The verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg are binding for the member states, including Greece and Bulgaria. However, the committee that controls whether verdicts are being carried out consists of government representatives and therefore its decisions are not objective enough, former Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg told Dnevnik. During his tenure, he requested of Greece and Bulgaria in writing to protect the rights of their Macedonian minorities.

“It has been a year since I left Strasbourg and I don’t know what the situation is now but I definitely think I raised to a higher level the problem with the minorities in both countries,” Hammarberg says.

He adds that he stressed in his reports that hate speech should be put an end to in these countries and that every minority had the right to self-identification.