Constitutional Court
of the Republic of North Macedonia
BZSP No. 4/2025
Skopje, 22.10.2025
Acting pursuant to Article 110 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia and Article 38 indent 3 and Article 73 indent 3 of the Act of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia (Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia No. 115/2024), the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia, composed of Darko Kostadinovski LLD, President of the Court, and Judges Naser Ajdari, Tatjana Vasić-Bozadžieva LLM, Jadranka Dabović-Anastasovska LLD, Osman Kadriu LLD, Dobrila Kacarska, Ana Pavlovska-Daneva LLD and Fatmir Skender LLM, at the session held on 22 October 2025, adopted the following
RESOLUTION
The request of Aleksandar Naskovski from Skopje for the protection of the freedoms and rights of the individual and the citizen under Article 110 indent 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, relating to the prohibition of discrimination on the ground of employment status, the protection of the right to freedom of expression, and the right to peaceful assembly and the expression of public protest, IS HEREBY DISMISSED.
Reasoning
I
Aleksandar Naskovski from Skopje submitted to the Constitutional Court a request for the protection of the freedoms and rights of the individual and the citizen under Article 110 indent 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, relating to the prohibition of discrimination on the ground of employment status, the protection of the right to freedom of expression, and the right to peaceful assembly and the expression of public protest.
According to the allegations set out in the request, Article 2 paragraph 4 of the Agreement on the Extension of the Fixed-Term Employment Contract of a professional soldier serving in the Army violates Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to peaceful assembly and the expression of public protest, and constitutes discrimination, thereby violating Article 9 of the Constitution.
This provision of the Agreement restricts freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly and the expression of public protest, and creates a basis for pressure, threats, discrimination and degradation on various grounds against professional soldiers by their superior officers.
Furthermore, the request states that professional soldiers are discriminated against on the ground of their employment relationship within the Ministry of Defence, since this discriminatory provision exists exclusively in the contracts of professional soldiers, unlike those of other employees of the Ministry, thereby creating inequality.
On the basis of all the above, the applicant requests that the Constitutional Court repeal Article 2 paragraph 4 of the contracts of professional soldiers as unconstitutional and discriminatory, and order the Ministry of Defence to conclude new contracts which will not contain such provisions.
Given that the execution of the contested individual acts or actions could result in irreversible or difficult-to-remedy consequences, the applicant proposes that, pending the adoption of a final decision, the Constitutional Court adopt a resolution suspending the execution of the act by which, in his view, his freedoms and rights have been violated.
II
At the session, the Court established that on 15 July 2024 the Ministry of Defence and Aleksandar Čedomir Naskovski, in his capacity as a professional soldier serving in the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia, concluded an Agreement on the Extension of the Fixed-Term Employment Contract of a Professional Soldier Serving in the Army, OU No. 04-1/995.
Article 2 paragraph 4 of the Agreement provides that any expression of dissatisfaction in the form of protest, personal public appearances by which the reputation of the Army and of the Republic of North Macedonia is undermined, as well as other forms contrary to the law and to the provisions of this voluntarily concluded agreement, shall be deemed a breach of the law and of this Agreement and shall constitute grounds for its termination by the Ministry of Defence.
III
Pursuant to Article 110 indent 3 of the Constitution, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia protects the freedoms and rights of the individual and the citizen relating to freedom of conviction, conscience, thought and the public expression of thought, political association and activity, and the prohibition of discrimination against citizens on grounds of sex, race, religious, national, social and political affiliation.
Article 53 paragraph 1 of the Act of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia provides that any natural or legal person who considers that a freedom or right established under Article 110 indent 3 of the Constitution has been violated by an individual act or action of a state authority, an authority of a unit of local self-government or another entity exercising public powers, may submit a request to the Constitutional Court for its protection.
According to Article 38 indent 3 of the Act of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Court shall dismiss the initiative where there are other procedural impediments to deciding on the initiative.
IV
The Court established that the act, the agreement relied upon by the applicant, does not constitute an individual act within the meaning of Article 53 paragraph 1 of the Act of the Constitutional Court. Specifically, it is an act in the form of a legal transaction, namely a contract in the field of employment relations, in which the consent and free will of two equal parties (a citizen and the Ministry) are expressed, with the Ministry acting in the capacity of a contracting party.
In the present case, the agreement concluded between the Ministry of Defence and the applicant does not create a legal relationship between two legal subjects in which one acts in a superior position as a public authority; rather, it is a contractual relationship in which the parties are equal and on an equal footing. Consequently, there is no act of public authority by which a violation of a right could have been committed, which is a necessary precondition for triggering constitutional-court protection. For these reasons, the Court found that the procedural conditions for adjudicating on the merits of the request have not been met.
With regard to the applicant’s request for the deletion of a contractual provision, the Court assessed that this constitutes a matter falling outside the scope of the constitutionally established competences of the Constitutional Court.
In proceedings for the protection of the freedoms and rights of the individual and the citizen under Article 110 indent 3 of the Constitution, the Court does not conduct an abstract review of constitutionality and legality, as this is the subject of a separate procedure. Moreover, the Agreement in question does not constitute a regulation whose constitutionality and legality may be reviewed by the Constitutional Court.
Having regard to all of the above, the Court assessed that the procedural prerequisites under Article 53 of the Constitutional Court Act for entering into a substantive determination of the request for the protection of freedoms and right have not been fulfilled. For these reasons, pursuant to Article 38 indent 3, in conjunction with Article 70 of the Act, the Court found that the conditions for dismissing the request have been met.
V
On the basis of the foregoing, the Court decided as in the operative part of this Resolution.
PRESIDENT
of the Constitutional Court
of the Republic of North Macedonia
Darko Kostadinovski LLD