SDSM – Social Democratic Union of Macedonia

Social Democratic Union of Macedonia by orientation is a social democratic party and part of the left political block of the Republic of Macedonia. The party was founded on 20 April 1991 in Skopje and succeeded the Union of Communists of Macedonia.

For the needs of this analysis, Ms. Mila Carovska, President of the Commission for labor and social policy of SDSM, answered the questionnaire submitted by the Association for Critical Approach to Gender and Sexuality Subversive Front from Skopje, where she stated the following:

• SDSM believes in and advocates for equal rights of LGBTI people in Macedonia, thus supporting legislative initiatives for amending the Law on Protection against Discrimination and the Criminal Code of the Republic of Macedonia where sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for discrimination and hate crime acts on the same grounds, but also public condemn of hate speech during organized LGBTI events would be introduced.
• This political party would support introduction of educational content related to LGBTI persons within the curricula in schools, as well as legislative initiatives to amend the relevant legislation so that transgender persons could cover the medical costs for changing the sex.
• However, SDSM haven’t had yet an articulated stance in terms of supporting a legislative initiative for amending the actual legislation concerning the legal recognition of families of same sex couples. Hence, this political party did not have a clear view neither upon the same sex partnership as an eventual option. The absence of discussion for a precise stance regarding the legislative initiatives for amending the legislation on sex change for transgender persons is evident, but also on amending the Law on biomedical assisted fertilization which would be applicable for LGBTI people too.

The vision of this political party for Macedonia is “Macedonia without discrimination”, in that sense the party claims the following: “The equality and prohibition of discrimination is a fundamental human right, but in the Republic of Macedonia that is not respected. The introduction of a system for a complete removal of all kinds of discrimination in the Republic of Macedonia would be one of the priorities of the new government. For that purpose we would reform the Commission for Protection against Discrimination which would become an independent, expert body with broad competences, composed of persons who are truly committed to protection of this human right. We would also conduct trainings of judges for recognizing discrimination with aim to secure efficient judicial protection against discrimination”.

The prepared program of SDSM and their coalition partners for the early parliamentary elections on 11 December 2016, titled as “Plan for Life in Macedonia“, the LGBTI persons are mentioned only in one place, that is the section 5. We are building one society, where they are pointing at the harmful policy of impatience which the government has led in the last years, resulting in outbursts of group and individual violence by extremist groups and individuals against the members of the LGBTI community.

As key future priorities in relation to the rule of law and respect of human rights and freedoms, SDSM has envisaged: ratification of the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, ratification of the Istanbul Convention, but also creation of systems for guaranteeing human rights, introduction of sexual education in the schools and support for amending the Law on Protection against Discrimination. From the presented data, we did not get information whether the Party has LGBTI persons who would be candidates in the next elections.

Do you count on the votes of LGBTI persons and why do you think they would support your political party and would vote for you?

Answer: The Social Democratic Union together with the LGBTI community aims to ensure that all citizens of Macedonia have equal benefit from the civil and human rights they deserve –since the struggle for equality affects all of us. In our election program we clearly stand for equality and prohibition of discrimination as fundamental human right which in the Republic of Macedonia is not respected. Establishing a system of complete removal of all forms of discrimination in the Republic of Macedonia will be one of the priorities of the new government. To this end, we will reform the Commission for Protection against Discrimination which will become an independent, expert body with broad competences, composed of persons who would be truly committed to protection of this human right. We will implement trainings for judges for recognizing discrimination in order to secure efficient judicial protection from discrimination. We will ratify Istanbul Convention which would establish mechanisms for protection against violence, where no discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation exists. These measures of the program are important and we are aware that even upon their implementation, the work would be far from complete. However, based on past experience we are aware that for real changes and progress, it is important to proceed “step by step, law by law, man by man“. We stand together with everyone who struggle for equality in the Macedonian society.

You can download the questionnaire here.