VRBOVSKO, March 26 (Hina) - Enabling national minorities to exercise their rights is a condition for stability in South-East Europe, it was said at a seminar on national minorities in South-East Europe, which took place in Vrbovsko,
central Croatia, this last weekend. The seminar, organised by Zagreb's Faculty of Political Sciences, the foundation Friedrich Ebert and the Serb cultural society 'Prosvjeta', gathered more than 40 participants from Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Great Britain. Participants in the seminar concluded in their closing statement that certain progress had been made in the field of minority rights but that part of national minorities were still deprived of formal preconditions for equal treatment. This calls for the democratising of the overall social structure and adequate legal treatment of national minorities in the states' legal systems
VRBOVSKO, March 26 (Hina) - Enabling national minorities to
exercise their rights is a condition for stability in South-East
Europe, it was said at a seminar on national minorities in South-
East Europe, which took place in Vrbovsko, central Croatia, this
last weekend.
The seminar, organised by Zagreb's Faculty of Political Sciences,
the foundation Friedrich Ebert and the Serb cultural society
'Prosvjeta', gathered more than 40 participants from Croatia,
Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and
Great Britain.
Participants in the seminar concluded in their closing statement
that certain progress had been made in the field of minority rights
but that part of national minorities were still deprived of formal
preconditions for equal treatment.
This calls for the democratising of the overall social structure
and adequate legal treatment of national minorities in the states'
legal systems, it was said. Efforts should be made to adjust legal
regulations to international standards in the area of minority
rights and secure balanced treatment of minorities in the entire
region.
Institutional participation of national minorities in public
services is a precondition for securing their equality, it was
said.
Countries in the region should facilitate trans-border
communication between national minorities and the contents of
school programmes should include human rights and national
minorities, it was said.
Participants in the meeting stressed the role of the non-government
sector in promoting minority rights and called on the media to
highlight minority issues.
(hina) rml