Prosecutors and judges met in Skopje to discuss the challenges faced by the External Oversight Mechanism (EOM) in court procedures. Three prosecutors, a judge of the Skopje Criminal Court, a judge of the Supreme Court and former ECtHR judge, as well as the Head of the EOM Unit at the Ombudsman’s Office shared their know-how, as well as the ideas on overcoming key challenges.

In the past three years, sufficient practice has been built on the cases brought by the Unit for prosecuting crimes perpetrated by persons with police authority and members of the Prison Police, in front of the Skopje Criminal Court. Statistics is encouraging as it shows greater awareness on the matter and the verdicts so far demonstrate visible progress in tackling the phenomena of police ill-treatment and impunity in North Macedonia. There are some dualities due to the provisions in different laws, which are expected to be addressed in the ongoing discussions for a major reform in the relevant legislation. It is very encouraging that the case law of the ECtHR is being used both by the prosecutors and judges. All participants agreed that such roundtables are very helpful in finding joint solutions and the Council of Europe stands ready to further support the Mechanism.

Established in 2018 with the support of the European Union and Council of Europe, the External Oversight Mechanism aims at supporting and protecting victims of human rights violations perpetrated by persons with police authority or prison police, by providing an effective investigation into all such allegations. The positive effect of the EOM is well noted in the Ombudsman’s Annual reports and the EU annual reports.

This activity was organised under the action on “Enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system and the external oversight mechanism in North Macedonia”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022".