Documents: With tag organised crime

This Shadow Report streamlines in a coherent unity all findings, conclusions and recommendations deriving from monitoring the areas covered by Chapter 23 -Judiciary and Fundamental Rights. This is the fifth Shadow Report published by the European Policy Institute-Skopje (EPI) while taking into consideration the comments and opinions of the 23 Network members. The previous four Shadow Reports cover the period from October 2014 to July 2015, then the period from July 2015 to April 2016, the period from May 2016 to January 2018 and the period from June 2018 to March 2019.

• Towards the Civic Panopticon: Achieving Better Balance between Privacy Safeguarding and the Communication Monitoring Need • Who is the Employer: the Municipality or the Political Party? • Funding Sources, Obtained Funding Levels, and Impact Thereof upon the Judiciary • Will There Be “Whistleblowers” at Universities? Implications of the Law on Whistleblower Protection and Corruption Prevention in the Republic of Macedonia’s Higher Education System • Monitoring the Implementation of International Standards for Fair Trial at the Skopje I and Skopje II Primary Courts • Free Legal Aid – Challenges and Solutions • Accessibility and Inclusiveness of Courts in Macedonia • Analysis of the Law on Deciding and Determining the Amount of the Penalty • Analysis of the enactment of the Law on Deciding and Determining the Amount of the Penalty

This policy brief summarises the main findings and recommendations from the Shadow Report on Chapter 23 for the period from May 2016 to January 2018 prepared by the European Policy Institute-Skopje and the Helsinki Committee for the Human Rights. The reporting includes three distinct periods: - period prior to the early parliamentary elections on 11 December 2016, - transition period after the elections and before the formation of the new Government on 31 May 2017 and - period from the election of the new Government by the end of January 2018. The report presents the key developments in the analysed period and provides policy recommendations in each of the areas of Chapter 23. For a detailed analysis of all areas please see the Shadow Report.

Project “Network 23+” implemented by the European Policy Institute-Skopje and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights aims at providing structured contribution of the civil society in monitoring and assessing the policies included in Chapter 23 of the EU Acquis – Judiciary and Fundamental Rights. This report unifies all the findings, conclusions and recommendations that resulted from the monitoring of the areas structured in Chapter 23 – Judiciary and Fundamental Rights into a single coherent entirety. In fact, this is the third Shadow Report published by “Network 23”. The previous two cover the periods of October 2014-July 2015 and July 2015-April 2016. This report encompasses the period between the beginning of May 2016 and the end of January 2018. The report’s period has been extended in order to correspond to the new cycle of European Commission reports, which are to be released in April.

The analysis summarizes the data gathered from the monitoring of cases in 2016 related to organised crime and corruption before the Department for Organised Crime and Corruption, cases of public interest and a selected sample of other cases relating to corruption, thus achieving the aim of the project - to strengthen the independency, efficiency and objectivity of the Macedonian judiciary in the fight against corruption and organised crime and to contribute towards adequate implementation of the criminal - justice reforms with main focus on the new Criminal Procedure Code.