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North Macedonia
Summary of Domestic Prohibition
Slavery and slave trade
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Practices similar to slavery
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Servitude
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Forced or compulsory labour
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Human trafficking
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Forced marriage
Provisions related to forced marriage in North Macedonia are found in the 1992 Law on Family, which addresses marriage by force or mistake at Article 19.
Consent to marriage
Although legislation in North Macedonia does not recognise consent as a strict requirement of marriage, section 6 of the law on family 1992 recognises that marriage is based on consent. Section 19 further recognises that the consent of a party or prospective party to a marriage is invalidated where the person is subjected to coercion. Section 16 further recognises that the consent of a party or prospective party to a marriage is invalidated where the person is under the ahe of marital capacity.
Servile marriage
Provisions related to servile matrimonial transactions are found in the 1996 Criminal Code of North Macedonia, which prohibits practices similar to slavery and transporting for practices similar to slavery at Article 418. The penalty for practices similar to slavery is imprisonment of one to ten years. The penalty for transporting for practices similar to slavery is imprisonment of six months to five years. When the victim is a child, the penalties for practices similar to slavery and transporting for practices similar to slavery is imprisonment of at least five years.
Marriage trafficking
Provisions related to marriage trafficking in North Macedonia are found in the Criminal Code 1996, which prohibits trafficking for forced marriage at article 418-A(1), with a potential penalty of least 4 years of imprisonment. Article 418-D(1) also prohibits trafficking of forced marriage in minor, with a potential penalty of imprisonment of at least eight years. Legislation in North Macedonia also prohibits transporting for purpose of marriage in minors under article 418(2) of the Criminal Code 1996, with a potential penalty of imprisonment of six months to five years. Article 418(1) of the Criminal Code prohibits placing another person to slavery or in some similar relationship, while Article 418(2) of the Criminal Code prohibits transporting persons under slavery or similar relationship, with a potential penalty from one year to ten years. According to Article 418-A(2) and Article 418-D(4), taking away or destroying the personal identification card is punishable with a potential penalty of imprisonment of at last four years.
Minimum age for marriage
The minimum age for marriage in North Macedonia is 18, without differentiation by gender, as set out on Article 16 of the 1992 Law on Family. Where marriages are conducted involving a person below the minimum age, the marriage is annullable, as set out on Article 36 of the 1992 Law on Family. However, marriages below this age are permitted by the court if the person has reached the required bodily and mental maturity and after obtaining the opinion of a medica institution, as set out on as set out on Article 16 of the 1992 Law on Family. These exceptions are not differentiated by gender, and allow marriage as early as 16.
Region
Eastern Europe
Regional Court
European Court of Human Rights
Legal System
Civil
International Instruments
International Obligations
- Slavery
- Servitude
- Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery
- Forced Labour
- Human Trafficking
- Marriage Trafficking
Regional Organisations
- European Court of Human Rights
- Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
- Council of Europe
Legislative Provisions
REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA CRIMINAL CODE ENACTED: 23 1996
Article 139: Coercion:
(1) A person, who by force or with a serious threat forces another to commit, not to commit, or to endure something, shall be punished with a fine, or with imprisonment of up to one year.
(2) If the crime from item 1 is committed by an official person while performing his duty, he shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to five years.
(3) Prosecution is undertaken upon a private suit.
Article 141: Kidnapping:
(1) A person that commits a kidnapping of another, with the intention to force him or someone else to commit, not to commit or to endure something, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to ten years.
(2) A person that commits the crime from item 1 against a juvenile, or the person who in order to achieve the aim of the kidnapping from item 1 threatens to kill the kidnapped person, or to inflict grave body injury, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least three years.
(3) The offender of the crime from items 1 and 2, who of own volition frees the kidnapped person before the demand is realized because of which he committed the kidnapping, may be acquitted from punishment.
Article 196 Enabling a marriage that is not allowed
An official person who, when performing his official duty, enables a marriage even though he knew of legal obstacles because of which the marriage is prohibited or non-valid, shall be punished with a fine, or with imprisonment of up to three years.
Article 197 Extra-marital life with a juvenile
(1) An adult who lives in an extra-marital community with a juvenile who has reached the age of fourteen years, but not the age of sixteen, shall be punished with imprisonment of three months to three years.
(2) The punishment from item 1 shall apply also to a parent, adoptive parent, or guardian, who allows a juvenile who has reached the age of fourteen but not yet sixteen years, to live in an extra-marital community with another, or who induces him to this. (3) If the crime from item 2 is committed from self-interest, the offender shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years.
Article 418: Founding a slave relationship and transportation of persons in slavery
(1) A person who by violating the rules of international law places another in slavery or in some similar relationship, or keeps him under such relationship, buys him, sells him, hands him over to another, or mediates in the buying, selling or handing over of such a person, or instigates another to sell his freedom or the freedom of a person he is keeping or caring for, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to ten years.
(2) A person, who transports persons under a slavery or similar relationship from one country to another, shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to five years.
(3) A person, who commits the crime from items 1 and 2 against a juvenile, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least five years.
Article 418-a: Trafficking in Human Beings
(1) A person who by force, serious threat misleads or uses other forms of coercion, kidnapping, deceit and abuse of his/her own position or a position of pregnancy, weakness, physical or mental incapability of another person, or by giving or receiving money or other benefits in order to obtain agreement of a person that has control over other person or in any other manner, recruits, transports, transfers, buys, sells, harbors or accepts persons because of exploitation through prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, pornography, forced labor or servitude, slavery, forced marriages, forced fertilization, unlawful adoption, or similar relationship or illicit transplantation of human body parts, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least four years”.
