Natrag The First Steering Committee meeting kicked-off the activities of the Action Combating Hatred and Intolerance in North Macedonia

Skopje 26 April 2023
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The First Steering Committee meeting kicked-off the activities of the Action Combating Hatred and Intolerance in North Macedonia

The EU and Council of Europe will continue to strengthen the capacities of the local stakeholders in North Macedonia to better address issues related to anti-discrimination, combating hate-speech and protecting rights of LGBTI persons. This was underlined during the First Steering Committee meeting of the action Combating Hatred and Intolerance in North Macedonia which gathered beneficiaries and partners to discuss key milestones of the Action, as well to share the planned activities during the third phase of the Horizontal Facility programme.

The members of the Steering Committee include beneficiaries from the institutions, our partners from the EUD in Skopje, as well as representatives of CSOs working on anti-discrimination and combating hate speech.

The meeting was opened by Stefano Valenti, Head of Unit of the No Hate Speech and Cooperation Unit who greeted the participants and thanked them for their cooperation and concluded that because of the cooperation the results from the previous phase were achieved and have become tangible and the constructive cooperation will continue within this action as well.

This action is focused on anti-discrimination and combating hate speech and also builds on the expertise of the Council of Europe in these areas, notably on the ECRI’s general and beneficiary specific recommendations, Committee of Ministers’ recommendations such as the one from last year on combating hate speech.

The participants were also greeted by Svetlana Cvetkovska from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Ismail Kamberi, the President of the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination who also shared their perspective on the results of the previous phase of the Action and discussed about the planned activities and support in the framework of this phase of the Action.

During the meeting, the main objectives and goals of the Actions were presented, along with the planned activities in the upcoming period, and participants also got the chance to look through the Macedonian translation of the Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation on combating hate speech which was published last month.

The action “Combating Hatred and Intolerance in North Macedonia” is part of the Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Türkiye III, joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe, which aims at assisting beneficiaries in the Western Balkans region and Türkiye to comply with the Council of Europe standards and European Union acquis in the framework of the enlargement process, where relevant.