MONITORING MINORITY RIGHTS: Twenty-Five Years Of Implementation Of The Framework Convention For The Protection Of National Minorities

In the countries that formed on the territory of Yugoslavia, multiculturalism is a phenomenon that few people are truly happy about. Ethno-cultural differences were often the cause of conflicts, xenophobia and nationalism. The peoples in this area aspire to a life based on a monocultural outlook, on ethnically homogeneous territories populated by culturally, ethnically, linguistically and religiously close compatriots. In the last three decades, on the legacy of the conflicts that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, but also on the experiences of the multiculturalism policy developed during its history and, in particular, on the standards for the protection of national minorities contained in the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe and the recommendations of the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the post-Yugoslav states have developed their own multiculturalism policies whose goals are the coexistence and security of people and the protection and preservation of the identity of national (ethnic) minorities. For this purpose, national instruments and mechanisms have been established, funds are allocated in national budgets to support multiculturalism policies, and successful ones are awarded recognitions and awards. However, the persistence of pronounced social distance between ethnic communities and demographic changes that indicate intensive voluntary emigration of members of national minorities indicate that something is still not right with multiculturalism in the area from “Vardar to Triglav”. It is to be expected that after three decades of applying the “most liberal”, as the politicians from this area were prone to saying, policies, multiculturalism, coexistence and tolerance of differences have become part of regional and national societies. However, that ideal has not been reached neither in the countries from this area that have become European Union members nor in those that are pejoratively singled out in the geopolitical construction of the Western Balkans and are striving to become so. Goran Bašić