Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, office Macedonia in cooperation with the Committee for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the Assembly of Republic of Macedonia organized a Public debate on the topic “Implementation of the Law for equal Opportunities for Women and Men”.

The debate was held on November 18th 2009 in the Macedonian Assembly, hall Boris Trajkovski starting from 10 o’clock.

The introductory remarks had been given by Ms. Liljana Popovska, MP and Chairperson of the Committee for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, who has stressed the need for assessment and overview of the Implementation of the Law for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. Mr. Xheljalj Bajrami, Minister for labour and social policy and Dr. Heinz Bongartz, Resident representative of FES Macedonia had welcomed the audience as well.

The debate was based on the conclusions from the session on the Committee for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (26.10.2009), as a follow up emerged contemplate after the 2009 EU progress report was received, focused on the gender equality and as a undertaken obligation from the Regional Conference of Women Parliamentarians in Sarajevo (10/2009) where Macedonian delegation was present.

The general aim of the debate was emphasized on the assessment of the implementation of the Law for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men and effectuation of the concept for equal gender representation in many areas: in the decision making processes, parliamentary sessions, labour market, judiciary, health, family violence and antidiscrimination, furthermore about the implementation of the Law from local and civil society perspective.

Ms. Petra Bläss Rafajlovski, senior consultant for FES and former deputy president of the German Bundestag underlined the importance of the parliamentary oversight over implementation of gender equality legislation and gender mainstreaming policy, throughout experiences in the processes of implementation of the gender policies in Germany. Her contribution was structured in the following areas: short remarks concerning EU accession process, general remarks concerning role and responsibility of the parliamentary committees, responsibility of the Parliamentarians, what means gender-sensitive law-making, forms and examples of possible MP gender-sensitive activities and equal gender representation of both genders in the decision-making processes.