The members of the Steering Committee of the Action “Enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system and the external oversight mechanism in North Macedonia”, noted some positive changes during the meeting on 8 July in Skopje.

Namely, at its seventh regular meeting, the Committee reviewed the achievements of the past six months, during which 13 activities were completed. Although further improvements are needed, there are some positive changes under the component on provision of healthcare in prisons, such as the piloting of the Standard Operative Procedures in prison Stip, as well as the completion of the legislative framework component, through which seven bylaws have already entered into force. The Government-established cross-section body that will focus on the implementation of the National Penitentiary Strategy is expected to further ease the coordination among the stakeholders. Under the External Oversight Mechanism component, the statistics is encouraging as it shows greater awareness on the matter and the verdicts so far demonstrate visible progress in tackling the phenomena of impunity of police ill-treatment in North Macedonia.

Entering in the last phase of the Action, the Committee approved the proposed last 6-month plan, also noting that technical assistance will continue to be provided under the third phase of the Horizontal Facility Programme, expected to start in January 2023.

This activity was organised under the action on “Enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system and the External Oversight Mechanism in North Macedonia”, which is a part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022".