Regional Conference “Strengthening the cooperation between judges who work in field of law for refugees – asylum” (Western Balkans)

Regional Conference “Strengthening the cooperation between judges who work in field of law for refugees – asylum” (Western Balkans) April 10 to 12 in Skopje – Macedonia

The Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors of FYR-Macedonia with the support of TAIEX (EU funds), on April 10, 11 and 12, 2013 organized a regional conference on the topic “Asylum and Migration”.
The purpose of this conference was to exchange experiences through advanced knowledge of law enforcement and administrative authorities which decide in the first instance for the right of asylum and asylum-seekers.
At the conference, the European Asylum Support Office introduced the support for the implementation of the Common European System of Asylum and in addition to presentations from the EU experts, a case study was presented which was actively analyzed and discussed by all participants. Also a mock trial was held in which participants were divided into groups where each group played a role in the simulation.
This conference was of great importance for the enhancement of international judicial cooperation in the field of administration in order to increase the coordination between countries to improve the training curricula in this field, in order to have uniform practices in the implementation of national legislation and international standards in this field. 

Participants at this conference also presented general aspects of the right of refugees in their countries and issues in the field of training regarding asylum and migration. Also, participants worked in groups to identify the best practices and common needs for capacity building and strengthening of regional judicial cooperation in the field of the refugee law.
The conference was attended by representatives from the region (FYR-Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia), respectively judges working in the administrative field and representatives of judicial training academies and institutions of each country. Part of the conference was representatives of the Asylum Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, representatives of the Office of the Ombudsman, representatives of the UNHCR Office in Skopje etc. Participants and beneficiaries in this conference were also the delegation of the Republic of Kosovo composed of five judges from the administrative departments of the Court of Appeal and the Basic Court in Prishtina and one judicial Trainer from the Kosovo Judicial Institute.