Today at the press conference the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in the Republic of Macedonia and the European Policy Institute – Skopje presented the opinion survey of the public administration in the Republic of Macedonia working on Chapter 23: judiciary, anticorruption and fundamental human rights, regarding the situation in Chapter 23.
See the public opinion survey on Chapter 23 for more details.
Judiciary
The results show that
54% of the respondents in the state administration believe that the situation in the judiciary in Macedonia
is bad, while only 11% consider it good. Only 7% of administrative officials believe that citizens trust the judicial system of the state, while 62% think that citizens do not trust the justice system.
In order to increase trust in the judicial system, more than half of the respondents consider it necessary to reduce the influence of the executive on the judiciary (55%), as well as to increase the independence and impartiality of the courts (53%).
Respondents with a working experience of 7-10 years considerably better assess the situation than those who have a working experience of 1-2 years. Additionally, the employees of the state administration of the Albanian ethnic community considerably evaluate higher the situation in comparison to the employees of the Macedonian community.
Anticorruption
6% of the respondents asses the general situation regarding the fight against corruption as bad, while 15% assess it as good. More than two-thirds (69%) of the state administration employees agree that the proposed EU recommendations to carry out reforms in the area of fighting corruption are appropriate and applicable. With this view, the employees of the state administration from the Albanian ethnic community considerably agree more in comparison to the employees from the Macedonian ethnic community.
Fundamental human rights
The general situation with human rights is assessed as good or very good by 28% of employees in the state administration, while as bad it is assessed roughly by 30%.
The opinion on the preparedness of the Republic of Macedonia to join the EU in terms of human rights is divided. Namely, just over a third (35%) of state administration employees believe that the Republic of Macedonia is ready to join the EU in terms of human rights, while approximately 30% think it is not prepared. Employees with over 15 years of work experience agree to a greater extent that the Republic of Macedonia is ready to join the EU in terms of human rights, compared to those who have 2-5 years of working experience.
Reform steps
The majority of the respondents (89%) believe that the reforms in the judicial system are important for the accession of the Republic of Macedonia in the EU. About 80% of state administration employees consider the role of the civil sector in the reforms to be important.
Approximately half of the respondents (47%) think that institutions have the capacity to implement reforms in the field of justice, fight against corruption and fundamental human rights. In addition, only 4% of state administration employees consider that institutions are completely independent of political parties in implementing the reforms.