News and press releases

Addressing violence against women and girls requires an effective response across the entire criminal justice chain. This starts with the first encounter with the police, ensuring gender-sensitive policing and victim-centred investigations, and culminates in a fair judgment delivered by a court of

Following the successful completion of the anti-corruption masterclasses series, organized in co-operation with four national universities (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Goce Delcev University- Shtip, University St. Kliment Ohridski Bitola and South East European University), the expressed enthusiasm by the students and in order to further encourage active anti-corruption engagement, OSCE Mission to Skopje is organizing an essay writing competition for students.

From 16 to 20 October 2023, the OSCE delivered a national training course on gender-responsive policing of violence against women and girls in Popova Šapka. The course – organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department (TNTD), the OSCE Mission to Skopje, and the Police Training Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in North Macedonia – was delivered by the six national police officers and prosecutors who had previously benefited from the TNTD’s train-the-trainers course in Warsaw. Twenty-two police officers and prosecutors from various municipalities in North Macedonia- twelve women and ten men – learned to respond to cases of violence against women and girls while maintaining a victim-centred approach.

On 17 October 2023, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) with the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Mission to Skopje and the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), under the auspices of the 2023 OSCE Chairpersonship of North Macedonia, organized a one-day Conference on Statelessness. The Conference was intended as an exchange forum for over eighty participants representing national authorities, civil society and international organizations, to facilitate practical and informative discussions aimed at sharing good practices to prevent and address statelessness in the South-Eastern Europe region.

SKOPJE, 17 October 2023 – Resolving all known cases of statelessness in South-Eastern Europe and preventing children from being born stateless are the commitments made by the national authorities and civil society representatives at a regional conference held today in Skopje, North Macedonia.

The OSCE Mission to Skopje, together with the UNHCR Representation in North Macedonia, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, and the Committee for Political System and Inter-community Relations kicked-off a regional workshop aimed at supporting the country in its efforts to end statelessness.

Going beyond figures for gender equality in the parliament. The Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, Ambassador Kilian Wahl, and Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi opened the regional conference “Parliaments advance gender equality”, marking the 20th anniversary of the Parliamentary Women’s Club. The