The right to use the Albanian language as an official language in Macedonia: the new draft law, its content, advancement and comparison

The use of Albanian language as official language in Macedonia has been a challenge especially after the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) in 2001. Before 2001, Albanian language was defined as an official language and was used only in private matters as well in primary and secondary education. With the OFA and Constitutional changes in 2002, the language that is spoken by 20% of the population in the country was defined as an official language, but it’s application in practice was left to be regulated by e specific law. The law was adopted in 2008, 6 years after the constitutional changes. Now there is a new law proposed, which is supposed to regulate in more efficient way the use of Albanian language as official language in Macedonia. With this paper the authors are trying to answer some legal questions that has been debated in the country: firstly, is Albanian language official language and whether it is of a same level of application as Macedonian language; secondly, what are the novelties of the new draft law, and how the use of Albanian language is improved and advanced; thirdly, what are the practical challenges for the implementation of the new draft law. The authors of the paper will refer to international standards on use of languages as well as to relevant national legislation, as a tool to compare the new draft law in Macedonia