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The NGO Fair – 6th Forum of Civil Society has taken place
Equal opportunities for all
“Equal opportunities for everyone” was the main theme of this year’s sixth Forum of Civil Society which took place on 16 and 17 November this year, at the Skopje Fair. A focus-country was the Republic of Bulgaria. For the first time this year the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation organized the NGO Fair as part of the work program of the Macedonian Civic Platform.
“Different and equal is not only a current trend, but a historic challenge of the human civilization”, said in his address Saso Klekovski, executive manager of MCIC. “Pluralistic (heterogeneous) Macedonia has made a few steps to equal opportunities, such as the Ohrid Agreement. It is time for a new “framework agreement for all’: equal opportunities and non-discrimination for all. It is time for integration of different struggles and movements on equalities on any basis in a wider movement for equal opportunities to everyone and non-discrimination. Thus we will make key contribution in strengthening civic-liberal values and strengthening Macedonia as a state of all citizens”, said Klekovski. “It is necessary to strengthen the existing institutions for protection against discrimination, such as the Attorney General and legislation. A new national body/commission on human rights (or equality or antidiscrimination) is necessary. In the European year of equal opportunities for all, we also have to look for equality for Macedonia. The dispute with Greece cannot be multilateral, or bilateral, as the right to self-decision and freedom, the right to own culture and identity cannot be a dispute. We can only be equal members of the European Union (and NATO)”, added Klekovski.
Ivona Kozuharova talked on behalf of the Bulgarian national platform for developing organizations and the participants from Bulgaria. “We, the people from the civic sector should play the role of ambassadors of improved relations between our countries”, she says.
Erwan Fouere, the EU Special Representative and Head of the European Commission Delegation, said that we could not have good policies and good decisions without consultations and complete participation of those who would affect these decisions. “It is of essential importance to strengthen the development of the model of participation of civic society as a precondition for democratic and socio-economic development of the society”, said Fouere.
“The civic sector is the conscience of a civil society”, said President Branko Crvenkovski in his address. “The non-governmental sector organized by non-governmental organizations is a precondition for creating a really strong and efficient civic system. We should seek this sector’s certainty in solving its sustainability”, added the President at the opening of the NGO Fair.
Immediately after the opening of the NGO Fair – 6th Forum of Civil Society in Macedonia, the guests visited the civil society organizations’ stands.
Exhibition part
At this year’s NGO Fair a total of 128 civil society organizations, churches and religious communities, governmental and inter-governmental organizations presented their activities at the stands in the exhibition part. 10 organizations out of them were from Bulgaria. Leaflets, brochures, publications, through which organizations presented their activities, could be found at the stands.
The organizations did not use the Fair only as a presentation of their activities, but also an exchange of ideas and finding partners for future projects.
“The organization is good but the attendance is poor. I do not think there was enough information in the media about this event. It is good that from time to time we can get informed and see what the non-governmental organizations do, because I can see that they have a lot of international projects, they work with foreign donations, use funds and I think that they could be much of use for the country. However, I do not know if anyone from the government visited the Fair to get informed about their work”, said Andrej Ristevski, a student from Skopje.
Cveta Pavlovska, a retiree, said that it was “good to see that civil society organizations work and are active in their fields”. “Every year I get informed about the novelties as I am an activist in one of them. I am pleased with the organization of this fair, it is a good idea that needs to be further developed. I think there are many organizations that are smaller and cannot present themselves so a way could be found to give them a chance. There might be smaller discussions and selection of the best project presented at the fair and similar things that would attract visitors and organizations’ attention”.
The Fair was also visited by primary school students. The eleven-year-old Mila Pavlovska, who told us that it was her first visit to the Fair, told us her opinion.
“I am very content with what I have found here. There are lost of books, brochures, picture books and other materials from different fields that I am interested in. There are lots of materials that I will use for projects and seminar papers at school, about ecology, climate changes, children’s rights etc. I took a bit of everything and later I might need them for contacts with the organizations. So far I have not known that there are so many non-governmental organizations”, said Mila.
The NGO Fair was visited by about 4.000 citizens who had an opportunity to get familiar with the work of the civil society organizations and other institutions present at the Fair.
