How can the European Council help the national minorities?

On the 23rd of this month, the participants of the latest lecture, which is a part of the “Improving skills at human rights in terms of EU and international law” project, have gained new knowledge on human rights protection as part of the European Council.

The lecture, which took place at the University of Bialystok in Vilnius, triggered a gathering of a few tens of people interested in human rights and especially those of the national minorities.

During the lectures it was highlighted that in 1949 the countries of Europe stated that one of the main objectives their mutual cooperation will be to achieve greater integrity on the continent through interlinking the rules of democracy, government, pluralism and protection of human rights.

It was also pointed out that the European Council is the first organisation of its kind that has managed to introduce common across Europe standards in terms of protecting the rights of national minorities. During the lectures the matters that were paid the most attention to were the points of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms that relate to protecting minorities. The aims of two documents relating to the rights and the freedom of national minorities were also discussed: the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

„Kurier Wileński” 26 11 2010 r.

Translated by Kamil Szwarc within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.