North Macedonia, 2014

I am greatly honoured

to address this forum and to share with the General

Assembly the views of the Republic of Macedonia on

issues of global concern. In the current dynamic, hyper-

connected and changing world, one thing remains

constant — the need for greater predictability, a quality

on which peace, security and stability depend, as well

as global welfare and progress.

Humankind today faces many challenges, of which

two demand our full attention. The first one relates

to the natural world, and the second relates to the

international order. The root of the first challenge is the

human neglect of natural laws. The second challenge

arises from the violation of international law.

Guided by the idea that man is the measure of

all things, humankind has made a wrong calculation.

We are competing in a race for progress and new

discoveries that goes hand in hand with a race for the

unequal exploitation of resources — a race whose only

rule is that there are no rules. Everything is possible

and everything is allowed, including the pollution of

the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil that

produces our food.

As humankind, we were selfishly focused on

immediate needs and desires. We forget that natural

resources have been given to us in trust to preserve for

our children. In opposing nature, we are undermining

the foundations of our future. Our citizens, States and

economies have already begun to pay the price. We will

face a period of extreme weather conditions, when it

will become ever more likely that cities will be flooded,

rivers will dry up, crops will fail and the price of food

will increase.

Natural disasters at the global level serve as loud

alarms telling us that climate change is a new reality that

is changing our lives and the lives of future generations.

Recently our region, South-Eastern Europe, was hit by

such a disaster and reminded of that reality.

The Republic of Macedonia is the first country in

our region to have completed its third national report

under the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change. We have already defined the next

steps in all key sectors of the economy and society at

the national and local levels for disaster risk reduction

and climate change adaptation by promoting strategies

and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and

increase energy efficiency.

We welcome the initiative of the President of

the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session, His

Excellency Mr. Sam Kutesa, to take decisive and

concrete measures to remedy two of the world’s great

miseries: increased global poverty and diminished

access to basic resources, including clean water,

education, health care and a clean environment.

Here at the United Nations, we are all one family;

as a family, we should help each other to achieve the

Millennium Development Goals. But we must focus

on two things, that is, reducing global poverty and

ensuring sustainable development.

Next year will be one of great expectations

worldwide, including the expectation that a genuine

synergy involving all the major challenges will finally

be achieved, inter alia, climate change adaptation,

disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.

We expect the post-2015 development agenda to include

global, holistic, scientifically grounded, feasible and

legally binding goals aimed at ensuring a safer world

for our descendants. However, we should be aware that

the natural balance is disturbed and that many things

will therefore not be as before. We will need to learn to

live in a changed world.

Just as the challenge posed by nature is a result

of the human neglect of natural laws, the challenge

to the international order arises from the violation of

international law by some countries. I said before that

we are all one United Nations family. And in every

family there are rules of conduct and mutual respect.

Families without such rules are known as dysfunctional

families.

The Republic of Macedonia is strongly committed

to respecting the Charter of the United Nations, which

is one of the primary foundations of the purposes

and principles of international law. The rule of law is

incomplete and impossible without respect for human

rights. As a member of the Human Rights Council, the

Republic of Macedonia is committed, in spirit and with

determination, to protecting and promoting human

rights and the right to human dignity throughout the

world. The Republic of Macedonia has achieved the

highest standards of respect for human rights and the

rights of communities worldwide. That is possible

thanks to the Macedonian model of coexistence as a

model of integration without assimilation, which is

not based on tolerance alone, but rather on respect for

diversity.

In fact, the human rights and human dignity of

Macedonian citizens are being continually denied

by one Member of the United Nations family and a

member of NATO and the European Union. Identity

and language are inseparable parts of our personality,

of freedom of expression, of human rights. Those are

universally accepted principles that should never be

compromised. Respect for human rights, including

the rights to self-identification and human dignity,

represent the highest values of the United Nations and

are among the political criteria for the Republic of

Macedonia’s accession to the European Union.

The country that is blocking my country is

demanding the impossible, namely, that we give up the

Macedonian identity, thereby violating the fundamental

principles of the European Union in order to meet

conditions for membership in it. That would force my

country to violate a rule and betray the global family.

In 2008 at the NATO Summit in Bucharest,

basing its position on international law, my country

refused to change the identity of the Macedonian

people as a precondition for its already well-deserved

membership in NATO. On 17 November 2008, we

launched proceedings against our southern neighbour

under the auspices of the International Court of Justice,

again acting on the basis of international law. On

5 December 2011, on the basis of international law, the

International Court of Justice ruled that the obstruction

of the Republic of Macedonia’s integration in NATO

was illegal and that international commitments had

been violated. For years my country has tolerated

unprincipled and illegal blockades, and we have done

so because of international law — because we believe

that only international law can provide predictability

and certainty on behalf of world order.

