The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) has published new opinions on Albania, Austria and the Republic of Moldova.
The Advisory Committee praises the prevailing atmosphere of mutual respect and intercultural dialogue in Albania, especially in terms of inter-religious tolerance. However, the lack of reliable, disaggregated data related to national minorities, ranging from census figures to monitoring hate speech and hate crime, poses significant challenges in assessing their situation and designing targeted policies, particularly given the thresholds contained in the Law on National Minorities. The Albanian version of the summary of the opinion and the comments of the Albanian authorities have also been published.
The Committee welcomes Austria’s commitment to the protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities but expresses concerns about the increase in racism and intolerance. It urges the authorities to increase their efforts to promote mutual respect, intercultural dialogue and understanding in society and to increase knowledge among the majority population about diversity as an integral part of Austrian society, including through the educational system. See the German versions of the opinion and of its summary.
The Republic of Moldova is successfully managing its ethnic diversity and making efforts to create a shared civil identity, the Advisory Committee says, although this is still a work in progress and remains a challenge. Further action is needed in this respect based on the promotion and protection of the country’s wide cultural and linguistic diversity, while ensuring a better knowledge of Romanian as the state language among persons belonging to national minorities in response to their own request. A summary of the Opinion is also available in Romanian.
