First Activity Report of the Advisory Committee
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First Activity Report of the Advisory Committee
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>From the moderator: French version of the report as well as complete English version are available upon individual requests. Appendixes omitted in the present submission due to technical reasons.
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Strasbourg, 15 September 1999
ACFC/INF (99) 1def.
The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities
First Activity Report
Covering the period from 1 June 1998 to 31 May 1999
Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. Activities during the reporting period
A. Outline for state reports
B. Exchange of views with government experts
C. Rules of Procedure and working methods
D. Examination of state reports
E. Information activities
3. Organisational issues
A. Membership
B. Resources
4. Concluding remarks
Appendix I: Signatures and ratifications of the Framework Convention
and the status of submission of state reports
Appendix II: Composition of the Advisory Committee
1. Introduction
1. On 10 November 1994 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe adopted the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities, which is the first ever legally binding multilateral
instrument devoted to the protection of national minorities in
general. Opened for signature on 1 February 1995, the Framework
Convention entered into force, after the deposit of 12 ratifications,
on 1 February 1998.
2. As at 3 August 1999, the Framework Convention has been signed by 36
member States, 26 of which have also ratified it. In addition, one
non-member State, Armenia, has ratified the Framework Convention (see
Appendix I).
3. The monitoring mechanism of the Framework Convention is based on
Articles 24 - 26 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities and on the Committee of Ministers' Resolution (97)
10. The evaluation of the adequacy of the implementation of the
Framework Convention by the Parties is to be carried out by the
Committee of Ministers, which shall be assisted by an Advisory
Committee.
4. The Parties are required to submit a report containing full
information on legislative and other measures taken to give effect to
the principles of the Framework Convention within one year of the
entry into force. These state reports are made public and examined by
the Advisory Committee, which is to prepare an opinion on the measures
taken by each reporting State. Having received the opinion of the
Advisory Committee, the Committee of Ministers is called on to adopt
conclusions and, where appropriate, recommendations in respect of the
State Party concerned.
5. In accordance with Resolution (97) 10, the Advisory Committee is
composed of up to 18 independent and impartial experts appointed by
the Committee of Ministers. The first round of appointments was held
in March 1998, and the Advisory Committee held its first meeting in
June 1998. Following the latest round of appointments in March 1999,
the Advisory Committee is now in its full composition of 18 members
(see Appendix II). In addition, experts in respect of the Russian
Federation and Moldova have been elected to the List of experts
eligible to serve on the Advisory Committee.
6. The first state reports were submitted in February 1999, and the
Advisory Committee subsequently began to examine these reports with a
view to adopting opinions on them. By 3 August 1999, the Advisory
Committee had received 13 state reports (see Appendix I).
7. The purpose of the present report is to provide the Committee of
Ministers with an overview of the work carried out during the first
year of the activities of the Advisory Committee. In Section II, the
report outlines the main decisions taken during that first year (from
the first meeting of the Advisory Committee on 29 June - 1 July 1998
to 31 May 1999) as well as some first general impressions concerning
the initial state reports received so far. It further explains the
efforts made by the Advisory Committee to make the Framework
Convention known to the public at large. In Section III, the report
addresses the principal organisational issues related to the work of
the Advisory Committee, including the resources allocated to its work.
2. Activities during the reporting period
8. In the course of the reporting period, the Advisory Committee held
four plenary meetings and one Bureau meeting:
1st plenary meeting: 29 June - 1 July 1998
2nd plenary meeting: 26-27 and 29 October 1998
3rd plenary meeting: 22-25 March 1999
4th plenary meeting: 25-28 May 1999
1st Bureau meeting: 20 November 1998
9. The first two plenary meetings concentrated on procedural matters
and on working methods, whereas at its the 3th and 4th meeting the
Committee, having received a number of state reports, was in a
position to commence its monitoring activities proper. Various
activities carried out and decisions taken at these meetings are
detailed, in a non-exhaustive manner, below.
A. Outline for state reports
10. Following a request made by the Committee of Ministers, the
Advisory Committee considered, at its first meeting on 29 June - 1
July 1998, the draft outline prepared by the Secretariat for the
reports to be submitted pursuant to Article 25 of the Framework
Convention. While approving the general approach adopted in the draft
outline, the Advisory Committee put forth a number of proposals
relating to the format and content of the draft outline. A revised
draft outline, with the Advisory Committee's proposals integrated, was
subsequently adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 30 September
1998, at the 642nd meeting of the Ministers' Deputies.
