CIAO DATE: 04/04

The Situation of Minorities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Towards an Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

Introduction

On 11 May 2001 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY)3 acceded to the Council of Europe's FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES (FRAMEWORK CONVENTION hereinafter). The new government in Belgrade, in power since the democratic revolution in October 2000, has thereby declared its political intention to improve the situation of minorities by revising its legislation in accordance with the normative standards of the FRAMEWORK CONVENTION. By identifying general patterns of minority treatment in both legal standard-setting and factual practice in the FRY over the past decade, this study contributes to an analysis of primary concerns to be considered in the implementation of the FRAMEWORK CONVENTION.

The first section provides historical background information for understanding the general patterns of minority treatment in the FRY. In particular, it examines the systemic factors which led to the violent dissolution of the former Yugoslavia and have contributed to the deterioration of the situation of minorities in that region. The second section reviews the constitutional and legislative provisions pertaining to minorities in the FRY and analyses to what extent these are implemented in practice.

While addressing some of the recent developments in Kosovo,4 where the situation of human rights has deteriorated dramatically with the escalation of armed conflict, the focus in this is on the situation of minorities in the FRY and, particularly, in the Republic of Serbia. The third section evaluates both domestic legal provisions and factual practices from the perspective of the standards contained in the FRAMEWORK CONVENTION. The paper concludes with a summary of priorities for a constructive and critical dialogue of the Council of Europe with the FRY on the protection of minorities.

This paper adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, combining social sciences and legal analysis. It is based on archival and documentary research covering up-to-date UN material, government sources, information provided by NGOs and secondary literature on the situation of minorities in the FRY. It should be noted that the paper was originally written before the democratic revolution in Serbia, its aim being to assess the FRY's credibility as a potential signatory state to the FRAMEWORK CONVENTION. It was commissioned in 1999 by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) with the support of the Council of Europe, which also provided parts of the material on which the analyses presented here are based. As a consequence, this paper predominantly addresses the situation of minorities in the FRY prior to the democratic revolution in October 2000. Obviously, this situation has changed with the removal of the authoritarian regime, the end of international isolation and, not least, with the FRY's accession to the FRAMEWORK CONVENTION. In this paper, these developments could only be taken into account in a very general manner. However, since main patterns of the de jure and de facto situation of minorities seem to continue in the FRY, the information provided in this paper may be useful in determining critical elements for the implementation of the FRAMEWORK CONVENTION, in particular for the drafting of new legislation on minority rights.

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