ECMI Publications Database
This paper deals with the issues considered to be of most relevance when drafting domestic legislation on national minority rights. This covers both technical/procedural issues and substantive issues. Among the technical/procedural issues it is important to: make clear the structure of the legal framework (should one comprehensive law on national minority rights be adopted or not) and the hierarchical relations within the legal framework, to ensure inclusive enacting procedure, and to bear in mind the processes/dynamics after the adoption of the law. Substantive issues refer to some of the central, conceptual questions (such as definitions, the self-identification principle, the character of national minority rights and similar), but also to the very core of regulations set out in the law. In the case of the latter, the paper focuses on the principle of equality, language rights of national minorities, and minority participation in public affairs.