Ten Years of the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life – Reflections on Progress and Unfinished Business

Abstract

This article is an introductory note to this special issue of the International journal on Minority and Group Rights on the tenth anniversary seminar of the Lund Recommendations. Its intention has not been to give an overview of all the individual contributions published in this issue of the journal. Instead the editor has intended to attract attention to his comments on a few specific questions and tendencies of particularly meaningful significance. Among them, the editor commented on the process and results of the strengthening of legal and political frameworks for national minority participation and the notable development of advisory and consultative bodies. Divergent views have been expressed on the degree of judicialisation of national minority participation. The article also discussed the benefits of the commendable relationship reached between the Lund Recommendations and Advisory Committee's Commentary No. 2 as well as against revision of Lund Recommendations but in favour of filling their gaps by a separate instrument within a set of recommendations to be devoted to integration in multi-ethnic societies.