February 2005

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THE NETHERLANDS RATIFIES FRAMEWORK CONVENTION, GEORGIA MAYBE IN SEPTEMBER

February 2005 – The Netherlands has become the 36th state to ratify the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The ratification took place on 16 February and it will enter into force for the Netherlands on 1 June 2005. As regards the minorities protected, the declaration made by the Netherlands, contained in the instrument of acceptance, limits the provisions of the Framework Convention only to the Frisian minority, thus not considering ‘national minorities’ other discriminated groups such as the Roma. As pointed out by the organisation Minority Rights Group International (MRG) in a piece of news from last year, “the Dutch concept of ‘national minorities’ is limited to Frisians and fails to accept Roma or Sinti groups, and others including Moluccans, Moroccans, Surinamese and Turks, despite the fact that many have long histories within Dutch territory”. In fact, in 1999 a wider initial proposal on ratification was submitted to the Dutch 2nd Chamber (House of Representatives), but it was rejected because it offered greater protection “than desired or intended”. According to MRG, the Dutch declaration may be invalid as the reservation it introduces is incompatible with the object and purpose of the Framework Convention, in accordance with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Article 19). MRG suggests that the limitation kept by the Netherlands results in it being amongst the weakest, in terms of minority rights, of all states to have ratified the Convention, thus providing poor standards to follow for other states with far worse rights records.

There still remain six states which have signed but not ratified the Framework Convention: Greece, Latvia, Georgia, Belgium, Luxembourg and Iceland. And four have not signed it yet, including France and Turkey. As for Georgia, it has committed itself to ratify it very soon, most likely by the end of September 2005. In order to work on it, a meeting was organised on 14 February in Tbilisi by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and the Council of Europe (CoE). As reported by the CoE, the meeting brought together all relevant stakeholders, including representatives of the government and parliament, NGOs and minority associations as well as international organisations. One of the current most relevant issues concerning minorities in Georgia’s political agenda is a controversial draft law on primary education. As ECMI reports, the Armenian and Russian languages under the new law might not be maintained as the languages of instruction in minority schools. The Armenian population in the Javakheti region, for instance, where it makes a vast majority (95% of the population), is not opposed to the introduction of the Georgian language in the region’s schools, although they consider it should be taught as a second language.