The Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA or MZMP) from Skopje said the only hope for justice regarding the issue of the illegal landfill near Struga is now outside North Macedonia. Namely, judicial authorities have declared themselves incompetent for the nongovernmental organization’s 2021 lawsuit against local and state institutions. The landfill is jeopardizing a basic human right – to a healthy environment, the young lawyers pointed out.

North Macedonian environmental and civic activists have been trying to prove in court for years that the illegal landfill at the entrance of the town of Struga is poisoning people. It is the second-largest tourist center in the country, located on the shores of Lake Ohrid. Their struggle, which began in January 2021, has not yielded results.

The Macedonian Young Lawyers Association is suing the Municipality of Struga, the Public Utility Company of Struga, and the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, claiming they have done nothing to solve the serious issue. They demanded that the court bans further waste dumping and that the area be cleaned and revitalized. But instead, thousands of tons of various waste are piling up at the landfill every year, polluting the environment, air, and agricultural land, thus negatively affecting the health of citizens.

Both the Basic Court in Struga and the Appellate Court in nearby Bitola declared that the courts in the country do not have the authority to rule on the issue. It is the first such lawsuit in the country.

Courts protect government even amid human rights violations

Now the landfill issue is moving to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, after a failed attempt to prove that the landfill threatens a fundamental human right, to a healthy environment, but also the right to life, as the institutions did not take measures to prevent or reduce harmful consequences.

„I have an impression that Macedonian courts have a hard time getting out of this matrix, constantly protecting state and public authorities, even when we have a situation of violation of fundamental human rights and the constitutionally guaranteed right to a healthy environment,” Gligorie Kjatoski, from the civil initiative Enough is Enough, told Balkan Green Energy News. He is involved in the dispute as a lawyer.

The two courts in North Macedonia referred to the fact that there is not a single judgment yet against the government that they could apply

„If Strasbourg establishes a violation of one of the fundamental human rights, then that will be the basis for our request to repeat the procedure before the Macedonian courts,” Kjatoski said.

According to him, there are already examples when the European Court of Human Rights acknowledged its jurisdiction for similar cases.

„The practice in Strasbourg is very clear. That no one is responsible for an illegal landfill and enormous environmental pollution is not an option. During the procedure, we submitted several judgments to the European Court of Human Rights, where a violation was established in similar situations. The Appellate Court in Bitola and the court in Struga did not take into account the practice of the European Court, claiming there were no judgments against the Republic of Macedonia that could be directly applied. But I do not know how much that argument holds up,” Kjatoski added.

One 2022 judgment of Higher Court in Serbia is example of protection from illegal landfills

In neighboring Serbia, there are cases where the courts have ruled in favor of the citizens.

„The practice of the European Court of Human Rights is that resolving issues such as this one with the Struga landfill falls within the jurisdiction of regular courts. Unlike the domestic courts, which claim that civil courts do not have the jurisdiction to play a proactive role in protecting human rights in the context of protecting the environment from illegal landfills, courts in the region do rule in favor of citizens, Kjatoski stated. He pointed to a decision by the Higher Court in Belgrade in neighboring Serbia, from September 22, 2022.

Mayor of Struga Ramiz Merko from the Democratic Union for Integration, one of the parties representing the Albanian community in the country, has promised that the problem would be solved and the landfill moved to another location. The United States Department of State blacklisted him almost two years ago.

There are 54 illegal landfills in the Republic of North Macedonia

The Struga site is than 2,000 meters from Lake Ohrid, in a fertile agricultural plain. It covers an area the size of four football fields. According to estimates, more than 40,000 tons of waste are disposed of there annually.

The landfill was established in 2006, as a temporary solution. It is more than 18 meters high and about 10 meters deep.

It is located five hundred meters from the first houses in the city of Struga and the same distance from the Black Drim river. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the area a world natural and cultural heritage.

According to data from the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, there are 54 non-standard, illegal landfills in North Macedonia. The only one that meets such conditions is the Drisla near the capital Skopje.

The only solution to the problem is seen in the closure of local and construction of regional landfills, which public officials have been promising for years. But they cannot be built due to resistance from people residing around the proposed locations.

For the waste from Struga and several other settlements in the southwest and the Pelagonia area, there are plans to build a regional landfill in the small municipality of Novaci near Bitola.