“From Difference to Justice – Equal in the Right to Healthy and Sustainable Living Environment for All”

On 16th June 2025, the thematic forum “From Difference to Justice – Equal in the Right to Healthy and Sustainable Living Environment for All” organized by partner organizations Centre for Youth Activism KRIK, Center for Social Initiative HOPE and the Association of Social Workers of Macedonia took place at Europe House Skopje. The event was part of the project “Together for Greed Advocacy for Environment Protection (ZZZ)”, supported by the Swiss Government via Civica Mobilitas programme, and it stressed the importance of creating inclusive, just and youth-informed environmental policies.

The event was opened by the project coordinator Angela Zdravkovska, with a speech in which she presented concerning data from the latest national analysis. She stressed the main conclusions of the research, such as the information that more than 90% of the young people do not know when and how to report pollution, as well as the fact that 77.4% would volunteer for environment protection, if given the chance.

As a continuation of the forum, there was a panel discussion entitled “The Young, Climate Justice and Institutions”, moderated by Ana Zafirova. The panel connected the voices of the young people, the institutions and civic sector in order to open a dialogue on climate justice, environmental inequality and need of systemic inclusion of the young people in the environment policies.

Dushica Perishik, the Executive Director of ZELS, Andrijana Gjelevska, expert on action research and author of part of the national analysis, Filip Ivkovski, former President of the National Youth Council of Macedonia, Aleksandra Dimitrievska Avramovska, Head of the Department for Communal Inspection and Environment Inspection at the Municipality of Gazi Baba participated in the panel.

The event was the first official presentation of the document “From Difference to Justice – Equal in the Right to Healthy and Sustainable Living Environment for All”, which is a comprehensive national analysis implemented in the eight planning regions of the country. The analysis is a result of a comprehensive action research which included: a survey with more than 1,200 young people of all eight planning regions, 18 focus groups with 148 young participants, eight round tables with 128 participants – representatives of municipalities, youth councils, social services and CSOs, as well as 11 individual interviews with stakeholders.

The research has shown that climate and environmental problems do not concern everybody equally – the young of the Polog region, rural environments, Roma communities or the young people with disabilities are most often excluded from the processes, but most directly affected by the consequences. At the same time, they have the biggest will for engagement, if given the space and support.

ZZZ project aspires to fill in this emptiness, i.e. connect the ecological with social, youth with policy, and build a new model of green advocacy where the young people are creators, rather than audience only. The thematic forum was just the first step – it will be followed by activities, local workshops, advocacy initiatives and presentations at local level, in order to have a bigger visibility of the analysis, but also an encouragement for action.