36. The Government of the Republic of Macedonia identified this problem in 2011, when it signed the
Zagreb Declaration on civil documentation and registration in the birth registers at the Conference
on Civil Documentation and Enrolment in Civil Records for the countries of South-Eastern Europe.
In accordance with the obligations undertaken by signing this declaration, Macedonia undertook,
among other things, to remove all obstacles to civil documentation and enrolment in civil records,
especially referring to the adoption and amendment of relevant laws, establishment of a national
coordination mechanism between the relevant institutions, raising awareness and similar
measures.
37. Following these commitments, the Government established a working group, coordinated by the
Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, and composed of representatives of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, the Ministry of Justice - the Directorate and representatives of NGOs that work on this
particular issue. In 2011, this working group launched an action for additional inscription of births
and personal names of persons whose births and personal names are not registered. As part of the
action, the group in 2011 identified about 600 people facing this problem. Unfortunately, despite
the efforts of the group, little significant progress has been made towards solving this problem.
Furthermore, the number of 600 unidentified individuals is not conclusive and does not fully reflect
reality on the ground, since the action for identifying non-registered persons was carried out in
Skopje and specific cities throughout Macedonia where there are Roma Information Centres. This
is also a dynamic process, since while resolving old cases, new cases are identified, especially in the
parts of the country that were not covered by the action. Further, babies are born every day into
the risk of statelessness due to the lack of documentation of their parents and barriers to
registration.
38. In April 2018, the Government demonstrated a greater interest in resolving this issue and a political
will to systematically approach the problem. A public call was announced inviting all persons that
are not registered in the birth register to apply for additional inscription, regardless of whether they
possess all the necessary documents to evidence and substantiate their application.
39. The public call will last until 30 September 2018. The first phase of the process is to identify all
persons facing this problem. These persons will be recorded in a separate database and thus the
country will finally have an official number of unregistered persons born and living on its territory.
The Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, gave an official statement that every person identified in
this action will receive a temporary identification number and the same can be used for acquiring
health and other social services until the person is properly registered in the system. After the civil
registration is done the person will have a permanent identification number, regulated status and
access to all rights guaranteed under the Constitution and the laws in the country.
40. The authorities in the second phase of the process aim to amend the legislation or to adopt new
legal mechanisms that will provide an appropriate legal solution for the issues at stake. Studying the
problem, experts, representatives of NGOs working on this issue, as well as some of the
administrative bodies that implement the registration in the civil records agreed that an urgent
amendment and addition to the Law on Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriage is needed in order
to provide a more sustainable method for prevention of the risk of statelessness. In addition to
amending this Law, there is an initiative for introduction of a special non-contentious procedure,
for determining the time and place of birth for children born at home and who cannot therefore be
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