This kind of hatred transforms the members of a minority, sooner or later, into a community of persecuted individuals. The qualitative index of democracy in a country is the nature of its treatment of minorities. Democracy can only exist where even the smallest ethnic group speaking a different tongue and following a different religion or sect has the constitutional right to use its own language, live according to its own culture and worship according to its own religion. If the aim of democracy is harmony in the whole population of a state, then the fundamental aspect of democracy is its capacity for tolerance. It may be that a dictatorship is capable of some grand achievements by sheer concentration of force, but the purpose of human existence is not the realization of grand schemes but life itself, individual life.
Every individual has a right to live, a fundamental human right.
Each individual has the right to a particular, self-chosen mode of life, so that the desired quality of life can be attained according to an individual's abilities and personal wishes. Europe is on the threshold of momentous changes. A Uni-ted Nations of Europe appears to be in the making. However, at the same time the present boundaries of states seem to be regarded as valid for all times. These two concepts are in conflict with each other, because either the existing division into sovereign states is perpetuated, and the significance of the borders thereby maintained or the present significance of state borders lessened by transforming them into purely administ-rative boundaries.