A guide entitled ‘Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities: Opportunities for NGOs and Minorities’ has been published by Minority Rights Group International. The guide, authored by Magdalena Syposz, is published as part of the MRG’s Southeast Europe Diversity and Democracy Partnership Program. The purpose of the guide is to involve the NGOs in the Council of Europe, and to collect information about the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM), which can be used by the Advisory Committee to put pressure on the governments.
The guide highlights the importance of FCNM, and the role it plays in protecting the minority rights, along with the role of the Advisory Committee, which, in association with the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, monitors the implementation of FCNM. The guide also provides useful information to minority based and human rights NGOs that wish to use international tools and laws to protect human rights and minority rights in their respective countries. The guide instructs them about how to use international human rights standards to improve the position of minorities.
In addition to providing comprehensive information on FCNM, the guide also shows how it is monitored and implemented. It also instructs the NGOs on how to prepare shadow reports, and relates the importance of these reports to the Advisory Committee. The guide presents an example of a shadow report produced in 2002/03 by Center for Multiculturalism and Vojvodina Center for Human Rights, Serbia and Montenegro. It also presents sample recommendations from the shadow report on Croatia, along with addresses of useful websites.
You can download the guide from this link.
