OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
At the Helsinki follow-up meeting in 1992 the Member States of the CSCE (OSCE) decided to set up the Office of the High Commissioner for National Minorities. The High Commissioner is a diplomat independent of the Member States elected by the Council of Ministers for a three-year term (renewable once), and may exercise his/her powers in situations of imminent risk of conflict. Because of his/her preventive role s/he cannot deal with open conflicts that can be linked to armed or terrorist acts. It has a mandate to issue an “early warning” and, if necessary, to initiate “early action” with the OSCE Council of Ministers. In order to prevent conflicts the High Commissioner can mediate between the parties and make recommendations to the governments of the countries concerned. In the country concerned he/she is free to seek information and maintain contacts with governments, minority representatives or NGOs. The High Commissioner is supported by a small office based in The Hague. The High Commissioner also makes general recommendations to the OSCE member states on the educational rights of minorities (Hague Recommendations, 1996), the linguistic rights of minorities (Oslo Recommendations, 1998), the public rights of minorities (Lund Recommendations, 1999), the use of minority languages in the media (2003), police measures in multi-ethnic societies (2006), the role of minorities in inter-state relations (Bolzano Recommendations, 2008), social integration (Ljubljana Guidelines, 2012), access to justice for national minorities (Graz Recommendations, 2017), and on the relationship between national minorities and the media of the digital age (Tallinn Guidelines, 2019).