Minorities and the Central European Initiative On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the CEI Instrument for the Protection of Minority Rights (1994-2004) 2 Minorities and the CEI Minorities and the Central European Initiative Published by CEI Executive Secretariat and the Slovenian CEI Presidency The printing of the publication was financially supported by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Slovenia and the MFA Office for Slovenes Abroad Prepared and edited by Milan Predan, CEI-ES Deputy Director General Collaborators: Christoph Pan, Beate Sibylle Pfeil (South Tyrolean Minority Insitute, Bolzano). Members of the CEI Working Group on Minorities: Arlinda Gjata (Albania), Ingrid Pech (Austria), Milena Klajner (Croatia), Miklos Boros (Hungary), Renato Fedele (Italy), Penelopa Gjurcilova (Macedonia), Grzegorz Zyman (Poland), Nicolae Nastase (Romania), Milan Markovic (Serbia and Montenegro), Zuzana Topolska (Slovakia), Boris Jelovšek (Slovenija). CEI National Co-ordinators: Alexandr Opimakh (Belarus), Bohumil Dolejsi (Czech Republic), Milenko Mišic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Nicolae Ropotean (Romania). Lea Deželak (Slovenian MFA), Mitja Žagar (Institute for Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana); Tania Pibernik, Natalia Katana, Barbara Fabro (CEI-ES). Designed and printed by Dravska tiskarna, d.o.o., Maribor, Slovenia CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Univerzitetna knjižnica Maribor 323.15(4-191.2)(061.2)"1994/2004" MINORITIES and the Central European Initiative : on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the CEI Instrument for the Protection of Minority Rights (1994-2004) / [prepared and edited by Milan Predan ; collaborators Christoph Pan ...[et al.]. - [S.l.] : CEI Executive Secretariat : Slovenian CEI Presidency, 2004 1. Predan, Milan 2. Central European Initiative. Slovenian Presidency 3. Central European Initiative Instrument for the Protection of Minority Rights COBISS.SI-ID 53835009 Published in October 2004 Minorities and the CEI 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION CEI-ES DIRECTOR GENERAL .......................................................................................................................8 SLOVENIAN CEI PRESIDENCY DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE FOR SLOVENES ABROAD .......................10 CO-CHAIRPERSON OF THE CEI WORKING GROUP ON MINORITIES .....................................................13 CEI INSTRUMENT AND THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION: PARALLEL ENDEAVOURS ........................14 CEI INSTRUMENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF MINORITY RIGHTS TEXT OF THE INSTRUMENT .......................................................................................................................23 CEI INSTRUMENT: VIEWS, COMMENTARIES A GENERALLY VALID DEFINITION OF A MINORITY IS NOT POSSIBLE ..................................................31 MINORITIES AND MAJORITIES ...................................................................................................................36 ALL THEY REALLY WANT IS FULL INTEGRATION ....................................................................................39 SELF-DETERMINATION OF ROMA AS A NEW PHENOMENON ................................................................44 MINORITY NAMES NO LONGER TRANSLATED INTO MAJORITY-LIKES .................................................48 FULL AND EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION OF MINORITIES .........................................................................51 MINORITY LANGUAGES DO NOT ONLY BELONG TO THOSE WHO SPEAK THEM ................................61 THE INSTRUMENT APPEA RS TO GO FURTHER THA N OTHERS ............................................................65 HAS THE LESSON BEEN LEARNED? .........................................................................................................70 MINORITIES IN THE CEI REGION: DATA, LEGISLATION ALBANIA .......................................................................................................................................................82 AUSTRIA .......................................................................................................................................................89 BELARUS ....................................................................................................................................................100 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA ....................................................................................................................105 CROATIA .....................................................................................................................................................112 CZECH REPUBLIC .....................................................................................................................................121 4 Minorities and the CEI HUNGARY ...................................................................................................................................................130 ITALY ..........................................................................................................................................................138 MACEDONIA ...............................................................................................................................................147 MOLDOVA ...................................................................................................................................................157 POLAND ......................................................................................................................................................164 ROMANIA ....................................................................................................................................................172 SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO ....................................................................................................................184 SLOVAK REPUBLIC ...................................................................................................................................191 SLOVENIA ...................................................................................................................................................202 UKRAINE .....................................................................................................................................................211 TRANSLATIONS OF THE INSTRUMENT PROVIDED BY: ALBANIA .....................................................................................................................................................218 AUSTRIA .....................................................................................................................................................223 CROATIA .....................................................................................................................................................229 HUNGARY ...................................................................................................................................................234 ITALY ..........................................................................................................................................................240 MACEDONIA ...............................................................................................................................................246 POLAND ......................................................................................................................................................252 ROMANIA ....................................................................................................................................................258 ROMA ...........................................................................................................................................................263 SLOVAK REPUBLIC ...................................................................................................................................269 SLOVENIA ...................................................................................................................................................274 BIBLIOGRAPHY Minorities and the CEI 5 PREFACE The idea to elaborate a special publication on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the CEI Instrument for the Protection of Minority Rights (it was opened for signature in 1994) was tabled and endorsed at the meeting of the CEI Working Group on Minorities, held on 7 May 2003 in Trieste. The CEI Executive Secretariat was authorised to set up the concept, select - with the assistance of the working group- the authors, who could enrich and provide appropriate expert level of its content and to take over the editorial work. The intention was not only to pay tribute to one of the most important documents drafted within the CEI framework but also to go beyond that objective and prepare a more ambitious collection of data, commentaries and views as well as translations of the Instrument in various languages which could be useful to experts and interesting for the broader public. Indeed, as one of the main aims of the Instrument is to preserve and protect the linguistic diversity in Central, South-eastern and Eastern Europe, in recent months member countries responded very positively to the Secretariat’s request to provide translations of the document in their languages and thus importantly increased the number of translations. This Publication includes 10 translations in all. The CEI-ES wishes to thank distinguished international experts who have contributed their knowledge and experience