The Ohrid Framework Agreement and International Law: Twenty Years of Development

Abstract

The Balkans can be described as a laboratory of modernity, especially when it comes to the form of multicultural life in the communities. The modern nation states that formed from the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s were faced on the one hand with a “need” to establish a state for the majority dominant ethnic group, and on the other hand to reconcile the multicultural reality of their societies and accommodate for the rights of minorities. This paper will focus on the constitutional and legal implications that followed the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA). It will also give an overview of the contents of the OFA and subsequent legislation juxtaposing it to international standards prescribed by documents such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe. In the context of this legal analysis, the paper will examine the developing political environment through analysing certain dynamics in the political system focusing on parliament and political parties. It will also follow the discourse and popular support of the agreement and its effects on the internal and external stability of North Macedonia.