GORDANA SILJANOVSKA-DAVKOVA, President of North Macedonia, recalled that the Prespa Agreement was signed and ratified in 2018, a process that was followed by an unsuccessful referendum and constitutional changes, following which her country, the Republic of Macedonia, legally became the Republic of North Macedonia.  Underscoring that “what is legal is not always just and legitimate”, she said that, in her country’s case, it has not acted in accordance with the right to self-determination.  “The line that divides the legal from the just is sometimes merely a crack, but other times it is a deep gap and even an abyss,” she said, adding that such abyss most often and most severely affects the small nations.  She also stressed that her country’s European Union membership — after 20 years of negotiations — resembles Mr. Godot, encouraged by international representatives with the refrain “just this one condition more”.

The stagnation of the European integration not only demotivates her country’s citizens and slows down reforms, but also destabilizes the region of South-East Europe, she observed.  “Enlargement must be tied to the meritocratic Copenhagen criteria and freed from the veto linked to the attempt to revise history and disrespect national and cultural identity,” she said, calling for fair unblocking of the negotiations for European Union membership and rejecting double standards.  “The European reunification is like an unfinished symphony without us,” she stated, noting that the full integration of the Balkans into the bloc will end the redrawing of borders and balkanization as a phenomenon.

In the most famous dialogue about power and justice, Thucydides recalls that “justice is a word that has value in disputes between men only when both sides are of equal strength; in other cases, the strong do what they can, and the weak what they must”.  However, she said, “the UN exists to ennoble the cruel Thucydian world by securing legal equality among nations, taming the power of the great and protecting small nations”.  The Organization exists to bridge — or at least narrow — the gap between the legal and the just.  While the UN has prevented another world war, it failed to prevent and preclude regional conflicts, including the war in Ukraine and the bloodshed in the Middle East. It has lifted millions of people from poverty but still fails to eradicate hunger.  With the right to self-determination, it accelerated the process of decolonization but failed to bridge the gap between the rich North and the poor South.

The International Court of Justice, she continued, is “the ultimate instance of justice between States”, yet its judgments are not always implemented or even treated as advice.  The world is going through a turbulent geopolitical, economic, scientific, technological and industrial transformation in which man has a huge impact on the planet.  “And instead of increased cooperation and action on pressing issues, the geopolitical rivalry and the new arms race are intensifying that are rapidly pushing us towards a state resembling a new, second cold war and Orwell’s world too,” she cautioned.  To overcome political marginalization, a new spirit of multilateralism is needed to alleviate geopolitical rivalries and increase cooperation among States.  “Only a fundamentally reformed United Nations can bridge the gap between the legal and the just and contribute to a truly transformed world in which no one is left behind and forgotten,” she declared.