“Our legislation regulates multiple discrimination, including the forms of cumulative and intersectional discrimination that are clearly defined with the new Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination. This is especially important because multiple discrimination is considered to be a heavier form of discrimination, which is more difficult to prove and not always appropriately sanctioned,” said Zaneta Poposka, from the OSCE Mission to Skopje on yesterday’s (28.3.2019) Debate on multiple discrimination organised by the Civil Society Resources Centre.
In addition to differentiating cumulative and intersectional discrimination, she pointed out several examples from the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg concerning cases of multiple discrimination and reached judgements and decisions.
Gulten Mustafova from Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, spoke about the role of the Ministry, the National Coordinative Body for Non-Discrimination and the Commission for Protection against Discrimination in dealing with multiple discrimination.
“Regarding the Commission’s operation, the new Law shortens the deadlines for the Commission to respond to received complaints in order for the complaints to be handled faster, additionally, there is a new provision in the Law concerning a mandatory obligation of the Commission to initiate misdemeanor proceedings” stated Ms. Mustafova. Furthermore, she discussed the work program of the National Coordinative Body for Non-Discrimination and the National Strategy for Equality and Non-Discrimination.
Igor Jadrovski from Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, said that out of 80 discrimination cases filed to the Helsinki Committee in the last two and a half years, more than a quarter are cases of multiple discrimination. In this period, the most common concurrent grounds for discrimination are sex and gender. He presented examples of multiple discrimination and the outcome from the submitted complaints. He also pointed out that test situation is explicitly stated in the new law as evidence that can be regularly used in court proceedings to prove discrimination.
