Skopje, 9 December 2025 (MIA) - Parliamentary Standing Inquiry Committee for the Protection of Civil Freedoms and Rights will hold a committee session Tuesday in response to a petition submitted by the parents bereaved by the March 16 fire in Kochani.

In the petition, amongst other things, the parents say to them this isn’t a political topic but a fight for justice for their children and to prevent similar tragedies in the future. “We want nothing more than what the Constitution and laws guarantee: accountability and respect of human right and human life, they say noting the institutions are obliged to act.”

"This is in the highest public interest," committee chairman Dimitar Apasiev told a press conference on November 27, adding it was apt today’s session would be held ahead of Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, considering that the bereaved parents in their petition had cited the right to life "as the highest right that was unprotected on the night of the tragedy."

According to Apasiev, the parliament speaker, deputy speakers, whips, the prime minister, the interior minister, the head of state as well as the petitioners have all been officially invited to take part in the session. 
This will be the first time the bereaved parents have been given a chance to speak before lawmakers, he said.

"An institutional barrier will be broken, which is that the parents of these children will finally have the right to address Parliament. This has been completely impossible for them so far," Apasiev said.

Last week, following a motion of the MPs from the parliamentary majority, including VMRO-DPMNE, ZNAM and Vlen, Parliament passed a decision approving the formation of an inquiry committee tasked with establishing the circumstances in which institutions acted involving accidents in the Republic of North Macedonia that will focus on the tragedies in Kochani, the Modular Hospital, Durmo Tours and Laskarci.

The trial for the nightclub fire in Kochani in March, which killed 63 people and left over 200 injured, began on November 19 in Skopje. 

MIA file photo