North Macedonia / Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination (Комисија за спречување и заштита од дискриминација) / No.0801-413

Country

North Macedonia

Title

North Macedonia / Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination (Комисија за спречување и заштита од дискриминација) / No.0801-413

View full Case

Year

2021

Decision/ruling/judgment date

Friday, March 04, 2022

Incident(s) concerned/related

Discrimination

Related Bias motivation

Religion

Groups affected

Muslims

Court/Body type

National Human Rights Body

Court/Body

Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination (Комисија за спречување и заштита од дискриминација)

Key facts of the case

A natural person published a public Facebook post and a youtube video ridiculing and realtivising a tragic bus accident which happened in Bulgaria in November 2021, where 45 people from North Macedonia lost their lives. In this publicly shared post, the person stated that there should not be a national day of mourning and flying of flags half-mast because the persons that lost their lives "are not ours". The post stated: "looking at the list of names...majority are not even Albanians (note: he uses a slur for Albanians), but Torbseh, meaning Macedonian Muslim... these people claim that they are Albanian in order to use framework benefits (note: 'framework benefits' means rights arising from the Ohrid Framework Agreement), to enjoy the position of a minority in the Republic of Macedonia even though they are Macedonian. Yes, they are of Islamic faith, but they are our brothers who decided to lie about their ethnic origin and to make a pact with the Albanians. Maybe now they will come to their sense that blood is thicker than water and that they should be with their tribe, with their people." The equality body opened the case ex officio.

Main reasoning/argumentation

The Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination (CPPD) seems to have based its main argument on two points. First, the fact that the person had reached a wide audience (60.000 people on Facebook and 2.700 people on Youtube). Second, the posts were created for more than one social media platform - Facebook and YouTube. The CPPD dealt with this case on an equal footing with other cases of spreading hate speech and harassing speech online.

Is the case related to the application of the Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia, the Racial Equality Directive?

Key issues (concepts, interpretations) clarified by the case

This case is another case in the line of those where the CPPD deals with hate speech via the harassment and discrimination provisions as a way to provide some justice to the persons being exposed to hate speech, due to the lack of an effective protection mechanism via the legally foreseen procedure i.e. via the public prosecutor and the courts.

Results (sanctions, outcome) and key consequences or implications of the case

The CPPD can only give recommendations. It recommended that the person (1) deletes the parts of the videos where the disputed content was presented, (2) appologises fo the published content, and (3) refrains from publishing such content in the future.

Key quotation in original language and its unofficial translation into English with reference details

„Со оглед на фактот што видеото било објавено на повеќе платформи, но и поради тоа што бил овозможен простор за коментирање на социјалните мрежи, лицето [name redacted] креирал простор за ширење на говор на омраза и вознемирувачки говор врз припадниците на горенаведените заедници.“ "Considering that the video was published on several platforms, and that the option to comment was open, the person [name redacted] created space for spreading hate speech and harassing speech towards the persons belonging to the aforemenetioned communitieis."

DISCLAIMERThe information presented here is collected under contract by the FRA's research network FRANET. The information and views contained do not necessarily reflect the views or the official position of the FRA.