By our example we have demonstrated in principle

how other countries should respect international law.

Even the International Court of Justice, in an almost

unanimous decision, concluded that we had acted

correctly. Despite that, the Republic of Macedonia

is ready for a mutually acceptable solution under the

framework provided by United Nations resolutions, the

Interim Accord and the judgment of the International

Court of Justice. The issue of identity has never been

part of that framework, because identity can neither be

discussed nor negotiated. I therefore urge the United

Nations and the competent authorities to become

engaged and to devote maximum attention to finding

mutually acceptable solutions within the framework of

international law.

Two years ago, I was at the General Assembly (see

A/67/PV.12) and remember well that the session was

preceded by the High-level Meeting on the Rule of

Law at the National and International Levels (see A/67/

PV.3). The General Assembly debated the Secretary-

General’s report (A/66/749) entitled “Delivering justice:

programme of action to strengthen the rule of law at

the national and international levels”. Two years have

passed, and we are still debating. We are still waiting

for rulings of the International Court of Justice to be

respected.

Our southern neighbour continues daily to violate

international law. It continues to violate the various

1993 United Nations resolutions on the subject, as

well as the 1995 Interim Accord. It also still ignores

the ruling of the highest legal authority in the world.

But that ruling does not apply only to the State that

blocks us, the ruling applies, erga omnes, to all member

States of the international organizations that still block

our membership. Every blockade in our European

and Euro-Atlantic integration process undermines the

international legal order. By tolerating the blockades,

a dangerous precedent is created, one of mutual

blocking and blackmailing that is motivated by narrow

national interests at the expense of the collective

interests of the European Union and NATO. Hence,

dysfunctional families are created that do not respect

the rules of conduct. Disrespect for the highest legal

authorities implies an erosion of the culture of respect

for international law in the world. Such an erosion

suspends the rule of law and leaves room for anarchy.

For years, we have pertinently pointed out that,

if someone pollutes the spring, then its flow and the

entire watershed will also be contaminated. If someone

questions basic human rights — the right to human

dignity and the right to self-identification — then

the rest of international law will also be challenged.

We have warned of the violation of international law

in the case of the Republic of Macedonia, but others

have rarely listened. Today, the price we pay is higher.

Everyone calls upon international law when others are

expected to respect it, but they ignore it when they

themselves must respect it. We do not want to follow

the example of those who break the law, because we are

aware of the consequences.

If we remove one link, one factor or one participant

from an ecosystem, that can cause instability and

unpredictability in its functioning. We live in a

world and an age of global interdependence, a

global ecosystem. When a State fails to comply with

international commitments, it encourages others to do

the same. Today we are witnessing the consequences

of such behaviour. Under the conditions of an impaired

international legal system, the world has been rapidly

sinking into the dark areas of anarchic international

relations.

The world order is in a latent crisis. The processes of

global interdependence and subnational fragmentation

have transformed our previous perceptions of the

world. In less than a decade, we have experienced two

major changes. The terrorist attacks of 11 September

2001 shook the global political and security order, and

the collapse of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008

struck the global economic order. The only remaining

order of the world we used to know is the international

legal order. However, the legal system has been

challenged as well.

The Republic of Macedonia sees its future in

NATO and the European Union. With its expansion

policy, the European Union has long served as a beacon

lighting the path for the States of East and South-East

Europe towards the more advanced European family.

We were recently informed that this beacon will go out

of service in the next five years. If it does, there will be

the danger of shipwreck. The region of South-Eastern

Europe remains vulnerable. I want to send a message

to partners in the European Union that by postponing

its enlargement, the EU has been creating a vacuum in

what has been historically the most porous geopolitical

space. Sooner or later, that vacuum will be filled.

That is why we need as soon as possible to integrate

all the Balkan countries within the European Union.

While the membership card is not that important for us,

the necessary membership criteria and standards are

important. In our case, the European Union’s beacon has

grown dim because of its toleration of a devaluation of

international law, human rights and the right to human

dignity, which provide the essential fuel that powers the

beacon. In losing its light, the European Union is losing

what has been most valuable — its power to motivate

States to strive for even higher values, standards and

criteria.

I also want to send a clear message to my region

that in these circumstances, now is the time for Balkan

countries to demonstrate maximum solidarity and

unity in achieving shared goals — cooperation on such

issues as integration, our economies, infrastructure,

energy, environmental protection, terrorism and the

suppression of organized crime. We must resist and

jointly address those shared challenges. In a world that

is rapidly changing, the need for greater predictability

in international relations remains. Only international

law can offer the reliability and predictability on which

world peace and the progress of our countries depend.

International law is the only barrier that protects us

from a disaster within the international order, and

international law has been constantly breached.