(2) A person who destroys or takes a way an ID, passport or other documents for identification with aim to commit the crimes set out in paragraph 1 of this article shall be punished with at least 4 years of imprisonment.
(3) A person who uses or enables another person to use sexual services or another type of exploitation from persons for whom he knew or was obliged to know that they were victims of human trafficking shall be punished with imprisonment of 6 months up to 5 years.
(4) If the crime referred to in paragraphs (1), (2) and (3) of this article is committed by an official person while performing his/her duties, he/she shall be sentenced to imprisonment of at least eight years.
(5) The consent of the human trafficking victim in relation to the intent for exploitation, as referred to in paragraph (1), shall not bear any importance regarding the existence of the criminal offence as referred to in paragraph (1).
(6) If the action in this article is committed by a legal entity, it shall be fined.
(7) The real estate, the items and the means of transport used for committing the crime shall be confiscated.
Article 418-d: Trafficking in juveniles
(1) Any person who recruits, transports, transfers, buys, sells, harbours or accepts a juvenile for the purpose of exploitation by prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, pornography, forced labour or servitude, slavery, forced marriage, forced fertilization, illegal adoption or similar relationship, or illegal transplantation of human organs shall be sentenced to imprisonment of at least eight years.
(2) Any person who commits the crime as referred to in paragraph (1) by using force, serious threats, delusion, or other form of coercion, abduction, deception, or abuses his or her position or conditions of pregnancy, disability or physical or mental incapability of another person, or by giving or taking money or other benefits in order to get consent from a person who has control over another person, shall be sentenced to imprisonment of at least ten years.
(3) Any person who uses or enables another person to use sexual services or other type of exploitation of a juvenile person, for whom he or she knew or was obliged to know that the person is a victim of human trafficking, shall be sentenced to imprisonment of at least eight years.
(4) Any person who takes away or destroys a personal identification card, passport or other identification document that belongs to another person, for the purpose of committing the crime as referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2), shall be sentenced to imprisonment of at least four years.
(5) If the crime referred to in paragraphs (1), (2), (3) and (4) of this article is committed by an official person while performing his/her duties, he/she shall be sentenced to imprisonment of at least ten years.
(6) The consent of the juvenile person in relation to the activities as referred to in paragraph (1), shall bear no importance regarding the existence of the criminal offence as referred to in paragraph (1).
(7) If the crime referred to in this article has been committed by a legal entity, it shall be punished with a monetary fine.
(8) Any real estate and the items or transport vehicles used to commit the crime shall be seized.
LAW ON FAMILY 1992
Article 6
Marriage is a living community of a man and a woman regulated by law, by which the interests of the spouses, the family and the society are being realised.
The relationships between the spouses are based on the free decision of the husband and the wife to stipulate a marriage, on their equality, mutual respect and mutual assistance.
Article 10
1 The parental right shall cease with the majority of the child or in other manner prescribed by this law.
2 The majority shall be attained with completed 18 years of age when the major person acquires his/her working competence.
Art 15
A marriage may be stipulated by two persons of different genders with a freely expressed will before a competent authority in a manner stipulated by this law.
Article 16
1 A person who has not reached 18 years of age cannot stipulate a marriage.
2 The competent court, in a non-suit procedure, shall allow a person who has reached 16 years of age to stipulate a marriage if it has established that the person has reached the required bodily and mental maturity for the exercise of the rights and duties that come to happen in a marriage, and upon previously obtained opinion of a medical institution and afforded professional advice in the Centre for Social Work.
Article 19
The marriage shall not be valid when the consent for stipulating the marriage is given by force or by mistake.
Article 24
The marriage registrar shall ensure, based on the statement of the persons who would like to stipulate a marriage, and if required in a different manner, whether there are any legal constraints for the stipulation of the marriage.
The marriage registrar has the duty to decline the stipulation of the marriage by a decision if he determines that according to the law, the stipulation of the marriage is not permitted.
The persons who have submitted an application for stipulating of a marriage may lodge a complaint against the decision of paragraph 2 of this Article within a period of eight days following the day of receipt of the decision to the administrative authority competent for keeping the marriage books.
The person supervising the administrative authority competent for keeping the marriage books shall decide upon the complaint against the decision of paragraph 2 of this Article.
Article 35
The marriage shall be annulled if it has been determined that during its stipulation, a certain martial obstacle was present foreseen in Articles 16 to 22 of this law.
Article 36
Annulment of a marriage can be requested by one of the spouses, the public prosecutor, as well as a physical or legal entity that has legal interest in it, if it has not been otherwise determined by this law.
Annulment of a marriage stipulated under coercion can be requested only by the spouse, who had been coerced to stipulate the marriage. A complaint can be lodged within a time limit of one year, when the danger of execution of the coercion has stopped.
Annulment of a marriage stipulated by misbelief can be requested only by the spouse, who in misbelief had agreed to stipulate the marriage. A complaint can be lodged within a time limit of one year following the day of discovering the misbelief.
Article 38
Court charges for annulment of marriage, for reasons provided for in Articles 16-22 of this law, except in cases of coercion, misbelief, as well as minority, may be brought after the termination of the marriage.