We have been living in years in a time of global pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped the migration movements or the protests against the systems and state apparatuses that even today do not treat people equally, here I mean the Black life maters movement and the protests that have happened all around the world.

Despite decades of struggle, human rights do not belong to everyone equally. The right to life does not belong to the approximately 22,000 refugees who have drowned in the Mediterranean so far, certain EU countries have criminalized the rescue missions of NGOs, put a “knee” on the neck of the refugees and left them breathless, left them to drown. The countries on the Balkan route have also claimed the lives of hundreds of refugees.

Seeing how refugees can’t breathe under these “knees”, with the last efforts we repeat that the rights of refugees are also human rights, we repeat that the right to asylum and safe life are rights given to every individual, that the state should remove the “knee” from the right to asylum and let him “breathe”.

Refugee policies must begin with respect for human rights, and border management and migration itself must be based on the preservation of human dignity. But, unfortunately today we are witnessing that migration is “managed” with violence. Amnesty International has published a report on the horrific alleged harassment of refugees and migrants by Croatian police in their irregular attempts to cross the border.

Because these people are excluded from regular entry but also to the right to a safe life. The way refugees and migrants are treated today is the criminalization of the right to asylum. Efforts must be made to find a legal solution to their movement in order to minimize the victims of the dangerous journey on which refugees are forced.

We live in a time of pronounced and systematic racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. But, unfortunately, we have a multi-sectoral approach to refugees, and that makes their struggle important, and their rights a priority for the states. In the course of my work, I have devoted too much energy to combating fake news aimed at spreading hatred towards refugees and criminalizing the solidarity of the people. It is painful that fake news also affects the state's policy towards refugees. Since 2017, when the then opposition based the entire campaign for the local elections on spreading fear and panic, on building migrant camps in Macedonia, and talking about refugees in ordinary numbers, calculating the alleged hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants waiting for our border, unfortunately, defines the future of this issue in Macedonia.

Since then, all progressive processes for refugees have stopped, the Strategy for Integration of Refugees and Migrants 2017-2021, has never been voted by the Assembly, not even debated. Macedonia has the lowest rate of approved asylum and protection applications. There is no talk of the presence of refugees and migrants by our authorities. There is no talk of human rights and the dignity of these people. Authorities are talking only about border security, preventing the movement of irregular migrants, smugglers, and the like. Policies and practices are created that are influenced by fake news and I think that they “put a knee” on the asylum and do not allow him to “breathe”.

Unfortunately, the countries on the Balkan route, which also includes Macedonia, have an asylum system that discriminates against and excludes refugees from the protection system. And as the struggle for justice for George Floyd begins to spread across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, addressing the issue of systematic racism and discrimination, so does the need for justice for all human beings. It is the states that have an obligation to build inclusive policies in which there is no room for discrimination and racism.

This is not only a problem for refugees and migrants “trapped” in the Balkans, despite all the postulates of the rule of law, but also changes the concept of what the state can do to its own citizens. The target is the whole society, all its democratic foundations. At the moment, in many places in the world, refugees and migrants are the most vulnerable and that is why they are targeted, but at the same time they are the first group that is under attack, and after them will come the second and the third. If authoritarian tendencies grow, anyone can become a target. That is why the idea of solidarity should be spread, so that people understand what is at stake when we say that we must fight against xenophobia and respect for all human rights.

In the end, it should be clear to us that discrimination is a weakness of the state apparatus to ensure equal treatment and respect for human dignity, if we do not point out and protest against that weakness, then in the same state system human rights will lose their significance.

Let us stand up for justice and human rights, if not now, WHEN?

Written by Mersiha Smailovic

Link: www.radiomof.mk 

73 years after Vera Aceva was the first mayor of Skopje in the distant 1948, today Danela Arsovska will officially start performing her function. She and the mayor of Staro Nagoricane, Zaklina Jovanovska, won the trust of the voters, who in this local election, out of a total of 297 candidates for mayor, had the opportunity to vote only 26 women.

According to women's rights activists, the low representation of women in local government is due to internal party policies.

“Lack of awareness of gender representation leads to very little involvement, and with the fact that there are no legally provided quotas that would make women run. “When there is no motive for the inclusion of women in senior positions, the law is always a good indicator,” said Mersiha Smailovic, a representative of the NGO Legis.

Kristina Hadzi-Vasileva, director of the company Strategic Development Consulting, which among other things in its analysis focuses on gender equality, pointed out that in this election there is even a decrease from the previous composition of mayors, when there were six.

“When you see that only 8.4 percent of the mayoral candidates were women, the number of elected mayors is not surprising. Unlike the lists of municipal councilors where there is a quota (40 percent of candidates and every third place should be reserved for women), there is no such thing for the election of a mayor, so the parties appoint men. Unfortunately, the parties, although they have unions / sections / women's forums, etc. however, they rarely and hardly decide to nominate their party members for such important positions “, says Kristina Hadzi-Vasileva.

She emphasizes that such devastating results for women are due to the strong public pressure and attention to which the candidates are exposed, which is (most) often burdened with sexism.

Men, and according to the election results, women voters do not trust women

Smailovic explained that women vote for the options already offered to them. But she believes that women within the parties are the ones who should fight for inclusion.

“Men, i.e “Parties should nominate candidates in accordance with the qualities guided by all research that women are less prone to corrupt deals and illegal businesses,” Smailovic said.

