The Platform for Gender Equality, a network of associations championing gender equality, which organized the Feb. 3 protest in Skopje, said Wednesday another march will take place on March 8 to voice their demands and expectations from the Interior Ministry and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The Feb. 3 protest was held after it was revealed that the Public Room chat group on the encrypted platform Telegram was sharing photos and videos of women and girls, some underage. It had more than 7,000 members.
They demanded the authorities deliver concrete results in connection with the so called ‘Public Room’ case until March 8.
They said the organization expected the Interior Ministry to press criminal charges against the perpetrators for abuse of personal data, coercion into prostitution, safety endangerment and sharing of racist and xenophobic material online.
“We also expect law enforcement to launch a process to clean up its bodies from police officers who have attacked women. We expect the police to enforce a policy for efficient sanctioning of police officers who have infringed the rights of the victims of gender-based violence by being unprofessional or by failing to take measures,” Bojana Jovanovska of the Platform for Gender Equality told the news conference outside the Interior Ministry in Skopje.
The organization also called for the establishment of a body to serve as effective and independent mechanism for civic police control.
Speaking at the event, Jovanovska urged Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski to reform the police to become ‘a professional service for women, too, that provides effective protection of victims and punishment of perpetrators.’
“Even the best laws will be ineffective unless unprofessional conduct, based on personal opinion of gender stereotypes and prejudice, is eliminated,” she stressed, saying protests will be organized ‘until changes start happening.’
