Deadline: 25-May-23
The Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje, in the framework of the EU and Council of Europe joint programmes Horizontal Facility III and ROMACTED Programme Phase II, have the pleasure to invite all young people from North Macedonia to apply for the Summer seminar on “Combating discrimination and hate speech”, from 27 – 29 June in Ohrid.
The Seminar will explore the main concepts of anti-discrimination and combating hate speech and will provide appropriate tools to participants to recognise discrimination and hate speech and take a stand against them. The Seminar will also cover the concept of antigypsyism, which is a specific form of racism directed towards the Roma community.
Themes
- Strengthening justice
- Work in this thematic area focuses on prisons and police (including human rights in policing, healthcare in prisons and safeguards against torture and ill-treatment), human rights standards in the judiciary (focusing on enhancing the application of case-law of the European Court of Human Rights), migration issues, the efficiency of justice systems (with a focus on analysing judicial statistics to optimise court administrations) and/or legal co-operation (which concentrates on increasing the individual independence of judges and prosecutors and the accountability of the judicial system).
- Actions
- Strengthening the quality and efficiency of justice in Albania (SEJ IV)
- Improving the protection of the right to property and facilitating execution of ECtHR judgments in Albania (D-REX III)
- Enhancing the protection of human rights of prisoners in Albania
- Strengthening the efficiency and quality of justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiHSEJ)
- Further strengthening the treatment of detained and sentenced persons in line with European standards in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Strengthening the quality and efficiency of justice in Kosovo
- Fight against corruption
- The Horizontal Facility further targets the fight against corruption, economic crime, money laundering and the financing of terrorism, as well as fight against environmental crime, which will include measures to address the transparency of funding of political parties, asset declaration systems, national risk assessments and capacity development of financial intelligence units.
- Actions
- Action against economic crime in Albania
- Action against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Action against economic crime in Montenegro
- Action against economic crime in North Macedonia
- Action against money laundering in Türkiye
- Action against economic crime in the Western Balkans
- Freedom of expression
- Work in this area focuses on promoting freedom of expression and freedom of the media in line with European standards. It targets legal professionals (judges, prosecutors, lawyers), police authorities, Media Regulatory Authorities and governmental bodies in charge of the media legislation and journalism related issues as well as media actors (journalists, associations of journalists, self-regulatory bodies, students of law and journalism and other media organisations). The topics of data protection and access to public information are of particular interest within the theme of the protection of freedom of expression and of the media.
- Actions
- Protecting freedom of expression and of the media in Albania (PRO-FREX-A)
- Protecting freedom of expression and of the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina (PRO-FREX-BH)
- Protecting freedom of expression and of the media (PRO-FREX-K)
- Protecting freedom of expression and of the media in Montenegro (PRO-FREX-M)
- Protecting freedom of expression and of the media in North Macedonia (PRO-FREX-NM)
- Protecting freedom of expression and of the media in Serbia (PRO-FREX-S)
- Protecting freedom of expression and of the media in the Western Balkans (PRO-FREX)
- Combating discrimination
- Depending on the needs and priorities of the beneficiaries concerned, work in this area concentrates on support to ombudspersons’ institutions, inclusive education (addressing racism, bullying, segregation and extremism in the education system, corruption in education), addressing trafficking in human beings (with a focus on assistance to victims of trafficking), countering discrimination against national minorities and/or when based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Actions
- Advancing the protection from discrimination in Albania
- Towards an equal, inclusive and tolerant Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Quality education for all – Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Combating discrimination and hatred
- Combating hatred and intolerance in Montenegro
- Quality education for all – Montenegro
- Combating hatred and intolerance in North Macedonia
- Expertise co-ordination mechanism
- The Expertise Co-ordination Mechanism (ECM) provides expertise within the Council of Europe system to respond to requests for legislative expertise and policy advice on strengthening justice, fighting economic crime and combating discrimination, as well as freedom of expression and the media, and constitutional issues falling within the mandate of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (known as the Venice Commission).
- Ministers (and other members of the government), the speaker of parliament, heads of parliamentary committees, Ombudsperson institutions or independent state institutions of the Beneficiary concerned (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye) can make a request for an expert opinion under the ECM.
Eligibility Criteria
- The Council of Europe therefore invites all young people from 18 – 30 who are interested to learn more on anti-discrimination and combating hate speech to apply.
- The working language will be Macedonian language. All costs will be covered by the organisers.
For more information, visit Council of Europe.