and introduction of modern forms of work. The major problem is the dominant focus on theory and the weak connection with the economy and real life. Training of university teachers is more than necessary. Furthermore, there is still no system in pace for evaluation/assessment of the work in the high education institutions. Work of professors and other personnel is based on outdated and inefficient methodology.
On the question “ How the youngsters are satisfying their cultural needs” 916 from 3000 interviewed youngsters answered that they are doing this in the cafeterias where they are exchanging information and experience, or more rarely by watching some performance or event. This is indicating that the cultural offers in the cities are way to poor and the existing cultural institutions are not active or what they are offering is not adequate to the youngsters cultural needs and the last but not least their are too expensive for them. In Macedonian capital rarely there are discounts for young people and students as elsewhere in the world.
About the involvement of the city’s administration for making the cultural life better, the interviewed youngsters are saying that they are not satisfied with their work. 77% of the interviewed youngsters is saying that the city’s administration is not doing enough for improving the cultural life or that they are not doing anything at all.
The question “ What do you need to express your talent and creative abilities?” The majority of the interviewed youngsters said that they all need money for expressing their creative abilities. For example: for playing on some instrument you have to have not only the instrument but also the necessary accessories and equipment needed. Regarding the art expression by painting and drawing, it’s necessary to have materials and painting colors for which money, again, are needed. In fact, for every art activities for individual expression, money is necessary more or less. The conclusion is that the main problem that restricts the participation in cultural life and in art activities is the finances. On these questions a small number of the interviewed youngsters said that they need someone to value their activities. This is very interesting point because is tackling the cultural values and criteria in our society. The nepotism and corruption often are appearing as the only conditions for ones to promote its artwork or to have an opportunity to improve its talent and creative abilities.
From the interviewed young people 52 % think that without any financial support from the institutions and the city authorities, there is not much that can be done for improving the quality of the cultural life in the city. Finances according to them are main problem that is stopping the initiative and creativity of the young people not only in the filed of their employment but also in the field of their cultural life and expression.
This is leading us in to conclusion that is not the subjective financial background but the lack of the state budget as well that doesn’t allow the governance to improve the cultural institutions or maybe it doesn’t want to invested the finance in this area. This contributes to the fact that in many Macedonian towns there are many cultural institutions missing. In most of Macedonian city are missing cultural centres that have cultural youth program, sport’s buildings, alternative and underground places for concerts and performance from various areas not to mention the missing of the theatre in many cities.
The conclusion is that in Macedonia there is a trend of the culture of poverty and resignation.
- Right of liberty and security
court order is strictly defined with the Criminal Code. This law, including the acts of the police officers, is explaining in details the cases when one person could be deprived of his freedom.
According to this law the main cases of deprivation of freedom are when the person is suspected of the crime and there is a danger that he/her might repeat the crime again or hide its evidences or run away. Also if the criminal is caught by the police, red handed. But this law determination gives opportunity for law vacuum regarding the basic standards for existing of the basic suspicions and the adequate estimation of the evidence that approve the arrest. The possibility of the abuse of this power is quite high that leads to the situations when the liberty of the person depends on the police officers. In many occasions the police officers are violating this right and this possibility is even higher because the police may call, arrest and deprive from freedom a person without court order and to keep his/her in police custody for 24 hours and then to release him/her. This is restricting the opportunity of person to be taken in front of the court so it can be concluded whether his deprivation of freedom was on arbitrary basis.
The restriction of the right of liberty and security can initiate permanent repercussions for ones dignity, his reputation in the society and the further position of that person in the state and its institutions.
This kind of cases in Macedonia are happening very often, many deprivation of liberty have been made by the police officers without any court orders and non of them haven’t been with negative consequences for the Police even though the cases were reported to its authorities. It seems that the Internal Control Unit of the Ministry of the Interior in many occasions is not taking any necessary measures to institute investigation and sanction the eventual violations of the law.
“The Ministry of Interior and Human rights. - At the beginning of 2004, the Minister of Interior has introduced a "Code of Police Ethics" according to which the first goal of the Police in the Republic of Macedonia is "the protection of basic human rights and liberties guaranteed in the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights." (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia 3/04).
