ОКВИРНА КОНВЕНЦИЈА ЗА ЗАШТИТУ НАЦИОНАЛНИХ МАЊИНА - КАРАКТЕРИСТИКЕ И КАТАЛОГ ПРАВА
FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES

Summary/Abstract: After the Second World War, the predominant standpoint was that the protection of minorities can be effected within the framework of the general human rights protection. As this view proved to be incorrect, Europe (the continent where the status of national minorities is perceived as a very delicate matter) paid more attention to the international regulation of the status of national minorities. The initial dilemmas how to attend to this issue eventually resulted in a standpoint that separate agreement on this issue be adopted. In 1994, the Council of Europe adopted the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Beside the members of the Council of Europe, state parties to the Convention can be even those states which the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe invites to be members. The agreement primarily entails program-type provisions, leaving its implementation to the states' national legislations and appropriate government policies. A significant problem in the Framework Convention is a lack of a definition of a national minority, which makes the domain of personal jurisdiction more difficult to determine. Some states took advantage of this providing their own definitions of a national minority, which sometimes considerably restricts the scope of application of the Convention. As for the catalogue of rights comprised in the Convention, the agreement is rather comprehensive. The Convention, among other things, entails the following obligations of the state party in respect of the protection of national minority rights: the prohibition of discrimination and assimilation, the. guarantee of legal and actual equality, providing conditions for maintaining identity, encouraging mutual cooperation and tolerance, securing the freedom of association and freedom of expression, recognizing religious freedoms, enabling free access to media, promoting the use of the national minority language, the right to education, including (where possible) the education in the national minority language, maintaining the over-border co-operation, and promoting participation in the activities of non-governmental organizations.

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