For the first time in the history of the Republic of North Macedonia, yesterday on May 18th 2021, we created an appropriate environment and organized the first working POP-UP dinner; seated on the same table we had sex workers and high representatives from state institutions, who have the authority to take action in the area of improving the situation regarding human rights, the treatment of sex workers and sex work decriminalization in our country.
The participants at the dinner included Borche Bozhinov – President of STAR – the First Sex Workers’ Collective in the Balkans – who assumed the role of discussion moderator, three sex workers’ rights activists on the one hand, and the institutions’ representatives, on the other hand.
Vaska Bajramovska-Mustafa – Deputy Ombudsman;
Jasminka Angelova – State Secretary at the Ministry of Interior;
Aleksandar Vidinovski – Spokesperson and Special Public Relations Counselor at the Ministry of Justice; and
Svetlana Cvetkovska – Counselor on non-discrimination, protection and prevention against human trafficking at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
During the event the sex workers’ community representatives voiced the problems they are faced with on a day-to-day basis in front of the high representatives from the institutions, as well as their demands and the potential solutions that would contribute to improving the current situation in which sex workers live and work in the Republic of North Macedonia. These specific issues were addressed to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and the Ombudsman.
A very fruitful discussion was opened focusing on all problems that arise from sex work criminalization, the stigma and discrimination that sex workers have to fight against on a daily basis, as well as the failure of the protection mechanisms against discrimination and violence.
This type of working dinner was commended by the institutions’ representatives, considering that they had the opportunity to hear about the problems sex workers face firsthand. They also encouraged sex workers to keep demanding institutional support, keep fighting against violence and discrimination via institutionalized means; they emphasized the protection mechanisms, and committed themselves to put more efforts to improve the overall situation for sex workers within the domain of their authorization. Furthermore, during the dinner it was pointed out that there is a need for more events of this kind and more cooperation between the civil sector and the institutions in terms of finding common solutions that would result in equality and protection of sex workers’ rights.
We do commend the presence of these institutions’ representatives, which is an indicator that the institutions are open to have a discussion in this direction and seek creative solutions that would address the problems of this group of citizens; their active participation and genuine interest shown makes us very hopeful that such dialog and cooperation will be ongoing in the future.
The working POP-UP dinner is a creative tool that serves the purpose of pivoting the political and institutional attention towards a certain issue or cause in order to attain a social change which would be beneficial for citizens.
This event was held within the frames of the Sex Work Decriminalization in the Republic of North Macedonia process, led by the Sex Work Decriminalization Platform, which is represented by the Association for Support of Marginalized Workers STAR-STAR, HOPS – Healthy Options Skopje and the Coalition Margins, supported by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia. The event was held in accordance with all existing measures and recommendations for protection against COVID-19.
Photographs by Vancho Dzambaski.