It is evident that this is a step forward, although from this, as a normative measure, to its realization in practice - there is a long way to go. Above all, what is important is: the dissemination and acquainting of the Police with this very important act, the quality and fair training of how this should be realized, as well as the most important part - its realization.”[6]
The right of liberty and security after the conflict in 2001, has been violated in much more cases than before.
This is result of the presence of firearms that is on very high level after the conflict.
”Regarding paragraph 2 of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, - cessation of hostilities- there was a cessation of the hostilities and ethnic Albanian armed groups were dismantled, however there has not been their complete disarmament. This means that the change is incomplete (60%) and signifies a lower level of guaranteed security for citizens as compared to the situation before the armed conflict. A practical indicator in this respect is the increased level of use of firearms, increased number of armed attacks and robberies and increased number of murders perpetrated with the use of firearms.”[7]
What happened the last month is the deputy manager of the prison in Idrisovo in the honour of the Islamic holiday, Bajram, have release for the weekend the prisoners that are celebrating this holiday. The result was two murders, one rape of 14-year-old girl and several robberies.
The situation in Kondovo were many armed groups are situated is getting worst. This place is beyond the control of the Ministry of Interior Affairs and other authorities and the security of the ones that are visiting this village is in danger. Kondovo is not only place with these circumstances.
- Right of respect of his private and family life
The Helsinki Committee forwarded a request to the authorized Internal Affairs Department for information in relation to the legal grounds upon which Police assistance was provided in the banishing of the monks and nun from their homes. The banished persons have identification documents at which the address of the Monasteries is stated as permanent residence.
Taking into consideration that the monks and nuns, were banished from their homes without documents envisaged in the Law on Housing and without notice of eviction, the Helsinki Committee considers that there are serious indications for violation of the right to inviolability of the home, especially in light of the fact that there was Police assistance[8].
- Right to know and access to information
The last few years many public institutions have made their work more transparent using internet, so info on many laws and regulation are available on internet.
The Helsinki Committee is also doing well with its reports that on Internet are available for everyone on Macedonian and English version.
But in the everyday life there is still some difficulties for one to gat the needed information, nepotism and corruption is always the easiest way for getting the information. But as mentioned things are getting better and this is a process for which time is needed so we hope that in the future the right to know will be highly satisfied.
Right to marry
The poverty is still having an influence on exercise on human rights and freedoms, so the same is going on with this issue. It seems that the youngsters are prolonging the marriage to some better times.
FREEDOMS
- Of movement
Almost tree months in Macedonian village Kondovo para-army was situated, which didn’t allow anyone to get there. Or at least this is what the Macedonian medium saying and showing. Certain state representatives are saying that “there is no such a thing and what is happening is just few youngsters are protesting because they were not satisfied from the process of implementation of Ohrid framework agreement.”
However the leader of those armed groups have announced what they are looking for in order to left the village. Some of their demands are a total amnesty for their members, their employment in the Macedonian army and police and financial support for the families of the ones that have been wounded and killed in the conflict in 2001.
In case the Government wouldn’t respond to their demands they wont abandon the village but they were also threatening that they would bombed the central part of Skopje where the Macedonian government is situated.
In the following stage it seemed that there wasn’t any possibility that Kondovo will become a safe place or that these armed groups will give up from their demands. Furthermore, it was thought that nothing could be done if some government representatives think that there wasn’t anything in Kondovo that was worth for any action.
The satiation ended up when, before the New years holidays, they left the village, but how and why no one knows.
The freedom of movement is also very important for the Macedonian youngsters that would like to travel around the globe.
Is well known that the external politics of the European Union Members are having very strict external politics concerning the youngsters coming from the Non European Union member’s countries.
It seems that the travelling in those countries is just a luxury, that only the reach ones and the dissuasion making representatives of the NGOs, and Government institutions, can afford. The common youngsters almost never get a chance to travel abroad. This might brings a great deal of frustration to our youngsters especially if we consider the results from one of the latest survey made by the Agency of Youth and Sport were is mentioned that: 38,3% of the interviewed youngsters if are able will temporarily migrate to another country and 26,6% permanently which is total of 64,9% of the youngsters. Just few of them get the chance to realise this. More than half of those 64,9% want to go abroad because of the opportunity of getting better education, but as mentioned the visa regimes are really strict so the youngsters educational and career ambitions are never fulfilled which reflects on the future of our country.
There was interesting show done by the modern ballerinas, called Shengen.