Forum part
The 6th Forum of Civil Society in Macedonia offered twenty-four events, including panels, round tables, presentations and promotions. The interested could take part at the panels referring to the strategic frame for common action for fight against discrimination, inclusion of small minorities, and inclusion of the Macedonian society. They could also discuss on implementation of the law on volunteering, tax laws, Roma and Roma settlements etc. The forum part was visited by about 400 citizens.
“Together for equality – a strategic framework for common action for fight against discrimination / Bulgarian experiences of antidiscrimination”
The panel “Together for equality – a strategic framework for common action for fight against discrimination / Bulgarian experiences of antidiscrimination” held in organization of the Human Rights House Macedonia, in front of a small number of visitors and participants, out into light the current conditions of discrimination in Macedonia and Bulgaria, whose mutual denominator was the need for bigger citizens’ education, raising awareness of the problems’ existence, legal frames’ work.
Mirjana Najcevska’s opening speech commented on the small response of the present as a result not only of disinterest, but also as lack of knowledge about what the term discrimination implies in Macedonia today, presenting the factual, unfavorable legal frame with a closed list that contains only 9 bases for discrimination and it is smaller than the so-called open European lists.
As an illustration of the slow change of consciousness, development of an initiative was pointed out for passing a law for non-discrimination, which has been on the agenda in the Macedonian parliament since 2004 and as an attempt for accelerating things, the already established Coordination Body for exchange of information and development of the concept of antidiscrimination and initiating an institutional frame.
Lulzim Haziri from the Association for Democratic Initiatives presented the so far positive results in the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement, in overcoming certain basis of discrimination in Macedonia, pointing out the need for further work in that field.
Neli Kirjakova, president of the organization “Euro integration” from Bulgaria, presented the experiences from the preparation and implementation of the Bulgarian Law on Antidiscrimination, passed in 2004 and continuously amended.
Politicians in Macedonia are not a positive example of observance of laws
“Play by the rules means play by my rules here. In Macedonia the elite that passes the laws has not been obeying them for 16 years. The have been made by the elite for the elite. It is a war between politicians and citizenry, which in other countries ends up with revolutions. In Macedonia the citizens have been peaceful and waiting for changes with consensus for 16 years. There are not any positive examples here that observance of laws is good”, pointed out Sam Vaknin at the panel “Play by the rules, obey the law”, organized by Genesis within the eponymous campaign supported by OSCE.
According to Vaknin, there are a few criteria for a good law. They are above all unambiguousness, justice, pragmatics. The law should be applied equally for all, it must not defend any special interests of special categories of people, to be ethical and in accordance with the international moral and international justice. If the law does not meet these criteria, the citizens will resist its application. According to Vaknin this is happening in Macedonia in the implementation of most of the laws. “The problem of inobservance of rules and laws lies within the fact that in the process of transition no one has offered a reason for their inobservance”, said the speaker Zoran Jacev. According to him, there is not a system that guarantees that those who do not obey the law shall be punished, that is, that inobservance is unprofitable.
Volunteering is a useful activity for the volunteer, society and organizations
The Law on Volunteering which was passed in July this year is another approach of Macedonia to the European Union, was pointed out at the panel dedicated to the Law on Volunteering, organized by the Youth Alliance, Tetovo and the First Children’s Embassy in the World Medjashi. As Zlatko Taleski from the Youth Cultural Center from Bitola pointed out, the law projects that volunteering is a socially useful activity and it stimulates volunteering activities with its regulations.
“The Law projects a few important categories, such as defining who can be a volunteer, volunteers’ age over 18, juveniles aged 15-17 with parents’ permit, how and where it could be volunteered”, pointed out Taleski. According to him, the law gives freedom for volunteering in civil society organizations, state institutions and religious communities. The law regulates the categories of a volunteering agreement and a volunteering service record. A contract is signed by anyone who volunteers more than 40 hours a month and his/her experience is written in the service record, which is an official document for confirmation of experience and skills, pointed out Taleski.
