Scientific conference ’Are Minority Rights (Still) Human Rights?’

On the occasion of 25 years since the Framework Convention for the Protection of Minorities of the Council of Europe and the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the international scientific conference titled ’Are Minority Rights (Still) Human Rights is to open at the SASA Grand Hall, on Thursday, 28 September, at 10 a.m.

The Framework Convention for the Protection of Minorities is one of the most ground-breaking instruments for the protection of national minorities and its adoption has built up a series of constitutional and legal changes in numerous European countries in a political and legal sense, primarily in ex-socialist countries in terms of a better protection of national minorities. Following initial positive steps toward this goal, it seems that after a quarter of a century, a considerable standstill has been reached concerning the observance of minority rights. Therefore, this anniversary is a suitable opportunity to thoroughly assess the real accomplishments of this international legal instrument.

Last year, at the commemoration of the 30^thanniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: ’The world has fallen short of the commitments made to protect minorities.’ This year we commemorate the 75^th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as 25 years of regional, European regime of minority rights, which sprouted from the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Anniversaries present a convenient time for profound self-reflection. Bearing this in mind, the Board for the Study of Minorities and Human Rights of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade and the Tom Lantos Institute organize this international scientific conference, which is to be held in the period from 28 to 29 September at SASA.

A live stream of the event is available at https://www.sanu.ac.rs/direktan-prenos/.