The ballet was telling a story about how our young artist couldn’t prosper in the world, and how they cant developed further their abilities and talent because of the Shengen regime and shortage of finance.
Concerning the freedom of movement of the foreign citizens that are coning in our countries they are just only individual cases.
“For example- By the end of October the media published information about the several hour keeping of the Serbian Bishop Irinej at the Macedonian-Serbian border. As it was underlined 5) allegedly "our services have not allowed entry into Macedonia to Bishop Irinej, evoking Article 69 of the Law on Stay and Movement of Foreigners, 6), which allegedly applies to religious "uniforms" -mantles.
It is not at all clear why this Article was evoked, if it was truly the grounds for keeping the person and if this was necessary at all, when the Article explicitly refers to a specific group of uniformed (military) persons in given situations. "The promotion" of the mantles into "uniforms" is more than an "exaggerated" interpretation of the law.”[9]
There are several cases were the freedom of movement, of the foreign citizens that want to enter in Macedonia, is violated by the border officers who might make decisions on whether someone should or shouldn’t enter in the country, on non lawful basis.
- Thought , conscience and religion
- Of expression
- Of assembly and association
Here, we are putting the accent on violation of freedom of assembly and association by the associations of citizens in Macedonia. There are 5.300 associations of citizens registered in Macedonia, more than each country in the region. But according the research from the Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation (MCIC) only 350 associations of citizens are active. The citizens are complaining that except seminars, conferences and promotional material they haven’t seen anything from NGO sector. Very often the associations of citizens in their reports about their “results” write illogical accomplishments.
Associations of citizens are establishing according the present situation in the country. In the period 1994-1998 the most of the associations of citizens were working on the ecology issues. From 1998 number of associations of citizens that are dealing with interethnic issues is increasing. This year the most actual are Roma issues. In the few past months there were established the most associations of citizens for rights of Roma people.
MCIC point that the enormous number of associations of citizens is consequence of unemployment in the country. People find the way to earn money.
“The international foundations give support to the associations of citizens in order to control us” - said one professor involved in the work of NGO sector for the daily newspaper “Vreme” on 8 December 2004.
The question about what the young people think is the role of most associations of citizens (non-governmental organisations) in our society, has been raised in the above explained context. Most of the young people - 37.1% answered that the role of the citizen's associations is to fulfil the needs of the citizens that could not be fulfilled by the state. The opinion of the young people that the citizen's associations are used for money laundry is second. Then, the role of the associations of citizens is determined as a corrective to state policy - 8.9%, for spending free time - 8.3%, but also for realisation of career goals - 8.1%, for fulfilment of goals of the political parties - 7.5%, and 6.1% see the citizen's association as means for implementation of the interests of foreign countries. The answers on this question show that the associations of citizens (the non-governmental organisations) provoke positive and negative impression among the young population, whereby they are either attractive or unattractive to them.”[10]
The results show one divided perception of the citizen's associations in our society between their normal function which is perceived through the roles: realisation of the needs of the citizens which can not be met by the state, than as a corrective of the governmental policy, filling the free time, but also through the utilisation of the state, the policy (domestic and international), the individuals from the associations. Situation which is, from one hand, stress the need for these associations, but also show the non-harmonisation of their activities with the needs of the young people in the local communities and on state level. In favour of these findings also stand the results from the talks realised with the young people. The "exclusiveness" in friendly, familiar circles, which are used for “money laundry”, was many times mentioned. There is lack of action because of the different "trainings" and "seminars" which are mostly wrongly done and only for activity. There is no real action. The one that makes vulnerable most of the citizen's associations and subject to various "political" and "foreign influences" is the economic crisis in Macedonia. In fact, main donors of these associations are various foreign foundations, foreign states (through their diplomatic representations) and in smaller scale the Macedonian state and the domestic foundations. Of course there are successful examples, but the engagement of the young people in the citizen's associations, in order to solve the problems which are rising in the every day's life, is far from the real needs and that shows the need for changes in the organisation and acting of the associations of citizens in Macedonia, especially the ones that are dealing with youth problems.
- Of torture
In 2003 NGO “Open Gate” had intervention in order to help to 19 women-victim of violence. The most of them were Macedonian 63%, 21% were from Moldova, 11% with Serbian nationality and the rest were from other nationalities. The victims are generally young girls age 14-24. Mostly they are coming from poor families from rural areas. The pimps involve girls in this “business” by offering them work in cafe bars as waitresses and afterwards the owners of the bars force them to do various perversions in order to satisfy sick fantasies of the clients.
