Towards Effective Participation of Minorities

Proposals of the ECMI Seminar "Towards Effective Participation of Minorities"

Flensburg, Germany, 30 April to 2 May 1999

The European Centre for Minority Issues organised an international expert seminar "Towards Effective Participation of Minorities" in Flensburg, Germany, from 30 April to 2 May 1999. The seminar was organised following a recommendation of the United Nations Working Group on Minorities to hold regional seminars on themes of particular concern as a means to discuss the issues involved in greater detail.

The overall objective of the seminar was to arrive at concrete proposals on ways in which Governments could give effect to Articles 2.2 and 2.3 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, Article 15 of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and Article 35 of the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE in the area of the effective participation by persons belonging to minorities in public life as well as in decisions that concern them, both at the national and at regional level. The themes identified for the seminar focussed on two major elements: firstly, the various mechanisms within States to enable political participation of minorities; secondly, the non-institutional conditions which provide an enabling environment for minorities to participate effectively.

• The participants agreed that the effective participation of minorities served the following purposes:
• integrating all groups as an essential component of peaceful, democratic and pluralist societies;
• channelling the needs and aspirations of minority groups to maintain and develop their own identity and characteristics;
• ensuring equality between all individuals and groups within society thereby guaranteeing access to resources on a basis of non-discrimination;
• ensuring harmony and stability within and beyond State borders, in particular between kin States;
• contributing to the respect for, and promotion of, human rights standards contained in regional and international instruments, especially on the basis of non-discrimination;
• providing for channels of consultation between minorities and Government, and means of dispute resolution;
• sustaining diversity as a condition for dynamic stability of society.

The participants hereby request the United Nations Working Group on Minorities to recommend that States should promote minority rights through providing the possibility of effective participation of minorities. To this end, the participants make the following proposals to the Working Group.

PROPOSALS

In order to meet the needs and aspirations of minorities as well as to manage ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural diversity, it is necessary to involve minorities at the international, national and local levels in the suggestion, formulation, adoption, implementation, and monitoring of standards and policies on the protection and promotion of their rights.

Effective participation is a necessary component of good governance, including accountability by the government to all groups in society on the basis of non-discrimination and equal rights.

The variety of needs and aspirations of different types of minority groups (such as dispersed versus compactly settled groups or small minorities versus large minorities), requires identification and adoption of the most appropriate ways to create conditions for effective participation in each case.

Effective participation is only possible in a context of general respect for universal human rights, including cultural, social and economic rights, as necessary conditions for the effective enjoyment of other rights.

REPRESENTATION IN LEGISLATIVE, ADMINISTRATIVE AND
ADVISORY BODIES

• States should provide mechanisms to increase the opportunities for minorities to make themselves heard concerning laws and policies affecting them, and to participate more generally in public life. Such mechanisms may, as appropriate in the specific circumstances, include: proportional representation, guaranteed minority seats, reduced voting thresholds, minority legislative veto, administrative, advisory and consultative bodies for minorities.
• States should consider the creation of specialised administrative bodies at the national, regional and local levels dealing with minorities, in which minorities enjoy effective representation to assume responsibility for specific government programmes aimed at the respective minority communities.
• States should take steps to ensure equal access to public sector employment across the various ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural communities.
• States should establish advisory or consultative bodies within appropriate institutional frameworks. The composition of these bodies should contribute to a more effective communication of minority interests and to minorities' ability to influence the formation of public opinion.
• Advisory councils and minority roundtables should be attributed more political weight and should be effectively consulted on issues concerning the minority population. Governments should consider giving the councils powers of legislative initiative and suspensive veto over legislation affecting minority communities.
• Minority organisations should have the opportunity to participate in the monitoring of international human rights treaties, either by contributing to the drafting of State reports or by submitting "shadow" reports.
• States should allow appropriate involvement of minority representatives in overseeing the implementation of bilateral treaties of concern to minorities.
• States should consider effective measures for the inclusion of minority members in national delegations to international and supranational bodies.

CITIZENSHIP ISSUES AND ELECTORAL RIGHTS

• Citizenship remains an important pre-condition for full and effective participation. Barriers to the acquisition of citizenship for members of minorities should be reduced in order to comply with the spirit of human rights with particular attention to the principle of non-discrimination. Forms of participation for non-citizens should also be developed. They may include local voting rights, inclusion of elected non-citizen observers in municipal and regional bodies as applicable, as well as in National Parliament.
• Delimitation of electoral borders should aim to ensure fair representation of minorities.
• The choice of electoral system as well as electoral laws is crucial to the parliamentary and municipal representation of minorities in elected bodies. Laws regulating the formation and activity of political parties should comply with the basic principles of freedom of association as set out in international human rights instruments.

