New York, 21 September 2022 (MIA) – Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski delivered Wednesday remarks at the high-level meeting of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly to mark the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. “I am convinced that the promotion of one right, which does not endanger another right, can only benefit a country that is committed to peaceful development. Peace should never be seen as a final destination. Peace is a road with many turns, peace is obtained by walking together on this road in everyday life. It is a road that people who live in a settlement, in a community, in a municipality, in a state, should go together. It is a path that we have to move forward together, all of us here in this room, all of us around the world,” Kovachevski said in his remarks. “And I am saying this today because I am here on behalf of my homeland, the Republic of North Macedonia, which today is an example of a functional multiethnic state and represents a factor of stability in the Western Balkans, which is mostly due to the “One Society for All” concept towards which we strive for and implement without prejudice. This is a concept based on the principle of equal rights and duties for all citizens, a principle that the Government and the majority of the citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia support,” Kovachevski said. According to PM Kovachevski Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks and other citizens who live in the Republic of North Macedonia and who, according to our Constitution, have equal freedoms and rights, regardless of their nationality, ethnic, religious or other affiliation. “Our education system guarantees and offers education for people belonging to ethnic communities in their native language, at all levels of education, starting with primary. The adopted legal amendments and the implementation of the principle of equitable representation enabled the persons belonging to the ethnic communities to be included in all areas of social life, such as the local self-government, the Parliament, the justice system, as well as the bodies of the executive power. North Macedonia is a strong supporter of this UN Declaration which protects the basic principles for the protection of minorities. We believe that all democratic states should and must be guided by this Declaration,” Kovachevski added. He pointed out that the citizens of North Macedonia are fully aware of the fact that by allowing people belonging to other ethnic communities to use their language, which is different from Macedonian, to claim their rights to social services, to defend their rights in the courts using their native language, they have not lost anything, on the contrary, they have gained a lot. “With our policies for equality, we strengthened the connective tissue of our society and opened the way for discussion on issues that are of real importance to the citizens, their existence and standard of living, because that is the common language of all of us, of all our citizens. Given that we are firmly committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and pledge to ensure “no one will be left behind”, we have adopted a National Strategy that elaborates the concept of "One Society for All and Interculturalism" based on participatory democracy, which in turn, consolidates the processes for inclusiveness in the country,” Kovachevski added. “With this we sincerely show that the full enjoyment of human rights by minorities, in accordance with international law, can only be achieved through active policies and strategic plans that we develop in cooperation with the civil society sector,” he said. PM Kovachevski said that a new 2022-2026 National Equality and Non-Discrimination Strategy is currently being drafted. “We are working on the development of the strategy with the support of the OSCE, while the goal of the Strategy is to ensure improvement and promotion of the status of the most vulnerable groups. The rights of women belonging to minorities are crucial for all areas, starting with education through the inclusion of women in decision-making processes to their involvement in state administration bodies. Moreover, we have developed a new 2020-2030 Strategy for Inclusion of Roma in accordance with the EU Strategic Framework for Roma,” PM Kovachevski noted. He also underscored that North Macedonia implements a unique policy for the status of its minorities in the countries where they live, which is based on the implementation of the principles that are part of this UN Declaration and the strict implementation of the provisions the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. “Given the fact that we are a successful, functional multiethnic democratic state, a mini-Europe in the Balkans, we are ready to guarantee the promotion of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of all ethnic communities, while at the same time we protect state interests and develop the Republic of North Macedonia on the same level as the rest of the democratic world,” he said. “We are committed to contributing to better relations with our neighbours who are also ethnically diverse. The Open Balkan initiative including the countries from our neighbourhood, is currently the most inspiring idea for peace and economic development that will bring us closer to our ultimate strategic goal, the EU membership,” PM Kovachevski underlined. He noted that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have shown that, when it comes to human rights, the fight never ends, strong will and vigilance are needed to be preserved and promoted. “Commitment to human rights does not end at the borders of our community, our state, our region. It is universal. Thereby, I would like to welcome today's debate which supports our shared commitment to building fairer states and a fairer world,” PM Kovachevski said in his remarks. https://youtu.be/zt_L6Zcxu1w