E/C.12/MKD/CO/1
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32.
The Committee recommends that the State party intensify its efforts to combat
discrimination against Roma in all fields covered by the Covenant, urgently process pending
citizenship claims from Roma, Albanian and other minority applicants, and take immediate steps,
e.g. by removing administrative obstacles, to issue all Roma applicants with personal documents,
with a view to ensuring their equal access to social insurance, health care and other benefits.
33.
The Committee recommends that the State party adopt temporary special measures to
ensure that women, in particular Roma and other minority women as well as women living in
rural areas, have the same access to the regular labour market as men, including to senior
positions, and that the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value is implemented in
practice.
34.
The Committee recommends that the State party consider adopting a special law on
sexual harassment and include, in its next periodic report, detailed information on the number of
registered complaints about sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as on the measures taken
to investigate and pursue such complaints and their effectiveness.
35.
The Committee urges the State party to increase its efforts to combat unemployment
through specifically targeted measures, including programmes aimed at reducing unemployment
among women and disadvantaged and marginalized groups, and to gradually regularize the
situation of persons working in the informal sector. It requests the State party to include, in its
next periodic report, updated statistical data on unemployment, disaggregated by gender, age,
ethnic group, disability or other status and urban/rural population, as well as on the concrete
measures taken to create employment, and their effectiveness, including measures taken under
the National Action Plans on Employment, Gender Equality and Roma Employment and under
the Law on Employment of Disabled Persons.
36.
The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that a national minimum wage
for the private sector be established by law or by collective agreement. It further recommends
that the minimum wages for the private and public sectors be determined at a sufficient level to
provide workers with a decent standard of living for themselves and their families, in accordance
with article 7 (a) (ii) of the Covenant.
37.
The Committee recommends that the State party consider repealing any limitations on the
right to strike which are incompatible with article 8 of the Covenant, as well as the possibility for
employers to temporarily release potentially violent or disruptive workers during a strike.
38.
The Committee urges the State party to strengthen its efforts and use all available
resources to increase, to the extent possible, the amount of unemployment benefits, minimum
pensions, including disability pensions, and social assistance benefits, with a view to ensuring an
adequate standard of living for recipients of such pensions and benefits. It also recommends that
the State party consider repealing its existing legislation regarding excessive grounds for
excluding unemployed persons from receiving unemployment benefits.
39.
The Committee urges the State party to enact a specific law criminalizing domestic
violence; provide mandatory training for police, prosecutors, judges and staff of the Social Work
Centres on the application of provisions relating to domestic violence and civil restraining
orders; encourage reporting of domestic violence through enhanced victim assistance and