ABSTRACT
The Vienna Concluding Document of the Human Dimension of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), now the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), produced in 1989, marked a new centrality accorded the issue of national minority rights in Europe. In November of 1991, the CSCE’s Paris Charter pledged its determination to improve the lot of minorities, and for the first time in its history used the term ‘minority’ in its own right (dropping the usual rider ‘where they exist’). December of 1991 saw the European Community (EC) declare that, along with observance of the rule of law, democracy, and respect for human rights in general, minority guarantees were a prerequisite for the recognition of new states in Europe. In line with these developments, the European Parliament has also adopted documents on minorities, in particular the Resolution on Linguistic and Cultural Minorities in the European Community of February 1994. Later that year, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was passed by the Council of Europe. It obliges signatories to undertake extensive measures to positively promote minority concerns, rather than simply refrain from discrimination.
