Rights of Roma people

The Committee repeatedly inquired into how North Macedonia is addressing persistent structural discrimination faced by the Roma community; including in unemployment, de facto segregation in housing and education and health disparities such as early premature death and infant mortality. Furthermore, the Committee questioned whether the new strategy for the inclusion of Roma (2022-2030) specifically focuses on empowering Roma women and girls and promoting their political participation. It also questioned about the measures implemented to ensure universal birth registration and facilitate access to identity documents for all Roma.

In response, the North Macedonian delegation highlighted the increase in the budget for the implementation of the Roma Inclusion strategy with particular emphasis on increasing the numbers of Roma in employment. The delegation highlighted legal amendments in 2023 that now enable every child born in North Macedonia to receive a birth certificate within 45 days, regardless of the parents’ legal status.

Moreover, the Committee expressed concern over allegations of police torture, excessive force, and abuse against Roma individuals, including children in detention, and criticized the lack of effective investigations. The Ministry of Interior stated it does not track cases by ethnicity, but Committee members challenged this, citing evidence of disproportionate targeting of Roma people. The North Macedonian delegation did not present a strategy to address police violence against the Roma community.

Gender-based violence against women and LGBTQI+ rights

The Committee questioned North Macedonia on delays in adoption of the draft gender equality law, implementation of the national gender equality strategy (2022-2027), prevalence of domestic violence and the lack of specific legal recognition of psychological and technology-facilitated violence against women. The Committee inquired into measures to protect female journalists from gender-based violence, the status of same-sex couples’ legal recognition and inadequacies of the legal framework in protecting LGBTQI+ persons.

The North Macedonian delegation acknowledged the delays in adopting the draft gender equality law but shared that progress had been made in implementation of the national gender equality strategy with an expansion of specialised services for women victims of gender-based and domestic violence across the country. The delegation did not fully address the lack of legal recognition of same-sex couples and the need for a national action plan for LGBTQI+ rights.

Anti-corruption measures

The Committee inquired into the status of high-level corruption cases and efforts to combat corruption in the judiciary, police and prison system. Additionally, the Committee questioned the North Macedonian delegation on updates from the last evaluation in 2023 of North Macedonia’s efforts to combat corruption under the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) mechanism.

The North Macedonian delegation highlighted the existing national framework for prevention of corruption, the second composition of the National Commission against corruption and the increase in the budget to combat it. The delegation shared that 15% of the total number of cases against corruption between 2017 and 2024 were high profile cases including against the former Prime Minister, former mayors and former judges. After the investigation procedure, 110 indictments were instituted, and 120 court judgments were adopted against abuse of official power, bribery and corruption. Additionally, all prison staff are now legally obligated to file asset declarations. North Macedonia also submitted that the GRECO report is published under the fifth round of GRECO evaluations with the conclusion that North Macedonia implemented 13 out of 20 recommendations.

Watch the review session again here (day 1) and here (day 2).

Disclaimer: Transcripts of the dialogue available here powered by WIPO Speech-to-Text served as the main source of the presented article and content was also generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence. While all the information was carefully checked, please refer to the audio or UN WebTV for an official version of the dialogue.

Recommendations of the Human Rights Committee

The Concluding Observations on North Macedonia's fourth periodic report were released on 18th July 2025. The State party is requested to provide, by 18th July 2028, information on the following recommendations (summarized):

Liberty and security of the person

Taking into account the Committee’s general comment No. 35 (2014) on liberty and security of person, the State Party should ensure that pretrial detention is used only as an exceptional measure, for a limited period of time, based on an assessment of individual circumstances and judicially reviewed on a regular basis

Treatment of aliens, including migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and statelessness

The State Party should ensure unrestricted access to its territory and fair, efficient procedures for individualized refugee status determination, in line with the principle of non-refoulement, and align its legislation accordingly. Specifically, it should:

• (a) Use detention of migrants and asylum-seekers only as a last resort, ensuring it is reasonable, necessary, and proportionate to individual circumstances, apply alternatives in practice, avoid detaining children for immigration reasons, and provide legal aid where justice requires;
• (b) Promptly issue machine-readable identity cards and personal identification numbers to asylum-seekers to safeguard their freedom of movement and access to other rights.

Rights of the child

The State Party should intensify efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against children, especially Roma and disabled children, both at home and in public institutions. It should:

• (a) Ensure prompt, impartial, and effective investigations into all allegations of violence or abuse against children, particularly in institutional settings, hold perpetrators accountable, guarantee victims access to remedies, protection, and support, and continue promoting alternatives to institutionalization;
• (b) Strengthen measures to prevent child and forced marriages, with a focus on outreach, particularly within the Roma community.

Here, you can find all the recommendations given by the Committee in the Concluding Observations.

The follow-up report of North Macedonia on the implementation of recommendations is due in 2028. The next list of issues will be adopted in 2031, and the next periodic report is due in 2032.