The Ministry of Defence and the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia are working intensively on implementing gender perspectives and adequately addressing all issues related to gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace. To this end, Guidelines for Protection from Harassment in the Workplace were adopted, in line with NATO’s policy on prevention and response to sexual exploitation and abuse, and gender representatives were assigned to all sectors of the Ministry of Defence and organizational units of the Army.
A training session was held today at the Public Affairs Regional Center with all designated gender representatives on the Guidelines for Protection from Harassment in the Workplace and on other topics related to gender equality in the Ministry of Defence and the Army. Training with these people is planned to be carried out continuously, in several stages. The first phase of the training was conducted in several sessions by professional trainers from several institutions addressing this issue. Vesna Ivanovikj – Castared, Head of UN Women, delivered a lecture on “Basic Gender Expressions and Terminology and International Mechanisms”. In the second session, lecturers were Gjulten Mustafova and Antonio Mihajlov from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, who addressed the legal framework for protection against harassment and discrimination. Psychologist David Tasevski focused on the psychological consequences of harassment and made recommendations on how to handle certain situations. NATO Certified Gender Trainers from the Ministry of Defence – Lieutenant-Colonel Antoniela Stankovska-Budimir and Lieutenant-Colonel Ordance Todorov presented the Guidelines for the Protection from Harassment in the Workplace, exploring all the mechanisms and procedures available to employees in case they face this problem.
