The Belfast Agreement is a "remarkable example" of the importance of overcoming diversity and realising interdependence, former US president Bill Clinton said tonight.
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Mr Clinton, who received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Queen's University Belfast, said he was honoured to receive the citation for his work in the Northern Ireland peace process.
He urged people in Northern Ireland not to lose sight of the tremendous impact the agreement had had on other countries around the world.
"The Good Friday Accord, hammered out by the parties under the stern and steady hand of chancellor (George) Mitchell, was one of the most remarkable examples of a well thought out expression of interdependence by people who did not think they had much in common," he said during a ceremony in Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
"It calls for majority rule and minority rights for shared representation and for shared decision-making and shared accommodation as well as a new definition of the relationships between communities.
"It calls for a new relationship between north and south in this small and beautiful island. It calls for new relationships between east and west, between Northern Ireland and the rest of Great Britain.
"It is a statement of the fact of interdependence, the recognition that all people who live here count, everyone deserves a chance, deserves to be heard.
"It is that ethic of interdependence that the world at large so desperately needs to embrace and the people of Northern Ireland must work hard to perfect if this peace is to be complete."
Mr Clinton, who received the honorary degree from his long-time political colleague and former Northern Ireland talks chairman Senator George Mitchell, who is a chancellor at the university, said while the world was making great advances in technology and in medical science, it still needed to resolve the problem of fear of diversity.
The Good Friday Agreement showed how diversity could be accommodated and it also illustrated how a society could prosper by laying old enmities aside.
He said the agreement was an example to other trouble spots around the world.
The conflict in Northern Ireland was "at a human level what happened in Bosnia, Kosovo and the Balkans".
In the Middle East the rival sides were still going through the "agonising struggle" to find a formula similar to the Belfast Agreement.
"For all the intellectual advances the universities of the world can bring, for all the particular lessons the Irish still have to teach the rest of us. For all the interesting things the people of Northern Ireland can do, the most important thing is to help us solve history's oldest dilemma and one more time help us lift the spirit so our children can have the future of our dreams."
An emotional Mr Clinton received a standing ovation at the end of his speech lasting three minutes.