This report examines the impact of anti-Roma racism within the criminal justice system in North Macedonia. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), in partnership with Fair Trials, has produced a set of four country reports to break the silence over the mistreatment of Romani people, and to challenge governments’ continued denial of the racism that underpins disparities in criminal justice systems across Europe.

This report is one of a series of four investigating anti-Roma racism in the criminal justice systems of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, and North Macedonia, and produced in partnership with Fair Trials. The evidence from the reports and the ERRC’s caseload over twenty years strongly suggests that law enforcement agencies are institutionally racist, and there is official tolerance of a culture of impunity within law enforcement when it comes to mistreatment of Roma.

This report on Roma in the criminal justice system of Slovakia is one of four country reports produced by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in partnership with Fair Trials which examine the impact of anti-Roma racism and the extent to which institutional discrimination is embedded in the criminal justice systems.

This report aims to break the silence over racist policing through evidence gathered on police violence against Roma in six EU Member States. It reveals widespread institutional racism, brutality, and impunity amongst law enforcement concerning crimes against Roma. In each of the six countries, the report demonstrates the extent to which anti-Roma racism is endemic and systemic within the ranks of officers paid to ‘protect and serve’.

The ERRC commissioned the Association Initiative for Women’s rights from Suto Orizari to research domestic and gender biased violence against Romani women in North Macedonia since the adaption of the Istanbul Convention in 2017.

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in partnership with Fair Trials produced this new set of forthcoming reports to break the silence over the mistreatment of Roma, and to challenge governments’ continued denial of the racism that underpins disparities in criminal justice systems across Europe.