11. The Advisory Committee would like to emphasise that the adopted
outline is designed for initial state reports only and that a separate
outline may need to be drafted in the future for subsequent periodic
state reports. Furthermore, the Advisory Committee takes the view
that it should be possible to modify the outline for initial state
reports in the future, if, for instance, it transpires that amendments
could help to reduce the need for requests for additional information
from reporting States.
B. Exchange of views with government experts
12. Following the adoption of the outline for state reports, the
Advisory Committee organised an exchange of views on the reporting
procedure with government experts responsible for preparing state
reports. This exchange, which was held on 29 October 1998 in
conjunction with the 2nd meeting of the Advisory Committee, was an
opportunity for the Advisory Committee to stress that it will carry
out its tasks in the spirit of co-operation and dialogue. During the
exchange, the Advisory Committee and Government experts discussed,
inter alia, different methods that can be employed for the drafting of
state reports. In this connection, it was considered useful to involve
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and minority groups in the
process leading to the preparation of state reports.
C. Rules of Procedure and working methods
13. In accordance with Rule 37 of Resolution (97) 10, the Advisory
Committee commenced, at its first meeting, the drafting of its Rules
of Procedure and finalised the text at its 2nd meeting on 26-27 and 29
October 1998. The Rules of Procedure, as adopted by the Advisory
Committee, were subsequently approved by the Committee of Ministers on
16 December 1998, at the 653rd meeting of the Ministers' Deputies.
14. In addition to drafting the Rules of Procedure, the Advisory
Committee agreed on a number of working methods at its first two
meetings. In particular, it decided to establish, in accordance with
Rule 35 of the Rules of Procedure, country-specific and thematic
working groups. The first country-specific working group meetings were
held during the 3rd meeting of the Advisory Committee, on 22-25 March
1999.
D. Examination of state reports
15. During the period covered by the present activity report, the
Advisory Committee received initial reports from the following States
Parties: Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland,
Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, San Marino and the Slovak Republic.
Malta, Romania and the United Kingdom have subsequently submitted
their initial reports.
16. The Advisory Committee welcomes the timely submission of reports
by a number of States. However, the Committee regrets the fact that a
number of States Parties did not finalise their reports by the
deadline foreseen in Article 25 of the Framework Convention. In order
to avoid further reporting delays, the President of the Advisory
Committee, Professor Rainer HOFMANN, addressed, on 9 March 1999, a
letter to the representatives of those States that had not reported by
that date, drawing their attention to the applicable deadline. In
cases where a State is not able to submit a report in due time, the
Advisory Committee - while not being in a position to authorise any
formal extensions of the reporting times provided by the Framework
Convention - would appreciate being informed about the reason for the
delay, as well as receiving an indication of the expected submission
date.
17. While the length of the reports received varies greatly, in almost
all the cases where the Advisory Committee has commenced the detailed
examination of a report, the Committee has concluded that additional
information would need to be sought from the State Party concerned.
In particular, the Advisory Committee has repeatedly found that,
whereas the relevant legislative framework is often described in
detail, further information is needed on the implementation of
relevant norms in practice. In some cases, a request for further
information, under Rule 29 of Resolution (97) 10, has already been
sent to the Government concerned and in other cases such a request is
being formulated. The Advisory Committee wishes to emphasise that
requests for additional information should not be regarded as
criticism of the Parties concerned. Rather, such requests are to be
considered as forming part of the constructive dialogue between the
Advisory Committee and the States Parties.
18. At its third meeting, the Advisory Committee concluded that, in
order to carry out its task effectively and in a balanced and
consistent way, it may also need to seek information from sources
other than the reporting States. Such information could complement and
clarify information contained in initial state reports. Therefore,
the Advisory Committee decided to notify the Committee of Ministers,
in accordance with Rule 31 of Resolution (97) 10, of its intention to
invite information from International Organisations, Ombudsmen and
National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
as well as from representatives of civil society and non-governmental
organisations. The Committee of Ministers took note of this intention
on 19-20 May 1999, at the 671st meeting of the Ministers' Deputies.
