The Project ‘’Support to the establishment of an External Oversight Mechanism’’, funded by the Council of Europe and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and implemented by the Council of Europe, was launched in Skopje on 28 January 2016.

The aim of the project is to provide assistance to the national authorities in the process of identifying and introducing an independent and effective External Oversight Mechanism (EOM) over the work of the police. It is directly addressing the issues related to the lack of existence of effective investigation into alleged police ill-treatment cases, pointed out in the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights and the CPT reports on the visit to the country, thus helping the national system to reach the European standards in the area of police oversight.

The welcoming addresses at the conference were delivered by:

• Mr Oliver Spasovski, Minister of Internal Affairs;
• H.E. Mr Wouter Plomp, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
• Ms Tanja Rakusic-Hadzic, Head of Criminal Law Co-operation Unit, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe.

More than 50 participants, including representatives from the Ministry of Internal affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ombudsman, prosecutors, judges, other government officials, ambassadors and international organizations, as well as representatives from the NGO sector and academics, were present at the event, followed with good media coverage.