The Ohrid Framework Agreement ( mk, Охридски рамковен договор, Ohridski ramkoven dogovor) was the peace deal signed by the government of the Republic of Macedonia (now

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

) and representatives of the Albanian minority on 13 August 2001. The agreement was signed by the country's four political parties after international mediators demanded their commitment to its ratification and implementation within a four-year period.

Provisions

The Ohrid Agreement created a framework for North Macedonia as a civic state, ending the

armed conflict War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regu ...

between the National Liberation Army and the security forces of Macedonia. It established basic principles of the state such as cessation of hostilities, voluntary disarmament of ethnic Albanian armed groups, government devolution, and the reform of minority political and cultural rights. The Agreement also included provisions for altering the official languages of the country, with any language spoken by more than 20% of the population becoming co-official with the Macedonian language at the municipal level. Only the

Albanian language Albanian (endonym: or ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europe ...

, with an approximate 25% of the population being speakers, currently qualifies as a co-official language under this criterion. The Agreement is an example of the adoption of

consociationalism Consociationalism ( ) is a form of democratic power sharing. Political scientists define a consociational state as one which has major internal divisions along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, but which remains stable due to consultation a ...

. According to the document, the English-language version is the only authentic version of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. The

Government of Macedonia Politics in North Macedonia occur within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Leg ...

had to adapt the

Constitution of Macedonia The Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia is a codified constitution outlining North Macedonia's system of government and basic human rights. It was adopted in the Parliament of the then-Republic of Macedonia on 17 November 1991. In 20 ...

in order to provide the Albanian minority living in Macedonia with fifteen basic rights. The lead negotiator, on the behalf of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

, was

François Léotard François Gerard Marie Léotard (; born 26 March 1942, in Cannes) is a retired French politician. Singer and actor Philippe Léotard (1940–2001) was his brother. Member of the Republican Party, the liberal-conservative component of the ...

. James W. Pardew represented the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Notes

External links

Ohrid Framework Agreement Authoritative English Text
hosted via

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

.
Ohrid Framework Agreement Text in MacedonianOhrid Framework Agreement Text in AlbanianFlorian Bieber et al., ''Power Sharing and the Implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement''
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung - Office Macedonia, Skopje, 2008.
Marija Risteska and Zhidas Daskalovski (eds), ''One decade after the Ohrid Framework Agreement: Lessons (to be) learned from the Macedonian experience''
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Center for research and policy making, 2011.
Blerim Reka (ed.), ''Ten years from the Ohrid Framework Agreement''
South East European University, Tetovo, 2011. 2001 insurgency in Macedonia Linguistic rights Minority rights Power sharing Treaties of North Macedonia Treaties concluded in 2001 Treaties entered into force in 2001 Peace treaties Ohrid August 2001 events in Europe {{NorthMacedonia-hist-stub