We are in this Hall today as the highest

representatives of our countries in the world family. I am

confident that most members of the General Assembly

agree with those conclusions. But the question is, how

many of us are willing to take action to change things.

I wish that we were not in a situation where we could

simply debate and draw conclusions over and over again.

It is high time that we start with actions. This is the last

call. We should ask ourselves whether the natural order

has an alternative and what that might be. Our failure to

comply with natural laws has led to accelerated climate

change — to more floods, earthquakes and fires. The

failure to comply with international law has contributed

to increased anarchy in international relations and

interventions against those who have flooded, burned

and destroyed the natural order today.

Not long ago, in August, the sixth United Nations

Alliance of Civilizations Forum, held in Bali, focused

on unity in diversity. While the world has been talking

about unity in diversity, radical extremists have become

united in their intentions to destroy those who differ. As

we speak, millions of faithful believers around the world

feel the pain caused by narrow-minded individuals and

groups imbued with religious fundamentalism. As we

speak, the systematic destruction of individuals and

communities is occurring. As we speak, hundreds of

thousands are being persecuted. Their homes have

been devastated, their temples destroyed and their past

erased, and their future is in question.

Recognizing that terrorism cannot and should not

be identified with any religion, nation or civilization,

we strongly condemn mass atrocities committed by

anyone anywhere. We commend yesterday’s debate in

the Security Council (see S/PV.7272). What we need

are urgent measures. The Republic of Macedonia has

already taken the first steps. Recently, we adopted

amendments to the criminal code regarding foreign

fighters, who are a real threat to the entire region.

Everything that is happening in the crisis hotspots

reflects on Europe, which has its own crisis hotspot

now in Ukraine.

It is sad that in the twenty-first century we have

witnessed tragedies in the Middle East and North

Africa. It is sad that this is happening in Europe, in

a year that has been declared an international year of

peace. It is obvious that, on the centenary of the First

World War, the lessons of the past have not yet been

learned.

The majority of victims of the Ukraine crisis are

innocent civilians. There have also been material losses.

The Republic of Macedonia supports all efforts aimed

at restoring peace and stability in that country. I am

convinced that political dialogue and diplomacy will

enable Ukraine to address the challenges and regain its

path towards a prosperous future for its citizens.

The world is facing serious challenges, including

natural disasters and political issues — both of which

mask double standards. Double standards generate

issues that introduce equations with many unknowns,

leading to a world where the only thing we are certain

of is that the future of our children is uncertain.

Only respect for international law will ensure greater

certainty, thereby helping to avoid storms in our

dynamic world.

The Republic of Macedonia supports the reform

of the Security Council as a significant part of the

overall reform of the United Nations. It is a complex

and sensitive process. We agree with the proposal to

negotiate the actual text. At the same time, we stress

that the text must receive maximum support from the

membership and ensure respect for international law

and international commitments and rules. Such reform

must provide greater predictability in the world. As

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the opening

of the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly,

“We shall have neither peace nor development without

respect for human rights and the rule of law” (A/67/PV.6,

p. 3). Only international law provides the opportunity

to solve the equation and thus to plan the future, based

on security, stability and peace.

Young people continue to be the main victims of

double standards and violations of the norms of national

and international law by prior and current generations,

as well as of natural disasters. They breathe the polluted

air, drink the polluted water and eat food grown in

contaminated soil. They will become the victims of

systems of injustice unless we do something to change

that.

In 2003, we initiated the first Forum of the Dialogue

among Civilizations, which was held in Ohrid under

the leadership of former President Trajkovski. The

Dialogue among Civilizations, both chronologically

and in essence, predated the United Nations Alliance

of Civilizations, which was formed in 2005 at the

initiative of the Governments of Spain and Turkey.

Indeed, only through dialogue will we join together in

an alliance of civilizations. The Brdo-Brijuni Process

Meeting was recently held with the participation of

the German Chancellor, Her Excellency Mrs. Merkel.

An entire chapter of the joint declaration is devoted

to youth. As President of the Republic of Macedonia,

it will be my honour to organize, together with the

Director-General of UNESCO, Ms. Irina Bokova, the

upcoming Dialogue among Civilizations in 2015, which

will be entirely dedicated to youth.

In the year when we are marking the centenary of

the First World War, we recall the positive experiences

of Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer in

establishing the Franco-German Youth Office in 1963.

That experience of cooperation among young people

should be applied in establishing an office for young

Europeans from all the countries of South-Eastern

Europe, transforming our region into a Europeanized

Balkans. We call on the leaders to devote greater time

and attention and invest in youth. We cannot change

our past, but we can, by changing the present, change

the past of the generations to come. That is why it is

necessary to educate young people about the importance

of dialogue, which involves respect and the acceptance

of diversity.