Macedonian Helsinki Committee Presents its Human Rights Report for 2011

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The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia (MHC) presented its Annual Human Rights Report for 2011, at a press-conference held on May 14, 2012 in Skopje. The Report lists the situation in the area of civil and social rights, discrimination of marginalized groups and notes the independence of the judiciary, or the lack thereof, as the biggest problem in the area of human rights protection in the country.

According to the Report, the key elements of the current situation is the inexistence of division of power between branches of government and the inexistence of truly independent judiciary. The judiciary remains under pressure and the main tools that would allow for its independence, primarily in terms of election of judges and termination of their mandate, do not function.

“The current ruling powers don’t understand at all how a state of the rule of law functions, and it seems to imagine that all institutions of the system are mere tools to be used to implement the will of the ruling party”, MHC President Gordan Kalajdžiev said.

The report (attached to this article, in Macedonian) offers chapters on the politically motivated trials, abuse of office, control over wiretapping and surveilance activities, civilian control over the security forces, as well as the process of lustration, the freedom of expression and the conditions in Macedonian correctional and penal institutions. (Source: NGO Infocentre)