Tag: Coalition “Margins”

We demand the criminalization of online sexual harassment

Posted on by Milutin

The Network for Protection against Discrimination held a promotion of the policy document with a focus on rape and sexual harassment “How to effective protection in cases of sexual violence?”. The event was organized within the framework of marking the international campaign 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. Its purpose was to promote proposed solutions for the effective protection of victims of sexual violence in accordance with the already accepted obligations from the Istanbul Convention and to request the immediate adoption of amendments to the.

In the period of waiting for the amendments to the Criminal Code, which passed the first reading in the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia, after more than a year, one can witness inadequate implementation of the procedures for criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of sexual violence, prolonging of the procedures, inappropriate qualification of the acts and unjustified termination of prosecutions that punish victims instead of perpetrators.

Dragana Drndarevska from the Network for Protection against Discrimination and legal adviser in the Coalition Margini (DPNSEE member organisation) opened the event by pointing out that “the delay in adopting the amendments to the Criminal Code means that we still do not have a consensus between the political parties on the issue of protecting victims from gender-based and sexual violence “.

This event, as well as the prepared document for public policies, are activities within the project “Network for Protection against Discrimination: Promotion of Policies and Practices for Protection against Discrimination and Promotion of Equality”, which is financially supported by the Open Society Foundation – Macedonia.

The document is available following this link>>>.

 

Drug users guide on contacting by the police

Posted on by Milutin

Our member organisation Coalition “Margini” from North Macedonia published a very useful guide for guide for drug users in situations when they are contacted by police.

What if I get caught with drugs? Can the police call me for an interview and do I have to show up? How can I exercise my right to a lawyer? – These are just some of the questions that can be answered in this handbook, primarily intended for drug users when contacting the police.

The guide, in Macedonian, is available following this link>>>.

 

Police and Drug Treatment Together

Posted on by Milutin

The Rome Consensus 2.0, together with Chicago Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities TASC. and The Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative PTACC, organise the side event “Police and Drug Treatment Together: the Global Emergence of Deflection as a Humanitarian Crime Reduction Approach to Drugs” during the 65th UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

The event is designed to bring together CSOs, professionals, leaders and public authorities from across the world to explore ways to effectively combine humanitarian attitude in health, criminal justice, prevention and community responses to addiction problems. The aim of the event is to focus and share on a new emerging health-based practice called “Deflection”, which sits at the nexus of policing, drug treatment, housing, services, recovery, and local community.

Deflection leverages the hundreds of millions of contacts that police and law enforcement have globally with people who use drugs for personal use but might otherwise 1) be arrested or 2) not be arrested without any action taken to address their personal drug use that causes, often repeatedly, contact with police and law enforcement. Yet, regardless of which of the two options is applicable, the person would do better from engagement in community-based drug treatment, housing, services, and recovery at that very point-in-time encounter. In other words, Deflection is an early, preventative, “upstream” approach that seeks to prevent possible future criminal conduct, death, or unrelenting drug use by addressing the problems associated with drug use for the person, their family and children, and for the community itself.

The side event will be held on March 14th at 1:10 PM (CET). It is co-sponsored by:

  • Red Cross and Red Crescent Partnership on Substance Abuse IFRC, The Villa Maraini Foundation, Italian Red Cross (Italy)
  • Pompidou Group – Council of Europe
  • Knowmad Institut (El Salvador/Germany)
  • Section Commander for Substance Abuse Program of SAPS South Africa Police Services (South Africa).
  • MENAHRA Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (Lebanon)
  • DPNSEE – Drug Policy Network of South East Europe, HOPS – Healthy Options Project Skopje (North Macedonia)

Our colleague Nataša Boškova, Legal adviser at HOPS and Coalition “Margini”, will present the model of cooperation with the police and the development of the module for training on ethical conduct of the police toward people who use drugs.

Register here to join the event on Zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_G8us9PT9R8GOJsbIRKX7xA

Rome Consensus 2.0 is a Humanitarian Drug Policy alliance, a call from professionals to governments to make urgent moves towards health and human rights based approaches. The Humanitarian Drug Policy’s primary objective is to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity by fighting social, legal and cultural criminalization of people who use drugs.

 

International Conference on Drug Regulation Models

Posted on by Milutin

Our colleagues from the Healthy Project Options Skopje (HOPS) and Coalition Margins are organizing International Conference on Drug Regulation Models. The Conference will be organized on 18th and 19th November 2020, online, in form of panel discussions and expert presentations.

The conference is organized as part of the project “Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities“, supported by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia.

This interesting event is going to present the new Comparative analysis of the drug regulation models in Netherlands and Portugal. It will have foreign experts presentations such us: João Castel-Branco Goulão, General Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (SICAD), Director, Portugal; Tomas Zabransky, M.D., Ph.D., University professor, Czech Republic; Hans Abma, senior policy adviser, International Criminal Cooperation, Ministry of Justice, Netherlands; Thomas Zosel, Chief Inspector of Crime, Drug and Traffic prevention (E4), Police Headquarters Frankfurt am Main. Additionally, the Conference will engage domestic representatives from different institutions (police, judiciary, CSO’s, ministries, politicians, health institutions, community members) in discussion what can be done next in North Macedonia in the area concerned and give the topic an importance in the country.

In order to join the Conference, you have to register on the following link. Deadline for registration to the Conference is 16 November 2020 at 17.00 CET.

The Invitation with the agenda of the Conference is available following this link>>>. We hope you shall join and contribute. Please, don’t hesitate to share the information to your colleagues and partners.