MINELRES: Council of Europe publishes report on minority languages in Slovakia
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[email protected]
Sat Mar 3 19:41:22 2007
Original sender: Simone Klinge <[email protected]>
PRESS RELEASE
Council of Europe publishes report on minority languages in Slovakia
Strasbourg, 28 February 2007.
The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers made public the first
report on the situation of minority languages in Slovakia on 21.02.07.
On the basis of this report, the Council of Europe calls on Slovakia to
improve its legislative framework in favour of minority language
protection. In particular, it asks the Slovak authorities to review the
remaining restrictions on minority language use in all spheres of public
life, including the limitation of administrative use to those
municipalities where at least 20% of the population are minority
language speakers.
This report has been drawn up by a committee of independent experts
which monitors the application of the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages.
Further to the report, the Committee of Ministers has adopted a series
of recommendations addressed to Slovakia. These include:
- Improvement of the provision of minority language education
- A stronger presence of minority languages in the media
- Promotion of awareness and tolerance concerning minority languages in
Slovak society at large
In Slovakia, 9 minority languages are protected under the Charter:
Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Romany, Ruthenian
and Ukrainian.
The full text of the report and the Committee of Ministers�
recommendations can be downloaded from the Charter's website:
http://www.coe.int/minlang ("Reports and Recommendations" section).
Further information can also be found on the Charter's website, or by
contacting the Charter Secretariat (Directorate of Co-operation for
Local and Regional Democracy, DG I - Legal Affairs, Council of Europe,
F-67075 Strasbourg, [email protected])
Simone Klinge
Council of Europe
Secretariat of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
DG I - Legal Affairs
F - 67075 STRASBOURG Cedex
Tel.: +33 (0) 390 21 5474
E-Mail:
[email protected]
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