19. In addition to written procedures, the Advisory Committee may,
under Rule 32 of Resolution (97) 10, hold meetings in order to seek
further information. The preparation of a first meeting of this type
began on 23 March 1999 when the Advisory Committee received a letter
from the Government of Finland, referring to the submission of the
initial report by Finland on 16 February 1999 and requesting a meeting
with the Advisory Committee. The Government further proposed that the
meeting be held in Finland. The Advisory Committee subsequently
decided that this meeting would be the responsibility of the working
group on Finland. It was further decided, in consultation with the
Government of Finland, that this meeting would take place in Helsinki
on 23-24 August 1999. The Advisory Committee feels that such meetings
with representatives of reporting States should become a customary
element of the monitoring procedure.
20. At its 4th meeting, held from 25 to 28 May 1999, the Advisory
Committee agreed that it would be useful for its representatives, in
the course of their visit to Helsinki, to meet also with the
Ombudsman, relevant non-governmental organisations and other
independent bodies/institutions in Finland in order to learn their
views concerning the implementation of the Framework Convention. The
Advisory Committee therefore decided to request from the Committee of
Ministers a mandate for such a meeting in accordance with Rule 32,
paragraph 2, of Resolution (97) 10. The meeting was subsequently
authorised at the 676th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies on 1-2 and
7 July 1999.
21. The Advisory Committee wishes to be in a position to complete the
examination of at least one or two state reports by the end of 1999.
The resulting opinion(s) would, however, remain, for some time,
"provisional", since the Committee does not plan to submit its first
opinions to the Committee of Ministers immediately upon their
completion. Rather, the Advisory Committee would like to ensure the
consistency in its approach by completing the work on several state
reports before the final adoption of opinions on them. In accordance
with this approach, the Advisory Committee expects to submit the first
set of opinions to the Committee of Ministers in early 2000. Also from
the point of view of efficiency, this approach is expected to be more
advantageous than the separate submission of single opinions. As
regards the consideration of these opinions by the Committee of
Ministers and the subsequent adoption of conclusions and possible
recommendations, the Advisory Committee would welcome the opportunity
to be involved in this exercise in an appropriate manner. This could
entail, for example, the presence of representatives of the Advisory
Committee during certain stages of the consideration so that the
Advisory Committee could provide the Committee of Ministers with
further clarification on issues related to the opinion concerned.
E. Information activities
22. In order to make the Framework Convention better known among
experts and the public at large, several events were organised during
the reporting period. A seminar entitled "From Paper to Practice -
Implementing Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities" was organised in Strasbourg on 28 October 1998 in
conjunction with the 2nd meeting of the Advisory Committee to mark the
entry into force of the Framework Convention and the launching of its
monitoring mechanism. The seminar brought together members of the
Advisory Committee, Government officials, representatives of
non-governmental organisations and other experts to discuss the ways
in which the Framework Convention could be effectively implemented and
monitored. During the same week, a training seminar on the Framework
Convention and its monitoring was organised for NGOs active in this
field by the NGO Minority Rights Group, in co-operation with the
Council of Europe. As a follow-up to this seminar, an NGO manual on
the implementation and monitoring of the Framework Convention is
currently being prepared.
23. The Advisory Committee was also represented at several
international events organised on related themes in the course of the
reporting period. These included the following: the Colloquy "In our
hands; The effectiveness of human rights protection 50 years after the
Universal Declaration" (Strasbourg, 2-4 September 1998), the 6th Round
Table with European Ombudsmen (Malta, 7-9 October 1998) and the
Conference on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
(Innsbruck, 14-15 December 1998), all of which were organised or
co-organised by the Council of Europe.
24. The entry into force of the Framework Convention has increased the
demand for materials related to this treaty. This concerns not only
state reports, which are made public upon receipt from a State Party,
but other relevant documentation as well. Therefore, a compilation of
the basic texts concerning the Framework Convention and its monitoring
was published in May 1999. In addition, a short briefing note on the
Framework Convention has been regularly updated and distributed to
Government experts, representatives of non-governmental organisations
and other interested persons.
25. The Advisory Committee believes that, in order to serve the public
better and more efficiently, it needs to make relevant materials,
including state reports that have been submitted in electronic format,
regularly accessible via the Internet. So far, this process has been
hampered, in particular, by a lack of resources (see below section 3,
sub-section B), but the Advisory Committee expects that progress will
soon be achieved.
3. Organisational issues
A. Membership
26. As a result of appointments by the Committee of Ministers, made
between March 1998 and March 1999, the Advisory Committee is now in
its full composition of 18 ordinary members. The terms of office of
all current ordinary members expire on 1 June 2002. However, by virtue
of the operation of Rule 16 of Resolution (97) 10, the mandate of half
the ordinary members as it stands on 1 June 2000 shall be extended by
two years.
