"evropuli qartia saqarTvelo "European Charter for Regional or ...

2.2. The Aim of the "Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities" and "Oslo Recommendations":
Protecting Linguistic rights of New Minorities
The linguistic rights of new minorities are covered by several European
conventions, the most extensive of which is the "Framework
Convention for the Protection of National Minorities". Adoption of the
"Framework Convention" was preceded by the following two interesting
events:
I. on November 5, 1992 the Council of Europe published the "European
Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" which aims to protect
a language of a historical/autochthonous minority as an identitydefining
cultural phenomenon.
II. UN adopted the "Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging
to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities"
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by resolution №47/135, dated December 18, 1992.
From the very beginning two distinctly differing noble aims of
the international organizations have been identified:
- maintenance and development of a language of a historical nonprincipal
minority as a historical cultural heritage;
- protection of linguistic rights of non-principal population.
We would like to note that the terms "national" and "ethnic" are
regarded as two different (non-equal!) notions in the second document.
It must be highlighted that the terms indicated in these international
documents such as "autochthonous population, "national minority",
etc. quite often are interpreted differently by experts and authorities.
Sometimes we even encounter unexpected interpretations; for instance,
for the government of Poland a "national minority" means a nation with
a state of their own residing within the territory of Poland (for instance,
the Germans in Poland); while an "ethnic minority" is another ethnic
group without a state of their own residing within the territory of Poland
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(for instance, Roma ).
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On forty-seventh session (03.02.1993)
(www.diversity.ge/eng/resources.php?coi=0|14|11|11|11).
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See: "The Regional Language, National and Ethnic Minorities Act"
(http://www.usefoundation.org/view/479);
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