Combating Low-Scale Corruption in North Macedonia

18-20 June 2024, Skopje, North Macedonia — The Academy for Judges and Prosecutors of North Macedonia and UNODC jointly conducted a comprehensive training workshop in Skopje, to address low-level corruption.

The workshop is part of the "Combating Low-Scale Corruption" project, which aims to establish and implement an Anti-corruption Training Program for judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers with the ultimate goal to bolster the capacity of North Macedonia practitioners to identify, investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate low-level corruption cases. Such exercise is expected to be a successful model to be replicated in the entire South- Eastern Europe region.

The training session, designed with a practical approach, provided future judges and prosecutors with a comprehensive set of skills. It covered a range of pertinent topics, including relevant national anti-corruption laws, regulations, best practices, innovative methods for detecting and investigating low-scale corruption, and effective prosecution strategies. This practical focus ensures that the participants are well-prepared to tackle real-world corruption cases.

"The perception of the public and the international community regarding corruption in our country, and the recommendations coming from all relevant bodies and institutions represented a strong motive for us as an institution to take additional steps within the framework of our professional activities and to contribute to the fight against petty corruption. The result of these efforts is the cooperation between the Academy and UNODC and this project," said the director of the Academy, prof. Dr. Natasha Gaber Damjanovska.

Notably, this collaborative initiative between the Academy and the UNODC Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe (ROSEE) aligns with the UNODC's Regional Programme for South-Eastern Europe (RPSEE), reinforcing broader efforts to combat corruption and asset recovery in the region and globally.

The training programme marks a significant advancement in preparing future judges and prosecutors to confront low-level corruption in North Macedonia. This initiative, funded by the United States,  Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, makes a meaningful contribution toward achieving SDG 16, specifically Target 16.5, which focuses on the substantial reduction of corruption and bribery in all forms.