One young girl from Skopje involved in women trafficking gave statement in daily newspaper “Dnevnik” on 8 December 2004:
“I was desperate because we were poor. We lived from my grandmother’s low pension.
…I wanted to go in big city like Budapest, Prague, Roma or Paris, somewhere to earn money to help my family.
A friend of mine introduced me to a woman who offered me job abroad. She promised me that I’ll work as a waitress and that I’ll have high salary. After 10 days they took me to one bar in western Macedonia.
… First, I was taken with two other girls in Kosovo, illegally, we walked across a river. Some of the girls were sold there… When I arrived in the bar in Tetovo they kept me locked. We were forced to wear thin cloth even in the winter just to satisfy sick fantasies of the clients. They never pay me, “the Boss” became more and more violent. They beaten me and forced me to give sexual services, if I refused they raped me and beaten me. I didn’t have a chance to run away of that nightmare because always some of the girls were following me. Also they threaten me with a gun pointed to my head: ”if you don’t work you’ll be dead in 5 minutes”. He had a gun and a power and I had nothing”.
This girl succeeded to run away from that bar but she still do have traumas from those days. It is important to point out that the number of Macedonian girls who are included in women trafficking is evidently increased from the last year. The situation isn’t getting better because the Macedonian state representatives claimed that the Republic of Macedonia is only a transit and destination country while the representatives of non-governmental organizations and international organisations warned that the Republic of Macedonia is gradually becoming a country of origin of victims of trafficking in women for sexual exploitation (mainly by forcing them to prostitution).
The claims of the Secretary of the National Commission that the country lacks official information about victims of trafficking (Macedonian citizens) are in direct collision with the information published on the web site of the Ministry of the Interior regarding the undertaken activities for fight against trafficking in human beings
If one adds the fact that, very often there is silence about the number of court procedures that have ended in legally valid verdicts, it could be concluded that the campaign against trafficking in human beings is faced with serious difficulties.
From all this we can make conclusion that trafficking in human beings in Macedonia is more present than in the past and that this problem became very serious and it requests serious approach to its resolving.
Concerning family violence, in last few years there was an active campaign fighting against this problem. Lately the daily newspapers were writing about this problem in Roma families. The researches are saying that every second Roma wife is physical or psychologically abused by her husband and in many cases by their fathers and mothers in law. The Roma wives are complaining that they don’t get any help from the police because police thinks that that is not a problem under their authority but rather a problem that should be solved in the frames of ones family. In this circumstances what happens is someone get killed, and that is the only time when the police is concern. There were cases when the wife have killed her husband because she could not longer put up the abuse of her husband. Till the police doesn’t take more seriously this matter there isn’t any chance the problem of Roma wives to be solved.
The rising number of cases that indicated that the police abused their authority ended up without any result or without an adequate result confirms once more that the Macedonian police definitely have not any controller. The unit for professional standards is far from that. Actually, the international obligations clearly stipulate that there should be an independent research formation for these cases and especially for the cases where allegedly there was a torture. The reforms on this plan, as far as we can see, do not concede such formations. Unfortunately, the only thing left is to contact the competent international instances.
Cases of abuse of power:
In the Universities in Macedonia can be found:
- Bribe to pass the exam;
- Forcing students to bye books from the professors;
- Nepotism;
- No transparency of entering procedure in the faculty (the right to know and access to information) ;
- Sexual abuse of the students in order to pass the exam;
- Bribe for the administrative services.
- Discrimination
The contemporary citizenship is suffering from discrimination on the following grounds: sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, ethnical background, social origin and status, birth, physical handicap and sexual orientation.
Sex discrimination. As Macedonian is still a traditional society that is changing to a modern one, there are certain values that can be categorized as traditional ones. These values tackle the status of the women in the society.
The statistics are saying that most of the problems that women have concerning the professional life are based on the sex discrimination,
From 17% of the women are having problems at work, 4,9% are because of the sex discrimination and that they are unaccepted from their male colleges.
