I am a woman with a physical disability from my birth, and I live in North Macedonia. As an economist and lawyer, I have more than 23 years of experience as a human right defender and advocate for policy and legislative reform. All my work is grounded in the vision of inclusive equality enshrined in the CRPD, advocating for:
- the elimination of intersectional discrimination;
- independent living and the empowerment of disability community;
- the achievement of inclusive equality;
- as well as participation and the inclusion of disability community as partners in all development and political processes.
I have been engaged professionally in promoting inclusive equality, making sure that the voices of my fellow citizens are heard, thus making an impact on the lives of people, especially girls and women across the disability spectrum, and contributing to a more effective implementation of the CRPD.
For 10 years, I was the technical coordinator of the Inter-Party Parliamentary lobby group for the rights of persons with disabilities. Currently, on an international level, I am a member of the Board of the European Network on Independent Living – ENIL. At the national level, I am the Chairperson of the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation Board, and a consultant to the national monitoring mechanisms in the country, to many organisations of persons with disabilities and different civil society organization and networks, service providers, international organizations and Embassies on regional national and local level helping them to mainstream CRPD within their programs and actions.
Expertise
Beside my experiences and knowledge of international, regional and national legislation, I have extensive experience and professional knowledge in the area of monitoring of laws, participation and inclusion, drafting and policy creation for disability and gender equality, minority rights, including gender responsive policy making and disability and gender budgeting.
My key areas of expertise as a human rights disability defender include advocacy, empowerment of rights holders and capacity building of organisations of persons with disabilities, persons with disabilities, duty barriers, research and policy making on advancing the rights of persons with disabilities and CRPD implementation at national, regional and international level. I have been engaged and worked with national, regional and international human rights mechanisms, submitted reports and supported implementation of their recommendations. On the other hand, my background as an economist comes with expertise in financial issues and advocating for an open and sustainable economy, advancing the rights of people with disabilities in the labour market, implementing disability budgeting at the national and local level by different actors, as well as regulating the relationships among different stakeholders and service providers following the CRPD principles.
Motivation
My motivation to become a member of the CRPD Committee is personal and professional.
Through of my life span I have faced and overcome with many challenges and stereotypes. Therefor personally, I am convinced that the only mechanism that can improve the respect of human rights for all of us is the CRPD. I want to see the CRPD Committee as a strong bastion for promoting and defending our individual and collective rights. Professionally, with my expertise on different level and from different angles, I can contribute to strengthening the legal quality of the Committee’s work, improving the coordination and networking between the Committee and different agencies and OPDs. With my involvement, I can contribute the commitments on disability inclusive equality and help ensure that they are translated into action throughout the world.
My priorities
As a member of the Committee, my priorities will be focus on
- the process of open discussion for preparation of several general guidelines with an accent on the access to justice, political participation, freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse, protecting the integrity of the person, Liberty of movement and nationality.
- the promotion of the CRPD and recognition of the CRPD Committee and its jurisprudence within the States and by the relevant stakeholders;
- Strengthening the cooperation and communication with other UN Committees to overcome the existing challenges considering the different CRPD interpretations
- empowering persons with disabilities and OPDs to be more proactive and encourage them to get meaningfully involved and engaged in the implementation and monitoring, stimulating them to be more proactive using the mechanism for submitting shadow reports and complaints (strategic litigation) and to be self-advocates for their rights.
Like the democracy is the only best solution that this world has, the CRPD is the best legal instrument for the promotion, respect and protection of the human rights of all, with or without disability.