European Action Day for the Victims of Hate Crime

Today in the premises of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in the Republic of Macedonia, in the presence of a large number of journalists and cameramen, the European day of victims of hate crime was marked. The event consisted of a press conference for the media and a projection of a short film of the several attacks on the LGBTI Support Center, affiliate of the Helsinki Committee.

The executive director of the Helsinki Committee, Uranija Pirovska, stated that even after a month since the last attack on the LGBTI Center, MIA still has not identified the perpetrators despite the fact that there is video material of the attack. Pirovska informed about the submitted complaint to the Sector for Internal Control at the MIA against some of the police officers which were not committed to their work task when they were supposed to prevent the attack. There was also a discussion about the recent verdicts with which several members of the crowd that performed criminal acts during the protests from March 2^nd , 2013 were convicted to prison or were put on probation.

Koco Andonovski, program director of the LGBTI Support Center stated that hate speech, which is more and more present in our society, is one of the main causes for hate crimes. He reminded that in the Republic of Macedonia hate speech is present even in some state bodies and institutions, a phenomenon which gives the abusers an alibi for their attacks. Voislav Stojanovski, a legal advisor at the Helsinki Committee presented the portal www.zlostorstvaodomraza.com and stated that most of the crimes are committed due to religious affiliation and ethnicity and the perpetrators are both Albanians and Macedonians. In the end the following video was presented: