The right to self-identification is enshrined in international law (Framework Convention on National Minorities [FCNM], Art. 3).  This right has individual and collective dimensions.  Each person has the right to identify themselves with a minority group (or not), and each group has the right to decide whether it would like to preserve its own group identity; including customs, traditions, language and religion.  In its General Comment 23 on Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the United Nations Committee on Human Rights (UNCHR) stressed that the existence of a group is based on objective criteria coupled with the right to self-identification, and that it is not up to the state to decide whether a minority group exists.  Under the above cited precedent, it is incumbent on the United Nations and its members to recognize the displaced, violated, or tortured minority group which self-identifies as Macedonian; including those Macedonian groups living, residing, or desiring to return to their homes in the states of Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece.  Moreover, as established by the government of the United States of America vis-à-vis the U.N. Committee on Human Rights, worldwide diplomatic recognition of the state of Macedonia under its constitutional name “The Republic of Macedonia” is indispensable, just, and mandatory.

Stemming from systematic discrimination by the Albanian, Bulgarian, and Greek governments upon their own Macedonian minority, the United Macedonian Diaspora urges the International Community to put pressure upon these governments to acknowledge the existence of an ethnic Macedonian minority with its own culture, customs, traditions and language; to stop the policies of forced assimilation and denationalization of ethnic Macedonian minorities, as guaranteed by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Helsinki Agreement and the Vienna and Copenhagen documents of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The Macedonian minorities living in Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece must be granted the right to the repatriation and restitution of lands, territories, and resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have been confiscated, occupied, used or damaged without their free and informed consent in the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913.  Where this is not possible, the Macedonian minorities should have the right to just and fair compensation.  Unless otherwise freely agreed upon by the parties concerned, compensation shall take the form of lands, territories, and resources equal in quality, size, and legal status.

It is incumbent upon the European Union, under the Maastricht Treaty, for the European Community’s central institutions to act “ insofar as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States.”  Here, ending state-sponsored racial and religious discrimination by Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia “cannot be sufficiently achieved” without direct action by the European Community’s central institutions.  Therefore, the United Macedonian Diaspora calls upon the European Community to predicate and enforce the values of subsidiarity equally, and among all Member States, free of any racial, religious, or gender based discrimination; these include: the right of minority self-determination and accountability, minority political liberty, preservation of ethnic identity of all peoples, preservation of racial and religious diversity, and respect for all minority political groups.

The United Macedonian Diaspora urges the International Community to pressure the European Community, especially the governments of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia, along with their ecclesiastical authorities, to recognize the Macedonian Orthodox Church and Jewish-Macedonians in order to preserve the right to freedom of religion.  We encourage restoration of old, and the building of new, Macedonian Orthodox churches and Macedonian-Jewish synagogues within their countries, and allowing the use of the Macedonian language during worship.

In the interest of avoiding a repeat of the violence witnessed in Bosnia or Kosovo, immediate implementation of positive social and economic reforms banning respective racial, national origin, religious, or gender-based discrimination in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia remain fundamental to the stability of Europe.