Skopje, 24 October 2023 (MIA) – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, through video, addressed a conference Tuesday held in The Hague marking the 30th anniversary since the first High Commissioner on National Minorities of the OSCE, Max van der Stoel, assumed his duties.

The goal of the conference, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is to look back at the mandate of the role of High Commissioner on National Minorities in the past three decades, as well as the future perspectives of the function in order to reinforce social cohesion, human and minority rights, as well as security interests in the current security and geopolitical context.

In his address, Osmani said the name of Max von der Stoel still resonates in North Macedonia, and the Macedonian citizens recognize the establishment of the South East European University in Tetovo as proof of his personal engagement and firm belief in multiethnicity and multilingual education.

He added that the post of High Commissioner on National Minorities is still continuing in the same direction, with a “sole mandate focused on silent, preventive diplomacy for building peaceful and sustainable societies through reinforced social and inter-ethnic cohesion, for the good of the people”.

“The motto of our Chairpersonship is ‘It’s About People” and it really is about people. It is about giving them a safe, secure and dignified life; through words, actions and agreements prepared precisely for that aim, as the High Commissioner on National Minorities demonstrated,” said Osmani.

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office said that over time, the High Commissioner on National Minorities has shown that OSCE as a whole can deal with complex issues and provide answers to contemporary issues and needs.

“That’s why I, and all of us, are investing so much in the OSCE. And precisely as individuals, in the example of Max von der Stoel, we can lead the institutions forward and fill our mandates with life, every day,” said the Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson, Bujar Osmani, as per the MFA’s press release.

Photo: MFA