Concerning the feeling of the women relating the “senior executive position” women were asked, “ do you have a feeling that the women occupy senior executive positions more rarely than the men” on which 86,2% have answered “yes”. Among the interviewed population widely spread is the opinion that women are not well represented in the local and state government (86,2%, 94,5%), the answers on the questions “why is it so” indicates that there are many reasons, objective, discriminatory and subjective one (personal capability and efforts of the woman) [11]
The datas for the women in Macedonia are indicating that:
- 80% of unpaid housework is done by women,
Macedonian situation on this issue is quite positive concerning the Albanian minority, which comes from the implementation of the Ohrid framework agreement. In its elaborated form the Agreement relates to only one dimension of the human rights and freedoms concept- the dimension of protection of persons belonging to the non-majority ethnic communities in the state.
The envisaged changes with this agreement are based on the principle of positive discrimination (which is always of temporary character) that is to secure progress of the concerned ethnic communities and appropriate protection, guaranteeing thus exercise of rights and freedoms under equal conditions as the persons belonging to the majority community.
“Regarding non-discrimination and equitable representation - the envisaged legal changes have been made and there has been maximum prompt absorption of new personnel from non-majority ethnic communities. In most cases the rules of competence and integrity that the public administration should be governed by have not been respected and the party membership criteria still exist. Therefore, the Helsinki Committee considers that the changes of this kind caused increase of incompetence, lack of expertise and efficiency of the administration (which directly affects the exercise of human rights and freedoms).
Regarding paragraph for special parliamentary procedures - the necessary legal changes have been made (for the purpose of securing double majority in resolving issues of interest to persons belonging to minority ethnic communities). However, the text of the Constitution and of the overall legislation has not been consolidated in order to eliminate the contradictories and collisions that could occur because of the latest changes. The result is different interpretation of the matter and creating a source of new inter-ethnic tensions and conflicts.
The largest number of changes has been made in respect of the provisions about education and use of languages. The factual result of these changes is the possibility of wide use of the Albanian language with the education, media, court procedures, parliamentary structures, central administration and official communication within and with local authorities (85%).
However, the following has not been accomplished: first making the administrative procedures closer to citizens and promotion of bilingualism (or multilingualism) in the communication with the administrative counter employees (which certainly is of greater importance for ordinary citizens rather than the bilingual printing of the laws in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia);
The third problem occurring in this regard is the use and protection of the languages of the other ethnic communities. The advancement of the use only of the Albanian language with the local and central authorities leads to discrimination of the language of the persons belonging to different ethnic communities.”[12]
The positive discrimination of Albanian minority seems to be not enough controlled, which might lead to lack of treatment to other minorities living in Macedonia.
The sex orientation discrimination.
The ones that have different sex orientation from heterosexual are staying in the groups with the ones similar with them. They are keeping low profile and hiding their sexuality. It seems that nothing will be changed in the near future because non of these persons can be brave enough to be what he/her really is, and cope with the society judgment. There is almost not any communication between the homosexual groups and the others.
Discrimination on society status basis
In the conditions when the middle class is gradually disappearing and the difference between the poor ones and the reach ones is getting higher it seems that the first ones are discriminated by the rest of society.
The classrooms, the nightclubs, the working environment, in front of the administrative counters, and in almost every public place these type of discrimination is noticeable.
They are the work of:
- Helsinki Committee in Macedonia
- Transparency Macedonia
- Open Gate
- Agency for Youth and Sport
- IOM
1 ‘Baseline study on youth trends” – Agency of youth and sport, Macedonia 2003
1 ‘Baseline study on youth trends” – Agency of youth and sport, Macedonia 2003
[1] Helsinki Committee Report 2004
1 ‘Baseline study on youth trends” – Agency of youth and sport, Macedonia 2003
[2] “Baseline study on youth trends”-Agency of Youth and Sport, 2004
[3] Helsinki Committee Report 2004
[4] Daily newspapers November 2004
[5] Helsinki Committee Report 2004
2 “Baseline study on youth trends”-Agency of Youth and Sport, 2004
1 Helsinki Committee report 2004
[6] Macedonian Helsinki Committee reports 2004
[7] Helsinki Committee report 2004
[8] Helsinki Committee report 2004
[9] Helsinki Committee report 2004
[10] “Baseline study on youth trends”-Agency of Youth and Sport, 2004
[11] D-r Jorde Jakimovski “Partipation of the women in the social and political life in the R. of Macedonia 2002, p.p 10-30
[12] Macedonian Helsinki Committee report 2004
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