CSCE/OSCE documents
The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE, since 1994: Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE) adopted the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, which enshrined the prohibition of discrimination against minorities and the value of minority cultures in the framework of protection of human rights. Since then the protection of the rights of “persons belonging to national minorities” has been a regular feature of human rights instruments (e.g. Madrid Final Act, 1983; Vienna Final Act, 1989; Budapest Final Act, 1994; Lisbon Act, 1996; Istanbul Charter for European Security, 1999). The 1990 Charter of Paris (Paris Charter) for a New Europe underlined that the protection of minority rights can be fully guaranteed in a democracy, and it is part of European security. The CSCE’s Copenhagen Document on the Human Dimension (1990) was the first international document to deal in detail with the rights of minorities, setting out the rights to language use, education and participation in public life in the mother tongue, the freedom of identity and the obligation of states to guarantee minority rights. The establishment of the institution of the High Commissioner on National Minorities (OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities) was decided at the 1992 CSCE Helsinki Summit, and since then the High Commissioner has been dealing with minority issues in detail. The final document of the last OSCE Summit in Astana in 2010 also mentions the protection of minority rights.