On 26 October 2009, H.E. Simone Filippini attended the launching of the national campaign for prevention of domestic violence. The Macedonian Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Mr. Xhelal Bajrami, the UN Resident Coordinator Mr. Sheldon Yett and the UNFPA National Coordinator Tatjana Šikoska also spoke at the event, which was also used to present the promotional materials for the campaign.

The Real Man Never Hits a Woman is the motto of the campaign, which includes three top sportsmen in Macedona – Kire Lazarov, one of the best handball players: Artim Shaqiri, a popular football player; and the boxer Primislav Dimovski. The campaign is intended to raise the awareness about the existence of the domestic violence in the country, but also to promote positive role models and in a way re-define the stereotypical view on male power and masculinity vs. violence. All the promotional materials, including printed materials, video and audio clips are produced in Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish and Roma languages.

“Violence is not juts a problem within the household, but also a social issue, related to social norms in the broader community.” Said Ambassador Filippini, adding that “We can not and should not look silently knowing that in our neighbor’s house a child, a wife, a mother is confronted with violence.”

The campaign is part of the joint programme of the United Nations ( www.un.org) and the Macedonia Ministry of Labour and Social Policy ( www.mtsp.gov.mk), which is financed by the Netherlands with a EUR 2 million grant for the period of 2008-2011.

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