Distinguished United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Distinguished President of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honor for me, as President of the Republic of Macedonia, to address the United Nations Human Rights Council. Today, I stand here before you on behalf of Macedonian citizens, thanks to our brave ancestors who never gave up on their fight for liberty and justice for themselves and for their descendants. However, we are aware that their fight was part of a greater, human fight.

Human history is a story of the clash between justice and power. You have reason and conscience on one side, and naked force and selfish interests on the opposite side. The first undoubtedly mean that all people are born free and equal in terms of dignity and rights. The latter ignore and breach inherent and inalienable human rights and freedoms. The first ones consider man to be an aim in himself, whereas for the latter, man is just a means for achieving some other, selfish aims.

In spite of all challenges, people persist in their struggle for human rights. Seventy years ago, the realization of this noble mission was confided to the United Nations, and ten years ago, this Human Rights Council was created as the central body within the human rights system of the United Nations.

What led people to persist on this painful journey was their firm conviction that there is nothing more worthy than people in this world. They were assured that the most important trait of human nature was freedom taken as responsibility and capacity to make good decision for oneself and for others; for the present and for future generations.

Human rights were born from the very care for other people.
And still, the goal has not been achieved yet.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If at times, errors were made due to lack of knowledge, today, when news of violation of human rights throughout the world reach us with the speed of Internet, errors are mostly made due to the refusal to know. In this sense, the lack of knowledge regarding the human rights violations is nothing else but an elegant name for human indifference.

There is nothing more fatal to human rights and the right to human dignity but indifference wrapped up in double standards.

Prejudice, intolerance, hatred, conflicts, persecutions, repressions, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansings and genocides which have left a dark stain on the pages of human history point to the following. Let us add an eleventh commandment to the existing ten: Never be an indifferent and passive observer!
Today, in the 21st century, the developed world is being found guilty again for the sin of indifference.

We live in an era of human rights, and we are witnessing their violation.

We debate on the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, while individuals and groups with closed minds reach upon the freedom and lives of people whose only guilt is having a different conviction.

We are talking about unity in diversity, while radical extremists are united in their intention to destroy the diverse.

We are declaratively for the inalienable right to human dignity, and at the same time we allow the negation of the right to self-identification, without which there would be no integrity of the human personality or human dignity at all.

We refer to the International Charter on Human Rights, and yet we allow international law, UN resolutions and decisions of the International Court of Justice to be violated.

Today, while my country, the Republic of Macedonia, is a member of the Human Rights Council, my fellow citizens are facing a denial of their right to identity and language. It is the same, Macedonian language, in which I am addressing you now. These two individual rights are an inalienable part of human personality and freedom of expression. These two rights have never been subject to compromise by anyone.

Human rights and freedoms have been born from the care for other human beings, but have been endangered by the indifference towards humanity.

Excellencies,

The United Nations cannot and must not allow themselves to be indifferent towards the violation of human rights and the right to human dignity.

The Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for human rights have a key role to play in the fight between justice and power.

This Council is the conscience of the United Nations. This Council should open the doors in order to hear the voice of victims, of the disadvantaged and the persecuted all over the world. This Council should remain a forum open to civil society organizations whose observations and findings are the best indicator of where the priorities of the Council and of all other countries should be focused. It is only in this way that the Council will maintain its credibility for existence.

Also, it is necessary to provide strong support to the independence of the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Every attempt to undermine the independence of the High Commissioner and his Office would mean devaluation of the place and role of this central institution for human rights.

The world needs a Council and a High Commissioner that can act preventively, and not only reactively, and whose positions will have serious implications on all states that do not respect or only partially respect human rights. We appeal that state politics and power take their hands off this Council so that it can prevent, instead of take note post festum. This is the kind of High Commissioner and Human Rights Council that we support.

Distinguished attendees,

The system created seventy years ago to protect us from the indescribable sufferings of humanity, is today the subject to fundamental changes.

As opposed to those who believed that the world is becoming increasingly secularized, we see that the world is more and more de-secularized without being homogenized in the same time.

The number of countries having dominant religions and views has reduced, and almost all world religions and worldviews are present in almost every country. Just as pluralism needs greater freedom of thought, conscience and religion, this same freedom makes pluralism more probable.

In the center of this major transformation is the awakening of ethno-linguistic, religious and other identities. But the right to identity is above all a personal one, since identity represents a fundamental trait of every individual. Individuals are now in the center of the interest in providing progress of all human rights. The freedom of individuals and the enjoyment of all his rights open a space for collective realization of individual rights.

Consequently, human rights today are facing the following challenge: How to observe their universality without disturbing diversity.

Diversity is attacked by those who wish to achieve unity though uniformity – in other words, to achieve integration with assimilation. This tendency is an expression of arrogant egoism and fatal pride. It destroys every possibility for togetherness and realization of human rights, as well as of the identity rights of individuals.

Front pages are filled with news of hundreds of thousands of people persecuted, violently murdered or missing. We hear about religious extremism, indoctrination, radicalization and recruitment of young people at the battlefronts in the Middle East and North Africa. But we also hear about mockery of religion. Just as the secular world was shocked by the attacks against freedom of speech, the non-secular world was shocked by secular attacks against the freedom of religion. Media has a very important role in the area of human rights. However, we should be aware that the greatest enemy to freedom is unlimited freedom.

Distinguished attendees,

We agree that there are no ideal conditions when it comes to human rights in any country. Every country faces its own challenges that arise from its specificities. But the fundamental documents provide clear guidelines on how to face and overcome those challenges.

If, thus far, tolerance was sufficient, from now on we will need a higher standard that will enable a more successful tackling of challenges that arise with the awakening of identities.

The West developed the concept of tolerance. In Macedonia, on the other hand, we practice something that goes way beyond tolerance, and that is respect and acceptance of diversity. The difference between these two concepts is essential, because one tolerates what one must, and one respects what one wants. While tolerance is a one way, respect and acceptance are a two way process.

Witnessing the negative effects of integration with assimilation, we offer the positive example of our Macedonia model of integration without assimilation.

The Macedonian model of coexistence that we inherited from our ancestors and have been developing for the benefit of our descendants is based on the principles of openness and dialogue. Because those who communicate – integrate, and those who do not – become ghettoized. Our model is not an ideal one, but it does provide greater possibility for easier realization of individual and collective identity rights.

Dear friends,

If the world is becoming more, and not less religious, then the cure against religious violence cannot be sought in less, but more religion, but also more dialogue.

Therefore, the Republic of Macedonia is fully committed to intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

In 2003, we initiated the first Forum of the Dialogue among Civilizations as the forerunner of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. We plan to renew the Dialogue in cooperation with UNESCO and the European Union. We will also organize the 4th World Conference on Interreligious and Intercivilizational Dialogue. At the same time, all our efforts are motivated by the conviction that dialogue among various religions and views ends where their diversity begins. The aim of dialogue is not and must not be overcoming, but instead respecting and accepting diversity. This is why strongly support the work of the Alliance of Civilizations.

Excellencies,

"The Golden Age of the human race is not behind us, but before us; it lies in the perfection of the social order. Our ancestors never saw it; our children will one day arrive there; it is for us to clear the way."

This perfect social order that Saint Simon wrote about in 1814 is just another name for what we today call a just society, in which everyone should have equal rights based on two values: Peace, as care for the well-being and dignity of citizens; and truth, as a precondition for justice.

Without respect for human rights, there is no human dignity. Without respect of human dignity, there is no justice. Without respect of justice, there will be no peace among human beings and peoples. Therefore, human rights and the right to human dignity are indispensable for justice and peace.

Thank you.