Topic
Minorities
Corruption
Judiciary
Countries
Bulgaria
Czech
Republic
Estonia
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia |
Monitoring
the Copenhagen political criteria in the CEE EU accession Countries
Minority Rights
Goal of the project
The project aims to produce
a report on minority rights in each of the ten countries. The purpose of
the country reports will be to give a thorough and in-depth profile of
the state of minority rights and discrimination, concentrating on the most
vulnerable minority group in each country. Reports will cover in
detail:
A The legal
framework addressing discrimination, minority rights and racially
motivated violence.
B The existence and competence
of institutions protecting and promoting the
rights of minorities, including the government, civil society and the media.
C The situation in practice,
in terms of law enforcement, public education, patterns of discrimination,
the existence of yardsticks, and instances of hate speech.
D EU policy
with regard to national minorities – (i) public statements and (ii) projects
initiated by the EU: amount of funding, objectives and impact.
This page gives the general
background to minority rights issues in the region and internationally.
The situation in each country is dealt with in considerably more detail
on the country minority pages at the top right of the page.
Legal Framework: International
instruments protecting minority rights
Sources for human rights
legal instruments:
Texts addressing specifically:
1) Minority rights:
2) Racial and ethnic discrimination:
Institutions promoting and protecting
minority rights
Country based institutions are
given in the country pages. The following is a list of regional and international
institutions, selected for the quality of information they provide:
1) Regional
2) Intergovernmental
UN
Council
of Europe
OSCE
- ODIHR Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the
OSCE.
OSCE High
Commissioner on National Minorities.
Commissioner
of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) on Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights, including the Rights of Persons belonging to Minorities
3) Non-governmental
4) Research centres:
[see also the list
at the MMCP web site]
-
Project
on Ethnic Relations (PER) - based in Princeton, with centres in Sofia,
Budapest, Krakow and Bucharest, PER is "dedicated to preventing ethnic
conflict in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet
Union"
-
Minorities
at Risk Project - "an independent, university-based research project
that monitors and analyzes the status and conflicts of politically-active
communal groups in countries with a population of at least 500,000"
-
Centre
for European Migration and Ethnic Studies (CEMES) - "specialises in
policy-relevant research, information and publishing on international migration,
ethnic relations and related topics in Western, Central and Eastern Europe."
Home to the Ethnobarometer
and the Journal of
Ethnic and Migration Studies.
-
European
Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (Ercomer) at Utrecht
University, features a virtual
library on migration and ethnic studies .
-
Centre
for the Study of Balkan Societies and Cultures (CSBSC)
-
Centre
for International Law on Immigration and Asylum at the University of
Konstanz
-
Centre
for Research on International Migration and Ethnic Relations at Stockholm
University.
-
European
Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), part funded by UNHCR, focusing
on asylum and the integration of refugees into Europe (position
paper - pdf)
Practice - reports and media
resources
Where possible, accounts of
the situation in each country are given on the country pages. The following
gathers sources of reports on Roma issues, general human rights reports
and focused media sources:
1) On the Roma in Europe
Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe
UN CERD
UN Commission on Human Rights
UN Sub-Commission
on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary
Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.
ERRC
publications on Roma are so many and diverse that the site is best
visited according to its own thematic breakdown:
CSCE
- The Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe
Project
on Ethnic Relations - PER and Roma - PER have recently put a large
amount of their research on the Internet. As well as the documents below,
country specific papers can be found in the relevant country pages.
Centre
of Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe - Southeast Europe
Society
for Threatened Peoples
European
Committee for Roma Emancipation (ECRE, but not to be confused with
the European Council on Refugees and Exiles)
Roma
Participation Program (RPP). An OSI initiative based in Budapest.
2) General Minority
and Human Rights Reports and Articles
United
Nations:
UN
Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD):
Documents submitted to the Commission
on Human Rights (UN doc. Series E/CN.4/) and to the General
Assembly (doc. Series A/) by the Sub-Commission
on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights among others (documents
relating to the coming World Conference against Racism are here):
-
Minority
Rights and the Prevention of Ethnic Conflicts, Paper prepared by Dr
Fernand de Varennes [pdf
and doc]
E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2000/CRP.3 (May 2000)
-
Commentary
to the declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic,
Religious and Linguistic Minorities, Working paper submitted by Asbjørn
Eide [pdf
and doc]
E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2000/WP.1 (April 2000)
-
Existence
and Recognition of Minorities, Working paper by Mr. José Bengoa
[pdf
and doc]
E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2000/WP.2 (April 2000)
-
Consultation
on the use of the Internet for the purpose of incitement to racial hatred,
racial propaganda and xenophobia, A/CONF.189/PC.1/5 (April 2000)
-
Report
of the Expert Seminar on Remedies available to the Victims of Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, and on Good National Practices,
A/CONF.189/PC.1/8 (April 2000)
-
Report
of the Expert Seminar on Racism, Refugees and Multi-Ethnic States,
Note by the Secretary General, A/CONF.189/PC.1/9, (March 2000)
-
Contemporary
Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance,
report by Mr. Glèlè-Ahanhanzo, Special Rapporteur, (Feb.
