Within the framework of the project "GREEN COMPLAINT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE", a two-day capacity building workshop entitled "Effective Practice of Environmental Justice" was held on October 3rd and 4th, at the Hotel Gardenia - Veles. During the event, the participants had the opportunity to be part of the presentations and workshops from the EU's international expert on environmental law, dr. Csaba Kiss, who comes from the Environmental Management and Law Association (EMLA) in Hungary. Participants in the training were around fifty (50) representatives of civil society organizations working in the field of environmental justice, defenders of human rights in the area of environment, employees of the offices of the Ombudsman, representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, the Ministry of justice, the State inspectorate for the environment, representatives from the Public prosecutor office, Basic courts from Shtip, Gostivar, Tetovo, Kumanovo, Struga and Skopje, as well as representatives of the Academy of Judges.
The workshop also had contributions from local experts in the field, with presentations by Alexandra Karakashova-Sachkarska from Mileukontakt Macedonia, prof. Dr. Marina Malish-Sazdovska from the Faculty of Security Skopje and Bojan Trpevski, from Macedonian Association of Young Lawyers Skopje. The event was opened with an introductory speech by Mrs. Viktorija Avramovska Madić, Deputy Minister of Justice. Although confirmed, Mr. Jovan Andonovski, Deputy Ombudsman, was supposed to have his speech and presentation, but due to unforeseen urgent obligations, he had to cancel his attendance.
The training that was carried out during the workshop enabled all stakeholders to better represent and protect citizens access rights to environmental justice. The workshop covered the following topics:
- Presentation of the national legal framework on the environment”
- “Existing/current legal procedures, methods and remedies for access to environmental justice”
- “EU acquis, methods and practices – EU Ombudsman”
- “Environmental case law in Hungary (and existing legislation)”
- “Methods and tools of effective complaints handling and practical issues of effective investigation”
- “Cooperation between the Ombudsman and civil society and the role of CSOs and accountability to the civil society”
- Debate
- Adoption of conclusions for drafting of position paper
In the last session within the workshop, conclusions were reached which the attendees agreed to be suggestions for inclusion in the position document, which will be prepared in the next period.
This activity is part of the project “GREEN COMPLAINT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE”, supported by the EU Civil Resilience Mechanism (CRM) within the framework of the EU funded project “Technical Assistance for improving the enabling environment for Civil Society Organisations in the Republic of North Macedonia”
