At the beginning of 2024, Transparency International – Macedonia published the report: “National Integrity System Assessment North Macedonia”, which contains an analysis of the situation of the 15 pillars of the national integrity system in relation to corruption and the effectiveness of national efforts to deal with corruption.
The NIS Report was prepared during 2022 and 2023 within the project “EU4 Rule of Law: Citizen Engagement for Public Integrity (CEPI) in the Western Balkans and Turkey”, which was funded by the European Union and the Government of Switzerland.
Within this Report, for the first time, there is a gender sensitivity analysis with recommendations conducted for the 14 pillars which are very relevant for the country’s integrity system. The analysis was conducted according to a methodology prepared by Transparency International. Gender sensitivity was one of the indicators to analyse the work of the 14 out of 15 pillars on which overall assessment was conducted.
Political parties
Legal provisions exist and in practice political parties routinely follow them, supplemented by additional measures to enable and promote equal participation. There is a balance in the participation and conditions for women and men across the parties. However, leadership positions of parties are in the hands of men.
Score: 50/100
The gender balance in politics is regulated by the electoral code. At least 40 per cent of the candidates from the submitted list of candidates for members of parliament and members of council municipalities and the City of Skopje have to be of the under-represented sex. At least one out of every three places have to be reserved for the underrepresented sex, with at least one additional place out of every ten places. There are no legal provisions to ensure political parties face non-symbolic consequences for failing to implement parity mechanisms.
Recommendations:
The women unions in the political parties should be functional and work to ensure that there is gender balance in the parties’ bodies and committees up to the leadership levels and that there is continuous capacity building for women (and men) members of the parties at all levels.
The parties’ bodies and the women unions should lobby to introduce temporary special measure – TSMs (as agreed) to ensure that women have equal rights and opportunities to climb the leadership ladder and be appointed to leadership position(s) in the parties as men.
National Integrity System Assessment North Macedonia Gender Indicators Recommendations