PARTICIPATION AT DECISION-MAKING LEVELS

• Decision-makers at all levels should proactively consult and seek input from all those to be affected by public decisions, including those groups not actively bringing claims, and creat opportunities for effective contribution from such groups.
• To accomodate as much as possible the diversity of society, in particular the diversity of needs and aspirations of minorities, jurisdiction over different subject matters should be divided, either territorially or non-territorially.
• Decentralisation of powers based on the principle of subsidiarity, whether called self-government or devolved power, and whether the arrangements are symmetrical or asymmetrical, would improve the chances for minorities to exercise authority over matters affecting them. In order to compensate the effects of asymmetrical devolution, specific measures for opportunity harmonisation should be promoted.
• Governments should consider the decentralisation of respective administrative competencies of special concern to the minorities, as well as the financing of these decentralised activities on a self-governing basis.
• Public institutions should not be based on ethnic criteria. Local governments should recognise the role of multiple identities in contributing to open ethnic communities and in establishing useful distinctions between institutional structures and cultural identities.
• Certain forms of state organisation such as federal states and regionalisation may contribute to accomodation between minority communities and governments, and can also be the expression of an institutionalised dialogue. A federal state structure allows for a certain degree of legislative, executive, judicial and financial autonomy, which enables minorities to participate directly in the exercise of power.
• Nothing in this section should be understood as detracting from the ultimate responsibility of national governments to meet their international obligations to ensure human rights for all.

FURTHER CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION

• Non-institutional conditions for the effectiveness of measures aiming at improving the participation of minorities are crucial to the success of these measures. Treatment of these non-institutional dimensions requires awareness of analytical distinctions that should therefore be taken into account.
• In addition, the range of measures put forward in particular in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the Hague Recommendations regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities and Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities should be taken into account.
• Minority participation can only be effective if the minorities
• are fully aware of their rights, obligations and opportunities. Authorities must aim at ensuring that members of minorities are made aware of their rights and opportunities, not only of their obligations.
• States should take steps to ensure adequate measures in the instruction, use and protection of minority languages. Linguistic democracy must be recognised as an absolute precondition of political participation.
• States should ensure that members of minorities have access to education in their own language at all levels where there is sufficient demand, as well as education in the official or State language(s).
• States should further the visibility and use of the minority language in all domains as an effective way of providing minorities with favourable conditions for developing a sense of safe identity and to assert their social position as open communities.
• States should ensure that educational curricula reflect the culture of minorities and majorities. Minorities should also be involved in the development of educational curricula, as well as in the formulation of education policy.
• In negotiation and policy-making processes, a clear distinction should always be maintained between civil society, the political system and the State, recognising the diversity of community interests. Minority organisations should be in a position to negotiate with State administrations as well as with like organisations of the other communities (majorities as well as minorities).
• States should ensure a significant presence of the Languages of minorities in the media. Press, radio and television in the minority language are a precondition for the full participation of minorities in democratic debate. Along with the use of the minority language in education and public administration, they counteract linguistic insecurity and normalise the situation of the minority.
• States should operate an Open Skies policy promoting transmission of radio and television programmes in the languages of minorities across national and regional borders.
• Wherever possible, autonomous or semi-autonomous media production units working in the minority languages should be encouraged. Resources rather than access are increasingly the key aspect of minority language media production, and adequate financial support should be made available to this end.
• Wherever possible, autonomous or semi-autonomous media production units working in the minority languages should be encouraged. Resources rather than access are increasingly the key aspect of minority language media production, and adequate financial support should be made available to this end.

PARTICIPATION OF ROMA

• States should ensure that discrimination against Roma is being effectively counteracted, and that Roma are taught the necessary skills to enjoy equal access to public office, education, employment, health care, housing, voting rights and public services.
• States should provide adequate educational programmes, better vocational training and economic opportunities leading to effective participation of Roma in the political, cultural and economic life of the given State. Further, authorised agencies should monitor the implementation of these measures.
• States should involve Roma organisations in the preparation and implementation of laws, policies and programmes affecting their communities.

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ECMI Recommendations

Evaluating Policy Measures for Minority Languages in Europe
Spiritual Heritage and Cultural Renewal: Ukrainian Jewry at a Crossroads
Implementation of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
From Ethnopolitical Conflict to Inter-Ethnic Accord in Moldova
Towards Effective Participation of Minorities
Chairman's Conclusions

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