The protection of national minorities is a core issue for the Council of Europe, and one of the major achievements in this field is the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Framework Convention). The entry into force of this convention, on 1 February 1998, was an event of universal stature, as it is the first legally binding multilateral instrument devoted to the protection of national minorities. In addition to country-specific opinions on the implementation of the Framework Convention, the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has developed a more transversal approach to its work conducted after the first monitoring cycle. In 2004, the committee launched more thematic work with the aim of summarising its experience and views on the most important issues it has come across in its monitoring of the Framework Convention. The results of this work take the form of “thematic commentaries” on specific topics.
Thematic commentaries have been adopted so far on education (2006, revised in 2024), participation (2008), language rights (2012) and the scope of application (2016).
