Panel in organization of the Association for emancipation, solidarity and equality

The civic organizations can and should influence-a process of lobbying to the legal regulative
 

Presenters: Jasminka Frinsciќ, Dragi Zmijanac, Zvonko Savrevski, Radmila Sandeva
Chairperson: Vesna Jovanovska 

The last day of the NGO fair, on 5th December in Skopje Fair, amongst the other, was marked with the panel titled “The civic organizations can and should influence-a process of lobbying to the legal regulative”. The purpose of the panel was to open a discussion on the ways of reasoned giving information to those that carry information. According to the presenter, there are three questions that should be answered for a successful conduct of this procedure: which, how and where; also there was an emphasis on the collective engagement in this process.

             Jasminka Frinsciќ, the executive director of the association for emancipation, solidarity and equality (ESE), as a presenter, stated the successful example for the modification of the penal code for family violence: “We have been through three phases of lobbying for a modification of this law. The first consisted of building a strategy; the second of preparing concrete suggestions and the third was the lobbying itself. The first two phases lasted 2 years, and the third, the most difficult lasted 3 years. After this period the initiative of my association concluded successfully, and it serves as an example how a ministry, in this case the ministry of justice, should cooperate with the civic organizations”.

            Dragi Zmijanac, the executive director of the first children’ embassy   Medasi, presented his experience from the 13 years work in the civic sector and his experience of lobbying. “Through all these years we have had five attempts for lobbying, some of which were successful, some not and some partially successful. This is the way we got our experience, through practice. We conducted the last activity for lobbying with ESE. It was aimed towards the law for family. Despite our lobbying, the law was passed through an emergent procedure, contrary to our request to be passed through a normal procedure. But we have argued this law in front of the constitutional court and now we are waiting for the finish”, stated Dragi Zmijanec.

            Radmila Sandeva, from the association of women of Sveti Nikole, presented another successfully conducted lobbying, the one for obligatory gynecological checks for women in Macedonia: “ We have come to knowledge that very small number of women regularly visit gynecologist and we consider these visits very important and necessary, above all, for the ability of early detection of the breast and womb cancer. We have united with 16 women civic associations and in February this year we have influenced and gained what we have asked from the state. The state has formed a commission and at this moment it is working on preparing the program to carry out our activity”, added Radmila Sandeva.

In the last part, Zvonko Savrevski, the executive director of Polio plus (support group), has shown his successful example of forming a national lobby-group for protection of the rights of people with special needs, emphasizing on the mutual activity in a net of more civic associations which operate with people with special needs, and only confirming the conclusions of the previous presenters that lobbying in nets is most efficient.