The present speakers concluded that volunteering is an activity that contributes to personal development, as well as community and organization’s development. Young unemployed people have benefit of it and they gain experience, employed who pass their free time, as well as pensioners who continue their socially useful activities. All data that a volunteer should know are included in the Volunteering Guide, published by the First Children’s Embassy in the World Medjashi.
Civil society organizations need a Code of Ethics
“Code of Ethics in the civil society” was the title of the panel at which, as some of the present noticed, a small number of representatives of civil society organizations, that is the Macedonian Civic Platform were interested in establishing first code of such kind and last year on several occasions the issue was tackled without any big success. The panel was organized by CSID “Forum” and the presenters Gjuner Ismail, Saso Klekovski and Katerina Hadzi-Miceva exchanged their so far opinions about the need for the abovementioned code, mentioning also examples for non(completed) codes in other countries, not only from the region but from other continents, too. Gjuner Ismail pointed out the need for a code as a result of the so far high level of spontaneity in organizing civil society organizations in the country and he considered the NGO Fair to be the real place for a debate.
“The Code of Ethics is an expression of self-discipline but after a year we have not managed to come to its establishment” – pointed out Saso Klekovski, according to whom the code is necessary for organizations’ sustainability and their future, for protection of professionalism of people who work in them, for building credibility in front of the financers of their activities. Katerina Hadzi-Miceva presented the known forms of a code, pointing out that the establishment should result from the shown need and wish of the organizations themselves, and not to be imposed by someone else or by the authorities in the country, financers, in spite of the fact that in the world there are such examples, too. Montenegro, much to the present’s surprise, was pointed out as an example country for such a code of ethics within civil society organizations.
Inclusion of small communities
“Small communities were given the attention of the big communities and the public by raising the initiative with guaranteed places in the Parliament”, said Professor Mirjana Maleska in her address at the panel “Inclusion of small communities”. According to her, the general conclusion is that on national level there is power distribution which both Macedonians and Albanians are pleased with, but the small communities are not.
“Public lacks in the small communities’ problems”, said Ilija Dimovski, a member of the Macedonian parliament. According to him, a positive cultural pressure is necessary on the public and the ones who decide. “The political problems are not always multi-ethnical and vice versa. There is a tendency for political problems to be reduced to multi-ethnical”, he added.
For Dzevat Ademi, a Member of the Macedonian Parliament, people in Macedonia know each other a little.
“This refers more to Macedonians”, he said, “We, the other communities, know each other better. Someone has said ‘democracy is expensive’ and so it is. Multi-cultural Macedonia is fine but it is not the reason for it not to be like that”, added Ademi. He pointed out that DUI is not against the law on small communities, but it thinks that Macedonian needs a new model, one election unit, without a census for the small communities and 5% level for the others. According to Maleska, the issue that Macedonia will deal with in the future is how to reach a balance, with constitutional changes to enable power restriction within majority. Restrictions of majority should be done in a natural, voluntary way. In Macedonia it did not happen that way. What is to be done, thinks Maleska, is something impossible – “to be better, more tolerant people. It is to be seen whether we can do it”, she concluded.
Our society is discriminating, not tolerant
The Macedonian society is discriminating towards part of the marginalized groups, in spite of the fact that its citizens say it is tolerant, show the results from the public opinion survey “How Inclusive is the Macedonian Society”, carried out by the Foundation Open Society Institute – Macedonia, surveying the level of citizens’ tolerance to Roma people, the homosexuals, prostitutes, drug users, people with intellectual and physical disability, alcohol addicts.
The survey results from the FOSIM vision for integration of Macedonia inside, as a precondition for integration in Europe and part of the results say that 60% of the respondents do not want to be in company with Roma people, 40% do not know whether they would like to be in company with homosexuals, and 2/3 of the respondents would not like to have them as neighbors. The highest negative distance of cooperation at work is shown towards drug users and homosexuals would not be good superiors for 50% of the respondents. These are some of the results that will be printed in future but at the presentation the picture was that drug users are among the most discriminated and the fact was presented that for them, even if the necessary funds are provided from abroad, in some towns in the country daily centers for their treatment are not opened, due to the obvious three-year resistance by the city authorities.
Gramoz Shabani
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