With this assessment within the Free Legal Aid project, Macedonian Women Rights Center – MWRC made a review of the practices of free legal aid implemented so far, focusing on women seekers of free legal help who are victims of violence and discrimination in Republic of Macedonia.
In order to have a better picture for the rights and protections of the women victims of violence and discrimination, it was essential to retrospect the question of the free legal aid, therefore this assessment elaborates the laws in which it is incorporated the right of the free legal aid and the methods of their implementation, as well as laws that treat discrimination and define the same.
The assessment mainly elaborates the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia as the highest legal act in the legal system in the country. It also elaborates the European Convention for protection of human rights and basic freedoms ratified by Republic of Macedonia which is component part of Macedonian legal system. Procedural Laws, as ground for court proceedings, respectively Law on Contentious Procedure and Law on Criminal Procedure with amplification of the principles within, addressing the accessibility of the justice for all in equal treatment, contain articles which indirectly indicate (non) discrimination and the right on free legal aid.
The Law on Family is emphasized as crucial law in correlation with the rights of the women – victims of domestic violence and their realization, referring to the role of the Social Welfare Center in cooperation with the NGO sector.
Further on, the assessment elaborates the Criminal Code with qualification and work out on the criminal acts which in most of the cases are been taken as ground for initiating procedures from the women victims of violence and discrimination.
In the end, it elaborates the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the implementation of the recommendations of the CEDAW at its thirty-fourth session on February 3rd 2006, respectively their implementation in the positive laws as component part of the legal system in Republic of Macedonia and presentation of the forums, public debates and round table meetings on the themes discussed and concerning issues most raised.
This assessment also made a comparative analysis of the way how the free legal aid functions in several countries, such as Republic of Slovenia, Republic of Croatia, Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czech. 
“The publication does not only represent comparative analysis of the right to free legal help in other countries, but it also has the aim to map MWRC as an organization that is continuously working and will be working in this field. Republic of Macedonia is about to adopt the law on free legal help, which will also adopt the criteria that will determine which non-governmental NGOs are able to offer such legal help. The way of selection of those organizations which will be licensed for this purpose, will also be determined, and MWRC for instance, has an employed lawyer for 5 years now, with all requested law academic knowledge and experience.”, says Project Assistant in MWRC, Nade Kachakova.
Due to the Woman Human Rights Program, Shelter Center in 2006 started the Free Legal Aid project lasting up till now as one of the most important ones in the organization. The program for free legal aid is the first of this kind, because it offers free of charge legal court representation for the first time in Macedonia. It is aimed mostly for marginalized women’s groups to assure effective protection and easier accesses to the legal system in a case when they are unable to afford the coverage of the expenses to protect those rights because of financial hurdles.
Documents:
- MWRC Analysis
“Assessment of Legal Acts and Mechanisms Against Marginalization and Discrimination of Women” (in Macedonian and English).
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