27. The Committee of Ministers also elected, in March 1999 and May
1999, experts in respect of the Russian Federation and Moldova to the
List of experts eligible to serve on the Advisory Committee. Since the
Advisory Committee already had, by then, the maximum number of 18
ordinary members, the appointment to the Advisory Committee of the
experts entered onto the List in respect of these countries will be
considered at a later stage, in accordance with the rotation system
provided in Rule 15 of Resolution (97) 10. In the meantime, these
experts will be invited to sit - in an advisory capacity - as
additional members when the report submitted by the country in respect
of which they were elected is being considered.
28. The Advisory Committee welcomes the fact that the Committee of
Ministers has emphasised the independence and impartiality requirement
of the candidates for the Advisory Committee, as stipulated in Rule 6
of Resolution (97) 10. The Advisory Committee would like to encourage
the Committee of Ministers to continue to pay careful attention to
these requirements in the course of future elections to the List of
experts eligible to serve on the Advisory Committee. Furthermore, the
Advisory Committee would like to encourage the Committee of Ministers
to ensure that the composition of the Advisory Committee continues to
have presence of a variety of experiences and expertise, bearing in
mind the wide-ranging character of the Framework Convention. In future
elections, due regard should also be paid to the gender balance of the
Advisory Committee, keeping in mind that, at present, only 5 out of 18
ordinary members are women. The Advisory Committee stands ready to
assist the Committee of Ministers on these matters should the
Committee of Ministers decide to request such assistance in the
context of future elections.
29. At its first meeting, on 29 June - 1 July 1998, the Advisory
Committee elected, by secret ballot, the members of its Bureau. Mr
Rainer HOFMANN (Professor of International Law at the University of
Kiel, Germany) was elected as President for a term of two years. Mr
Alan PHILLIPS (Executive Director of the NGO Minority Rights Group,
London, UK) and Mr G�sp�r B�R� (Lecturer at E�tv�s Lor�nd University
in Budapest, Hungary) were elected as First and Second Vice-President
respectively, both for a term of two years.
B. Resources
30. In order to ensure the effective functioning of the monitoring
mechanism of the Framework Convention, adequate resources must be
allocated for the work of the Advisory Committee. In this connection,
the Advisory Committee wishes to emphasise that, while the rapid
increase in the number of States Parties is a most welcome
development, it also has a real impact on the workload of the Advisory
Committee and its Secretariat.
31. From the outset of its activity, the Committee has found that the
resources allocated to its work do not reflect the importance or
volume of the work of the Committee or the status of its members as
independent and impartial experts of a human rights treaty body.
These concerns were expressed in a letter, dated 15 April 1999, from
the President of the Advisory Committee to the Chairman of the
Committee of Ministers' Deputies, calling for improvements as concerns
the staffing and the daily allowances of the Advisory Committee.
32. As far as the staffing situation is concerned, the Committee
welcomes the limited additional resources committed recently.
Nevertheless, the Committee believes that the small Secretariat of the
Advisory Committee - which currently consists of 3 A2/A3 posts - will
need to be considerably strengthened if it is to be able to cope with
the increasing workload in a satisfactory manner in the very near
future.
33. As regards the daily allowances of the members of the Advisory
Committee, the Committee finds it imperative that it be treated on an
equal basis with other independent human rights treaty bodies of the
Council of Europe. The Advisory Committee trusts that the on-going
efforts of the Committee of Ministers to design a fair system of daily
allowances will secure this result.
4. Concluding remarks
34. The Advisory Committee is, in general, satisfied with the results
of the first year of its activities. The Committee has been able to
formulate basic rules governing its work, and the monitoring proper
has also started in a promising manner.
35. As regards procedural issues, the Advisory Committee has much
appreciated the support it has received from the Committee of
Ministers during the period covered by the present report. The
Advisory Committee is confident that this spirit of trust and
co-operation will continue to guide the relations between the two
bodies as they proceed further with the actual monitoring work.
36. Given the prominence of minority issues in today's Europe and the
key role of the Framework Convention in this sphere, the Advisory
Committee is confident that there is the political will to overcome
the current shortcomings - including inadequate resources and
reporting delays - relating to the monitoring mechanism, so as to
ensure the proper functioning of the monitoring mechanism and thus the
full implementation of the Framework Convention in the States Parties.
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