Protection of national minorities is a core issue for the Council of Europe and is one of the four priority areas in co-operation between the Council of Europe and the OSCE.
25/11/2005 ::
The term ‘national minority’ refers to persons who reside on the territory of that state and are citizens thereof; maintain longstanding, firm and lasting ties with that state; display distinctive ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics; are sufficiently representative, although smaller in number than the rest of the population of that state or of a region of that state; are motivated by a concern to preserve together that which constitutes their common identity, including their culture, their traditions, their religion or their language.
In November 1994 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities setting out principles covering a variety of issues such as:
* non-discrimination;
* promotion of effective equality;
* promotion of the conditions regarding the preservation and development of the culture and preservation of religion, language and traditions;
* freedoms of assembly, association, expression, thought, conscience and religion;
* access to and use of media;
* linguistic freedoms;
* education;
* transfrontier contacts;
* international and transfrontier co-operation;
* participation in economic, cultural and social life;
* participation in public life;
* prohibition of forced assimilation.
The convention was ratified by Norway in 1999 and entered in to force the same year. Norway had previously ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 1993, which entered in to force in 1998.