In the framework of the Hungarian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, Hungary and the Council of Europe are organising a conference on “Council of Europe norms and standards on national minority rights: Results and challenges”.

From the early 1990s, Hungary supported the Council of Europe’s endeavours to elaborate international legal standards for the protection of national minorities. These efforts eventually resulted in the adoption of the Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The Hungarian Presidency wishes to highlight, through a series of events, the Council of Europe’s unique role in the protection of national minorities as the continent’s leading human rights organisation.

The conference opening this series on 29 June 2021 is dedicated to the normative framework of the Council of Europe in the field of national minorities. It aims to assess achievements and identify remaining challenges in the field of minority rights protection in Europe. During three panel discussions, speakers will address the functioning of the Council of Europe’s protection mechanisms for national minorities from various angles and take stock of the reform processes launched by the Croatian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers in 2018.

The conference will be opened by Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and Gergely Gulyás, Minister, Head of the Prime Minister’s Office of Hungary. Further speakers include Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Ivana Jelić, Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, members of the Parliamentary Assembly and the monitoring committees of the Framework Convention and the Language Charter, as well as representatives of Council of Europe member states.

For more information, please consult conference website, where you will also find the programme. The link to follow the livestream of the conference will be made available on the website shortly.