Strasbourg Declaration
on improving the situation and rights of national minorities in Europe
The presidency (Hungary) of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,
Acknowledging that national minority rights are essential to ensure peace and stability on the continent, as European nations have learned from the history of the last century;
Recalling that the Council of Europe, as the continent’s leading human rights organization in protecting national minorities, has elaborated high-level standards for the protection of national minorities providing a widely recognized normative scheme through the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages with their respective review mechanisms as well as soft law regulations of the Council of Europe’s organs and institutions;
Bearing in mind that the annex to the decision on “The Strategic Framework of the Council of Europe and forthcoming activities”, adopted by the 131st Session of the Committee of Ministers (Hamburg 21 May 2021) underlines the particular responsibility of the Organisation for ensuring the implementation of its Conventions through a comprehensive system of monitoring, developing new legally binding standards in response to new challenges, and according to need, providing expert advice and technical assistance through its cooperation programmes to its member States;
Recalling that the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities through its resolutions and recommendations dedicated to the issue of preserving national minorities in Europe, have called on Council of Europe member States to strengthen their commitment to the Framework Convention of the Protection of National Minorities and to implementing its standards, which form an integral part of the international protection of human rights (Resolution 1334 (2003), Resolution 1832 (2011), Recommendation 1735 (2006), Resolution 1985 (2014), Resolution 2196 (2018), Resolution 2368 (2021) and Recommendation 2198 (2021) of the Parliamentary Assembly, Resolution 424 (2017) and Recommendation 410 (2017 of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities);
Highlighting and promoting the proposal of the Recommendation 2198 (2021) of the Parliamentary Assembly on Preserving national minorities in Europe to establish a public online platform that would enable more data to be collected and would allow serious concerns about the rights of persons belonging to national minorities to be detected at an earlier stage, along similar lines to the Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists already put in place by the Council of Europe;
Underlining the need to work for the widest possible adherence to the Conventions of the Council of Europe, promoting their implementation in order to strengthen common standards, as well as agreeing to new ones to fill gaps and respond to emerging challenges, throughout the continent;
Recalling that one in seven European of over 840 million citizens belong to a national minority and the four conferences organized by the Hungarian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers have reviewed both the achievements and possibilities of national minority protection and identified the current and future challenges related to this issue as well as the ways to respond to the problems;
Acknowledging the future strong commitment of the Council of Europe in finding responses to the new challenges as well as the basic principles presented in the conference held on the 19th of October 2021 and published in the booklet entitled Proposed basic principles for the protection of national minorities – strengthening Council of Europe’s role in the field of national minority protection;
Resolves to consider further the potential of the Council of Europe instruments in this field and, as a first step, call on the Committee of Ministers to invite its Steering Committee on Anti-discrimination Diversity and Inclusion (CDADI) to elaborate a draft instrument on the above mentioned principles or to include them into the provisions in the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Europe by the end of next year;
Invites the Committee of Ministers to instruct its Steering Committee on Anti-discrimination Diversity and Inclusion (CDADI) to form a Working Group with a view to preparing a draft Recommendation on active political participation of national minority youth and a study on recurrent problematic areas in the field of regional or minority language protection and identification of good practices in member States by the end of next year.
H. E. Péter Szijjártó
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary
Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe