On 13 December, the University of Glasgow’s College of Social Sciences and Centre for Public Policy hosted a public event aimed at raising awareness of the Council of Europe’s conventions protecting the rights of minorities and minority languages, organised alongside the University of Edinburg. Representatives of the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and Committee of Experts on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) presented the respective conventions and the latest recommendations from the previous monitoring cycle concerning the United Kingdom, with a focus on Scotland.

On 14 December, representatives of both the FCNM and the ECRML, Scottish government officials and civil society actors gathered to hold thematic discussions on the following topics: language focus, the rights of Roma, Gypsy/Travellers and ethnic minorities, and hate crime-related issues. The event also offered the platform for a fruitful discussion on the recently introduced Scottish Languages Bill and the forthcoming Scottish Human Rights Act.

The two-day event successfully contributed to raising awareness of Council of Europe instruments for the protection of minorities and minority languages in Scotland, as well as to finding ways for all actors involved in the field to actively engage with the monitoring process to contribute to improving the situation on the ground.

The sixth monitoring visit for the United Kingdom for the ECRML will take place in February 2024 and the sixth state report for the FCNM is expected for early 2024.