Skopje, 16 January 2026 (MIA) - The parliamentary Committee on Political System and Inter-Community Relations will hold Friday a public debate on draft amendments to the Criminal Code, as part of its 51st session.

The draft amendments were proposed by MPs Bojan Stojanoski, Ljupcho Prendzov, Toni Jarevski, Brane Petrushevski, Dragana Bojkovska, Dafina Stojanoska, Igor Zdravkovski, Lidija Petkoska and Martin Stojanovski.

As outlined on Parliament’s website, the law is to ensure harmonization of the Criminal Code, correct shortcomings in existing provisions, and act in accordance with a Constitutional Court decision of 12 February 2025, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia No. 58/25. As noted, the proposed legislative amendments aim to enhance the provisions defining criminal acts and to tighten penal policy by increasing the current penalties for the criminal offenses abuse of official position and authority under Article 353 and criminal association under Article 394.

In this way, the identified weaknesses in the existing provisions on these criminal offenses would be addressed, particularly by tightening penal policy to restore its preventive and repressive function. At the same time, this approach would comply with the recommendations in the 2023 European Commission Report and reestablish a solid legal framework to strengthen the fight against high-level corruption.

The preparation of this draft law on amendments and supplements to the Criminal Code was based on a comparative analysis prepared by the Parliament.

“Abuses of privacy and gaps in the existing Criminal Code provisions, as observed in practice, have made it clear that a new criminal offence must be introduced: the criminalization of misuse of another person’s recordings, photographs, audio files, or documents with sexually explicit content,” as noted in the draft law amending the Criminal Code.

The proposed amendments to the Criminal Code include a provision on extended confiscation (Article 98-a) to extend its application to a wider range of criminal offences. The draft law also aligns the Criminal Code with the Istanbul Convention by redefining bodily injury under Article 130. In cases of gender-based violence, violence against women, domestic violence, hate crimes, or offenses against particularly vulnerable people (because of age, serious disabilities or pregnancy), prosecution will no longer require a proposal and will proceed automatically according to the Convention.

The draft law includes provisions aligning offenses against traffic safety and the confiscation of items with the package of draft laws linked to the ‘Safe City’ project.

Photo: MIA archive