From February 26th to April 5th, the 55th Session of the Human Rights Council was held in Geneva at the offices of the United Nations.
Elena Dimushevska, the Executive Director of the National Network participated as a panelist at this event and presented the contribution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights, with a focus on violence against women and children for North Macedonia. Namely, the Network’s team prepared a short contribution with the support of the European Policy Institute (EPI) Skopje, after which, at the invitation of Advocates for Human Rights, it was refined and expanded and submitted to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Dimushevska, who prepared the report, participated in several meetings with representatives of the UN where this report was presented. Namely, together with Advocates for Human Rights, Stephanie Futter-Orel from WAVE Network (Women against Violence in Europe), Susanna Pavlu, from the Mediterranean Institute for Gender Studies and young activists Elif Ozturk and Louise Rosenbaum, participated in several meetings and events, among which the 55th session of the Human Rights Council. The session was held exactly on March 8th, where the International Women’s Day was celebrated, supplemented by personal video messages from the representatives. They also participated in briefings with independent experts of the UN Human Rights Committee as well as the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, followed by meetings with delegates of the Human Rights Council as well as the Special Rapporteur on Migrants and the Working Group on Discrimination of women. Advocates for Human Rights and partners presented a gender analysis of human rights issues in Afghanistan, Cyprus, Eritrea, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Yemen.
