On Friday, May 24, the first National Discussion Forum was held in Skopje as part of the regional project SPOT-ON! – State Responsibility for Prosecuting Human Trafficking OFF/ON!, jointly implemented by the ASTRA (Serbia), Vatra (Albania), and Open Gate – La Strada (North Macedonia).
The forum brought together more than 20 participants from the judiciary, prosecution, police, social protection system, civil society, and academia. Through dynamic exchanges of opinions and experiences, participants actively contributed to the forum’s goal – improving the status and protection of the rights of human trafficking victims during criminal proceedings.
Based on analyses of case law and case studies, key questions were raised:
- How are victims treated in legal proceedings?
- Why do their rights remain invisible?
- How can secondary victimization be prevented?
The discussion particularly focused on the lack of human resources in the judiciary and prosecution, as well as the following recommendations from the legal analysis:
- Urgent appointment of legal representatives for victims specialized in human trafficking;
- Protection of victims’ privacy through exclusion of the public from trials;
- Use of audiovisual tools during victim interviews;
- Enabling compensation awards within criminal proceedings;
- Strengthening the capacity of the State Compensation Commission;
- Imposing sentences that reflect the gravity of the crimes;
- Continuous training for judicial actors on a victim-centered approach.
The forum in Skopje was the first in a series of three planned under the SPOT-ON! project. The next forum will be held in Serbia, while the final event will take place in Albania. These three forums will allow partners to assess national and regional trends in the treatment of human trafficking victims, identify similarities and differences among countries, and contribute to establishing common standards in this field.
At the forum’s closing, Marija Todorovska, Project Manager at Open Gate, thanked the participants and emphasized:
“The legal analysis gave us important insights into where we currently stand as a country regarding the position of human trafficking victims and offered us guidance on what needs to be done to improve our practices. We learned a lot from our partners, just as they learned from us throughout this process. We all share the same goal, and only by working together can we achieve it.”