On the other hand, Hadzi-Vasileva explained that the distrust of the voters is due to unfulfilled promises.

“When out of five or six mayors, two or three will not meet the expectations of the voters, the disappointment is greater and it is given more importance than if twenty out of 75 mayors do not show up. “More is always expected from women,” Hadzi-Vasileva said.

At the beginning of the election campaign, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy also published devastating statistics stating that violence against women in political parties is very high at 47 percent. Moreover, Hadzi-Vasileva says that most parties do not have internally established mechanisms for dealing with violence against women, such as codes of conduct or rules / procedures for dealing with gender-based violence and the like.

She points out that at the same time, gender stereotypes about women entering politics, especially in smaller communities, deter women themselves from taking on such responsibilities or supporting other women. For women, social engagement is always seen as “stealing” time from the family, and often these women are considered corrupt and immoral. For the same reasons, there is a lack of basic solidarity among women.

Smailovic has a similar statement.

“In inter-party circles, where decisions are made at least in smaller political parties and parties in smaller communities, decisions are made in informal meetings, in the late hours, outside party headquarters,” she said, stressing that women would not accept that. are not even familiar with the decision-making procedure, but only the final decision.

“Women from political parties who want to be nominated for higher positions, must be” ideal “in terms of physical characteristics and all other details of her private life. Comments on social networks are brutal towards women. Of course, the campaign that started just before the elections aimed at violence against women in politics is in support, but one of the slogans is that “men should do more,” Smailovic noted.

The masculine noun, spoken in the masculine gender, was left to the women's rights activists as a distasteful impression from the election night, when the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickovski, congratulated Danela Arsovska on her victory. And they noticed that even she called herself mayor.

“The word rector was not used either, until Radmila Kiprijanova came to that position. Then it became normal for the noun rector to be used in the feminine. The Macedonian language is productive and allows the creation of female forms from nomina agentis, ie. performers of actions such as teacher-teacher, host-housewife, student-student, and even mayor. “Those who do not use this opportunity do not know their language,” said Hadzi-Vasileva.

Teuta Arifi, who was mayor of Tetovo for eight years, said in 2019 at the conference “The role of women in maintaining peace and security / Resolution 1325 basis for action”: “I believe that peace and democracy are the only chance for women. Every other combination and option gives the possibility of a patriarchy that can resemble a political program and everything else, a patriarchy with which the chances of us women are much smaller, because in that whole narrative we would define ourselves, as Nietzsche philosophically he explained it to women when he said that the most beautiful position for a woman is to be a nice, soft pillow of a warrior.

Smailovic also believes that the patriarchate in the Balkans has too much influence on the perception of women and their rights and opportunities to be an active leader and participant in politics.

“In general, there are movements and struggles in the world for the inclusion of women in political parties. However, in our country the fact of the strong influence of the patriarchate, in which the role of the woman is reduced only to the home, to the reproduction as well as the care for the family and the home, further complicates it. In order for a woman to experience herself in a different form and role, it is necessary to work with both women and men. “We need to understand that as a common struggle and commitment,” she said.

Hadzi-Vasileva agrees with this statement that gender stereotypes influence the creation of gender identities and roles that we should take in a society.

“They apply to both women and men, so men are expected to earn, drive a great car, watch and love sports and so on. For women, the expectations are that they should be educated, work, do their homework, be committed to children. “When a society sets expectations like this, everything outside of them is more difficult to achieve for both sexes,” Hadzi-Vasileva commented.

Additionally, the activists emphasize that during the campaign that was conducted in these local elections, there were numerous comments in the style that a woman's place is in the kitchen, where she has to cook in the summer.

According to Smailovic this campaign was really low-key, there were comments that the woman politician was not good because she did not wear a dress and other similar qualifications, which for us voters minimize the one who says such insults and stereotypical sentences.

“A woman's place is where that of a man, it should not be minimized just because of the fact that she is a woman and be deprived of certain positions only because of her biological nature. “Women can and must be involved in all decision-making processes, starting with political parties and their perception of women in the party,” she said.

“A woman's place is wherever she wants to be,” Hadzi-Vasileva added, adding that in order to succeed, women need policies tailored to their needs – support for dealing with topics, areas that are considered typically masculine. sharing examples of women who have succeeded, freedom of expression, the right to dispose of their bodies, to make their own decisions.

Regarding the devastating gender inequality, the activists interviewed by Meta.mk say that it is due to the inconsistency of the political leaders and the unfulfilled promises during the past years regarding gender equality.

“We need strong efforts that will be visible. Ministers, heads, MPs, mayors, they should all be nominated by the party leadership or appointed by the governing bodies in the Ministries. “Deeds are needed, instead of words,” Smailovic appealed.

“The solution is very simple, you just need to move from words to deeds,” confirmed Hadzi-Vasileva.

According to them, although women are equal in the community, they have different needs from men that they should be able to articulate freely and represent in order for them to be addressed. For this reason, women are always additionally motivated to make their family environment appropriate to their needs, to have safe streets, sidewalks, bike paths, parks and green spaces. And the identification of the problems of a municipality comes from the daily living in it.

That is why Hadzi-Vasileva appeals women should seek equal access to all positions and everything they need, so that they can live a free life that will allow them to use their full potential without delay.

“I believe that the centuries-old struggle of women is over, we are aware, strengthened, now it is the turn of men not to obstruct the paths of progress and equality,” Smailovic concluded.