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The Macedonian Human Rights Committee of Melbourne and Victoria Inc. (MHRCMV) was formed in 1984 in Melbourne, while its federal entity, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee Inc. (AMHRC) came into existence a few years later.

The role of both organisations is to coordinate the activities of the Macedonian human rights movement in Australia in pursuit of the organisation's principal goals which are as follows:

  • to support and adhere to the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms as set out in major international and European human rights covenants and protocols;
  • to provide information to Australian-Macedonians about human rights developments across the world;
  • to monitor the human rights situation as it effects ethnic Macedonians in all parts of ethnographic Macedonia and beyond;
  • to provide information, advice, assistance and support to individuals and organisations of ethnic Macedonians in all parts of ethnographic Macedonia and beyond, concerning their human rights and fundamental freedoms as Macedonians.

The movement at its inception, in keeping with the major preoccupation of its constituent members, focused primarily on the achievement of basic human rights for the ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece. Such a focus was considered appropriate as it was felt that ethnic Macedonians in Greece had been subjected to the most extreme measures of forced assimilation and Hellenisation in the wake of the tripartite division of Macedonia and the Macedonians between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia in 1913 and as such were in need of special attention in order to preserve their identity.

However, soon after its formation the movement's activities were reoriented to encompass more energetic support for the struggle for attainment of Macedonian human rights in Bulgaria and Albania, where the Macedonian population has been subjected to similar measures of denationalisation to those practised to this very day in Greece.

The AMHRC and the MHRCMV collaborate closely with the following Macedonian Human Rights Movements and Organizations:
  • Vinozhito - Rainbow Party, Republic of Greece.
  • O.M.O. "Ilinden" - P.I.R.I.N., Republic of Bulgaria.
  • "Prespa", "Bratstvo", "Mir", Republic of Albania.
  • Association of Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia in Bitola, Republic of Macedonia.
  • Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada.
The AMHRC, along with the Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada, played a major role in financing and providing delegates for the international Macedonian human rights delegations which visited the United Nations in Geneva, the European Parliament and Council of Europe in Strasbourg in 1989, attended the CSCE Human Dimension Conferences in Copenhagen and Moscow in 1990 and 1991 respectively, the Helsinki Follow-Up Conference in Helsinki in 1992 and the UN World Human Rights Conference which took place in Vienna in 1993. Following the Republic of Macedonia's declaration of independence, the Committee has played an active role in the international campaign for the recognition of the country as an independent state.
An explicit commitment was also made to defend and extend the rights of Macedonians within Australia's multicultural framework. Together with the Macedonian Teachers' Association of Victoria, the AMHRC successfully overturned the Victorian Government's decision of 21 July 1994 to rename the Macedonian language "Macedonian (Slavonic)". Following the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's determination of 8 September 2000 which found use of the term to be "unlawful", the Victorian government withdrew the offensive terminology and restored the term Macedonian to describe the Macedonian language.

Since its win against the Victorian State Government, the primary focus of the AMHRC and the MHRCMV has been a legal campaign to overturn the discriminatory and offensive decision of 14 March 1994 of the former ALP Federal Government to rename Macedonians in this country "Slav-Macedonians".

Both organisations are also committed to the continued lobbying of the Australian Federal Government to recognise the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name.

For more information on the AMHRC and the MHRMC do not hesitate to contact us.