On the International Day for the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we celebrate the contributions of indigenous peoples to the diversity and richness of civilizations and cultures and indeed to our common heritage. It is also a day where we take stock of the many achievements in the recognition and realisation of their rights and identify the actions that the world community still needs to take, so that human rights are universally applied without any discrimination.
The Heads of European Union in Albania and Kosovo, Romana Vlahutin and Nataliya Apostolova together with Deputy Prime Minister of Albania, Senida Mesi and Deputy Prime Minster of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj, inaugurated today the new Morina border crossing point between Albania and Kosovo.
Dear Deputy Prime Ministers, dear Nataliya, dear friends,
It is great to be together with you here today, in Morina, one of the border crossings with most dense traffic in the region that has finally gotten a long deserved upgrade. I want to thank everyone who helped us to arrive at this point, staff in our delegations, colleagues from police and customs in both Albania and Kosovo and in particular Minister of Interior of Albania, Minister Xhafaj, who has put his strong personal effort in getting this project finalised.
Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, relatives of missing persons,
For me this is a very important day which will give a new hope for healing the pain of many Albanians who lost their loved ones to the brutality of the Communist regime. Their loved ones who were imprisoned, tortured, humiliated and killed only because they wanted to live, in dignity, as free people, with dignity, in a democratic country.
On the occasion of the Day of International Criminal Justice the European Union reaffirms its commitment to the fight against impunity for the most serious crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.
