Implementing European standards and strong co-operation among all stakeholders is the key to a successful fight against discrimination and hate speech. This was the main message from the third Steering Committee meeting of the action “Combating hatred and intolerance in North Macedonia“ which gathered beneficiaries and partners to discuss the current state of play in the efforts to combat discrimination and hate speech in North Macedonia and to share the key achievements so far.

Beneficiaries from public institutions, partners and representatives from civil society organisations and EU Delegation in Skopje, had the opportunity to discuss some of the key results of the action, emphasising the process of building the capacities of lawyers and legal professionals through the HELP course on combating hate speech and hate crime, building capacities of ROMACTED facilitators on combating hate speech and bullying , as well as ensuring better access to healthcare and social services for Roma persons. The participants discussed the efforts to address the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance’s General Policy Recommendation No.17 which was published in Macedonian language with the support of the action.

The action “Combating hatred and intolerance in North Macedonia” is part of the “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Türkiye”, joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe. It aims to support institutions’ efforts and reforms to develop harmonised institutional approach to tackle discrimination and hate speech.