On 7 June, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov together with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić, launched the webpage: Collection of Council of Europe and OSCE National Minority Standards. Developed jointly, the webpage serves as an online resource, collecting in one place access to all key documents and texts on national minority standards from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Council of Europe. The webpage aims to make these standards more widely accessible and available to policymakers, civil society and government authorities dealing with national minority issues.
The joint webpage is not only an example of the HCNM's and Council of Europe's long-standing co-operation; it is also part of each institution's marking of important milestones. This year is the 30th anniversary of the office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities opening its doors in The Hague, and, for the Council of Europe, 2023 is the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The initiative for the webpage started in 2021 during a meeting between High Commissioner Abdrakhmanov and Secretary General Pejčinović Burić when they decided to revisit the 2007 joint publication 'National minority standards; A compilation of OSCE and Council of Europe texts'. This valuable compendium included all of their relevant national minority related texts to date, but as both institutions have since significantly added to their range of instruments for strengthening engagement in national minority issues, the 2007 publication was in great need of updating.
The development of the updated Collection as a webpage, rather than as a printed publication, is not only more eco-friendly, it also allows for a far greater number of texts and documents to be accommodated, including in various languages, and for the standards to be more widely available. Moreover, as the HCNM and the Council of Europe continue to develop and expand their approaches to the evolving challenges related to national minorities, the webpage will be updated to include these additions.