2000) [pdf
and doc]
E/CN.4/2000/16
-
Reports,
Studies and other documentation for the preparatory committee and the world
conference, the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights A/CONF.189/PC.1/13 (Feb. 2000) - Addendum:
Proposals for the work of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance: working paper A/CONF.189/PC.1/13/Add.1
(March 2000)
-
Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and All Forms of Discrimination,
Report of the Secretary General E/CN.4/2000/15 (Dec. 1999)
-
Report
of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
on its Fifty-First Session (August 1999) E/CN.4/2000/2 E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/54
(Nov. 1999)
European
Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI):
International
Helsinki Federation Reports
Council of Europe Council
of Ministers: Steering
Committee for Human Rights - Final Activity Report on "Dispersed Ethnic
Minorities"
Human
Rights Watch:
Amnesty
International:
Centre
for the Study of Balkan Cultures and Societies (CSBSC):
Centre
of Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe - Southeast Europe
International
Human Rights Law Group Bellagio Consultation on the UN World Conference
Against Racism, January 2000
Council
of Europe Human Rights Information bulletin (most recent: April
2000, pdf)
Human
Rights Internet (HRI): For the Record 1999 - United Nations Human Rights
System
3) Other sources
Media
News lists
-
MINELRES
mailing list archives - Minority Electronic Resources: a forum for
discussion on minorities in Central & Eastern Europe. For subscriptions
or inquiries: minelres@mailbox.riga.lv.
-
Balkan
Human Rights List - a distribution list with some 1000 scholars, activists,
government officials, students and others interested in human and minority
rights in Southeastern Europe (Balkans). The list is strictly moderated
and lays emphasis on reliable human rights news, documents and reports
on and from Southeastern Europe. Southeastern Europe is defined here as
including countries of the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania,
Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.
-
The
Multiethnic list - a partner list of COMIR,
the Consortium of Minority Resources. The list is an initiative of the
LGI
Managing Multiethnic
Communities Project, Open Society Institute. It is aimed at serving
as a clearing-house of information on news and events, publications, innovative
policy initiatives and research activities relevant to ethnic relations,
multicultural politics, conflict prevention in multiethnic communities
of Central and Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe and the Newly Independent
States.
-
Balkan
Academic News list - Balkan Academic News is a distribution list encompassing
over 500 scholars, activists, government officials, students and others
from or interested in Southeastern Europe. Balkan Academic News is intended
to serve as a network for the exchange of academic information on the Balkans.
The list is strictly moderated and lays emphasis on reliable academic news
on and from Southeastern Europe.
News on Roma and other minorities
Regional news
EU Policy on Minority Rights
Following the Treaty
of Amsterdam, 'the fight against discrimination' has moved up the EU
agenda. Article 12 (former Article 6) of the Treaty
Establishing the European Community outlaws discrimination on the grounds
of nationality. A new Article 13 in the same treaty goes much further in
reinforcing the guarantee of non-discrimination laid down in the Treaties
and extending it to other cases (see
implications of Article 13 here). Article 13 has resulted in proposals
for an Employment Directive and a Race Directive to combat discrimination,
and for an EU Action Programme against discrimination to run from 2001-2006.
The forthcoming acceptance of these proposals means that for the first
time a comprehensive set of anti-discrimination measures will apply across
the European Union, guaranteeing a minimum standard of legal protection
against discrimination. Each member state will be required to bring its
laws into line these new directives. In addition, the adoption of these
directives means that they become part of the acquis communautaire,
and therefore the accession countries too will be obliged to include the
provisions of the directives in their national legislation.
Article 13 of the
Treaty Establishing the European Community:
"Without prejudice to
the other provisions of this Treaty, and within the limits of the powers
conferred by it upon the Community, the Council, acting unanimously on
a proposal from the Commission, and after consulting the European Parliament,
may take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial
or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation." |
Texts relevant to Article
13: The only Council Directive resulting from Article 13 of the Treaty
Establishing the European Community online to date is the race
directive. The other two have not been adopted yet, but Commission
Proposals recommending these directives can be accessed on the Eur-Lex
EU legislation site.
Other relevant documents:
Working papers:
Minority Rights and Enlargement:
The 1997 Opinions
from the European Commission on the state of the preparedness of the candidate
countries for accession expressed reservations about the treatment of minorities
in many of the countries. Since then the Commission has become more vocal
and precise in its criticism noting, in particular, widespread discrimination
against the Roma. Improvement in this area was singled out as requiring
particular attention in some candidate countries in the 1999
Accession Partnerships.
A range of projects to support
minorities in the region, particularly the Roma, have been funded through
the Phare
Programme and through the European Initiative for Democratisation and
Human Rights (commonly known as the Democracy programme) run by DG External
Relations. As distinct from Phare funding, which goes to national governments,
EIDHR funding is available to NGOs. The EIDHR programme for CEE and former
Yugoslavia targets minority rights as one of its 8 objectives.
Since 1999 a greater number of projects relating to minorities have been
funded through the Phare National Programmes, i.e. in cooperation with
governments. We examine Phare in more detail on the EU
page. Phare projects in each country are listed under the topic pages
in that country.
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