CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ THE STATUS OF NEWMINORITIES IN THE LIGHT OF THE FRAMEWORK… the article-by-article approach. 33 At that time, Liechtenstein took a negative attitude towards the proposed solution and answered that religious minorities are protected by general human rights instruments and, in practice, the vast majority of immigrants come from neighboring German-speaking countries. The authorities did not record any problems with the integration of those immigrants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A few years later, however, Liechtenstein provided the Advisory Committee with information on the situation of migrant minorities. Thereupon, the Advisory Committee included into its evaluation report on Liechtenstein such aspects as e.g. the fight against racism, the rights of Muslim communities, support for migrant women and migrant children and the so-called intercultural dialogue. 34 When the Advisory Committee criticized, in particular, that refugees and women belonging to immigrant communities had difficult access to housing and employment, the Liechtenstein government did not argue that such questions do not at all fall under the Framework Convention. On the contrary, Lichtenstein readily responded to the suggestions made by the Advisory Committee and reported on domestic legislation regarding the integration of refugees and on statistics documenting the integration of foreigners. 35 6. New Minorities and the Czech Republic Until the adoption of Act No. 273/2001 Coll., on the rights of members of national minorities and the amendment of some acts (Minorities Act), the Czech legal system was lacking an explicit definition of the term national minority. In its initial compliance report under the Framework Convention which was submitted in April 1999 36 the Czech government pointed at the relevant administrative practice under which national minorities were perceived as groups of people who have Czech citizenship and have permanent residence in the Czech Republic, who share common ethnic, cultural and linguistic characteristics, by which they differ from the majority population, who expressed a common desire to be considered as a national minority and to preserve their minority identity, traditions and languages, and who have a long-term, firm and lasting relationship with Czech society. 37 When the initial report was submitted, Czech governmental practice recognized six national minorities to be represented in the Government Council for National Minorities. 38 33 ACFC/INF/OP/I(2001)003, p. 4. 34 ACFC/OP/III(2009)001, pp. 6-9. 35 GVT/COM/III(2010)001, pp. 4-5. 36 ACFC/SR(1999)006. 37 Ibid ., p. 14. The elements of this definition have been incorporated into Section 2 of the Minorities Act. See below. 38 It was the German, Hungarian, Polish, Romany, Slovak and Ukrainian national minorities.

219