To Written Question No. 344 on the rights of minorities

26 June 1992

Doc. 6641

R E P L Y

from the Committee of Ministers

to Written Question No. 344

by Mr WORMS

on the rights of minorities

I. Question (7 May 1992, Doc. 6613)

Mr WORMS,

1. Drawing attention to the Parliamentary Assembly's recommendations and its keen interest in the protection of the rights of minorities in Europe;

2. Having examined the various passages on the protection of minorities in the Statutory Report of the Committee of Ministers to the Parliamentary Assembly (Doc. 6602);

3. Fearing that the holding of a major CSCE conference will, once again, be used by the Council of Europe as an excuse for shelving the minorities' file;

To ask the Committee of Ministers:

i. Why the protection of the rights of minorities was not included in the agenda for the 90th session (7 May 1992) of the Committee of Ministers, as was apparently planned (see Statutory Report, page 19);

ii. What the outcome of the various meetings mentioned in the Statutory Report was;

iii. When it is planning to adopt the European Charter on regional or minority languages.

II. Reply by the Committee of Ministers: (25 June 1992)

1. The Committee of Ministers has discussed the situation of minorities on many occasions both at ministerial level and at the level of the Deputies, but never had the intention of including it, as a separate item, at the 90th Session of the Committee of Ministers (7 May 1992). However, at that meeting, the Committee of Ministers considered this situation in the context of the CSCE Helsinki Follow-up meeting and forthcoming Summit, giving rise to the following reference in the Final Communiqué: [in this context] "they attached great importance to

the normative work currently in progress in the Council of Europe on the protection of minorities". It also recalls its provisional reply, adopted in April 1992, to Recommendation 1177 (1992) on the rights of minorities.

2. With respect to other activities referred to the Statutory Report's section on "Legal and political aspects of the protection of minorities" (see paragraph 3.ii of Written Question No. 344), Recommendation No. R(92)10 on the implementation of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities was adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 21 May 1992. According to this Recommendation "member States should, as a matter of urgency, ensure that they implement all obligations and commitments in international instruments to persons belonging to national minorities and make use of the existing mechanisms which could alleviate problems facing persons belonging to national minorities". The Secretary General was instructed to forward the text of this Recommendation to the European States which are not members of the Council of Europe and which are candidates for accession to the Council or which have special guest status with the Parliamentary Assembly.

3. At the same meeting of the Ministers' Deputies, ad hoc terms of reference of the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) were adopted as follows: "To study the possibility, having in mind the principle of complementarity of the work of the Council of Europe and that of the CSCE, of formulating specific legal standards relating to the protection of national minorities in the spirit of the European Convention on Human Rights. Work carried out within the United Nations will also be taken into account.

The committee will carry out its work in the light of the Draft European Convention for the protection of minorities drawn up by the European Commission for Democracy through Law as well as the Austrian proposal for an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and other proposals for legal solutions".

4. The Deputies also agreed to study, at the appropriate time, the appropriate steps in order to insert pilot-projects into the ongoing and future activities of the Council of Europe, going beyond its work in the normative (standard-setting) field, being aimed, for example, at promoting mutual comprehension, tolerance and confidence-building between the minorities and the majority in a given situation. In this connection the Secretariat was instructed to provide the necessary assistance and facilities to the countries concerned for the implementation of these and future projects.

5. Concerning the question of the adoption of the European Charter on regional or minority languages (paragraph 3.iii of Written Question No. 344) the Ministers' Deputies decided at their present meeting:

-       that the legal form taken by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages will be that of a Convention;

-       to adopt the Convention entitled European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages;

-       to open the said Convention for signature and fixed the date of 2 October 1992, during the Assembly's autumn part-session, for this purpose.