The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Belgrade has published a publication "Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions". Vojvodina Center for Human Rights helped in text translation and editing.
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has, since its entry into force on 1 February 1998, taken on great importance in addressing the challenges of minority protection in our evolving and increasingly diverse societies.
The Conference held in October 2003 to mark the 5th anniversary of the entry into force of the Framework Convention provided an opportunity to review the practice developed in the course of the first five years of the monitoring of this treaty in States Parties. It allowed for in-depth discussion and analysis of the present but also the future of the Framework Convention. A number of key question were debated, including the domestic application of the Framework Convention and its relation to other international systems. The Conference also covered some of the most salient issues for the protection of national minorities in areas such as participation in social, economic and political life, media and education.
This publication contains the reports and speeches of the Conference, which brought together more than 200 participants, all actively involved in the protection of national minorities in Europe today.
This guide explains how the United Nations (UN) works. It aims to demystify the UN's human rights mechanisms, procedures and institutions. It shows how minorities and minority-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can use the UN and its different bodies to promote respect for minority rights. It offers practice advice, case studies and step-by-step guidance to working with the UN; showing, for example, how NGOs can provide information to the UN, how they can pursue cases and lobby for their issues, and where the best entry points are within the UN's institutions and monitoring mechanisms.
While this guide is aimed at minority-based NGOs, and NGOs working to promote human rights, it will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about the UN.
The version below has been updated and revised by Kathryn Ramsay.
Vojvodina Center for Human Rights helped in text translation and editing.
The initial request for a publication on minorities emanated from the Working Group on Minorities, and was subsequently endorsed by the Commission on Human Rights.
The United Nations Guide for Minorities is the second Guide in a new series of publications; the other being the United Nations Guide for Indigenous Peoples. The present United Nations Guide for Minorities contains a series of pamphlets. The pamphlets, supplemented by the texts of the 1992 Declaration and of its Commentary presented in Part One, together with a seperate annex to Pamphlet No.1 issued in Part Three, provide information on how minorities might make use of human rights procedures existing within the United Nations system and those established by regional mechanisms in Africa, the Americas and Europe. Other pamphlets provide practical information on the work of intergovernmental mandates and organizations such as the OECD's Development Assistance Committee and the development cooperation programmes of the European Union and European Community. Additional pamphlets will be forthcoming.
