CSCE
High Commissioner
on National Minorities
His Excellency
Mr. Vladimír Me_iar
Prime Minister of the
Republic of Slovakia
BRATISLAVA
The Hague
9 March l993
Reference:
No 250/93/L
Dear Mr Prime Minister,
Allow me, first of all, to express my appreciation for the reception given to me by your government during my visit to Slovakia on February l4-l8. I am especially grateful to you or finding time to receive me notwithstanding your very heavy schedule.
During our conversation, we discussed the possibility of creating a team of minority rights specialists who would analyze both the situation of Hungarians in Slovakia and of Slovakians in Hungary. You indicated that you were in favour of this idea. I got a similar positive reply from the Hungarian Prime Minister. These favourable reactions encourage me to submit to you the following proposals which I Also send to the Hungarian government:
l) The CSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities will designate three persons who can be considered to be experts on national minority rights questions and to be completely impartial, to study both the situation of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia and the situation of the Slovak minority in Hungary, basing themselves on CSCE principles and commitments.
2) The experts will be appointed for a period of two years, which might be extended if both the governments of Slovakia and Hungary and the High Commissioner on national Minorities would consider this desirable.
3) During the two year period, the experts can pay a maximum of four visits. A visit will always include a visit to both state. The time to be spent in each country during a visit will not exceed seven days. The experts will be enabled to travel and communicate freely.
4) The experts will not include nationals or residents of either Slovakia or Hungary, or any expert against whom either of the two states has previously entered reservations. They will have to be nationals or residents of a state participating in CSCE but they will not include more than one national or resident of any state.
5) After each visit, the experts will submit their advice and recommendations to the High Commissioner, who will decide whether and in what form the advice and recommendations will be communicated to the governments of Slovakia and Hungary. They will be non-binding. If the High Commissioner decides to make the advice and recommendations available to the CSO, the government concerned will have the opportunity to comment.
I would hope that your government can agree with these proposals. In my view agreement on this formula would be welcomed as an indication that the governments concerned are determined to deal with minority problems in a constructive way. In addition, i might serve a s model for dealing with minority questions in other parts of Europe.
If both governments agree, the CSCE Committee of Senior Officials will probably have to give its formal approval, both because it provides for an involvement of the High Commissioner, and also because decisions will have to be taken concerning the financing of the expert missions. As the nest CSO meeting will already take place next month, I would greatly appreciate an early reply of your government to my proposals.
Yours sincerely,
(s i g n a t u r e)
(Max van der Stoel)
