Twenty–four members of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian national minority co-ordination group gathered on 30 and 31 May to increase their knowledge on two key tools of the Council of Europe when it comes to the protection of national minorities: the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and the European Charter on Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML). This knowledge gained about all its chapters, monitoring bodies’ recommendations for Bosnia and Herzegovina and background theories, will be used by them for further advocacy initiatives in promoting and protecting national minorities.
In addition to the regular appointed members of the co-ordination group, among the participants there were also representatives of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees who are regularly dealing with policy co-ordination on national minorities as well as the members of the newly established Council of national minorities of Brcko District.
According to the provisions of FCNM, it was said, respecting diversity and intercultural dialogue is a key pre-requisite for the full integration of diverse societies (not integration of minorities in a society). Thus, for instance, learning about minorities and their culture should be a topic included in the mainstream educational programmes from the primary school, but also reported about in media.
Lidija Ljubojević, vice-chair of the Council of national minorities of Brcko District stated: “On the basis of the presented, I learned about how and what legal tools we can use to protect the rights of national minorities in the areas we come from. Based on the Framework Convention and the European Charter ratified by the state of BiH, there is enough space for us to work in our communities on the integration of the society in which we live. Based on all the above, upon our return to Brcko, we will request a meeting with the leaders of the executive and legislative authorities in order to seek fulfilment and implementation of legal regulations related to the implementation and realisation of the rights of national minorities. We will also organise meetings with associations of national minorities registered in Brcko in order to listen to their problems that they face every day and if they have proposals and suggestions for our work. Thanks again for the inspiring event.”
This training was organised by the action "Promotion of diversity an equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ in co-operation with the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, within the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.
