CIAO DATE: 03/06

Informal International Consultative Meeting in the Area of Minority Issues

Abstract

In September 2002, senior representatives of intergovernmental and major nongovernmental institutions addressing minority issues gathered in Flensburg for a consultative meeting which sought to facilitate an informal exchange between the different organizations on emerging issues and strategies. As a follow up measure, the European Centre of Minority Issues (ECMI) held a second ‘Informal International Consultative Meeting of Major Actors in the Area of Minority Issues’, at ECMI Headquarters, Flensburg, Germany on 17 and 18 September 2004.

Minority issues continue to gain prominence within the context of EU accession and within the context of the United Nations (UN)’s promotion of a human rights approach to programming and the World Bank’s focus on ‘Inclusion’. Over the past decade, a deep interest in majority-minority relations has been shown at local levels, through the growth in the number of active civil society groups and non-governmental organizations, the European level (such as the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, and the Advisory Committee of the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities), as well as at the universal level, (through the United Nations Working Group on Minorities and other UN agency programmes which focus on the interests of disadvantaged groups, including minorities).

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