CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ THE STATUS OF NEWMINORITIES IN THE LIGHT OF THE FRAMEWORK… members of the Jewish community did not regard themselves as a national minority but rather as a cultural or religious community. The Advisory Committee also rated very positively that persons of Russian and Ukrainian origin, who did not have Czech citizenship and therefore could not be considered as members of national minorities, were granted benefits from special government programs for the integration of foreigners. Access to state subsidies for cultural activities was also provided to the Vietnamese minority, who at that time was not yet represented in the Council for National Minorities and represented a prime example of a new minority. The Advisory Committee reached the conclusion that the Czech Republic correctly applied the article-by-article approach. 45 The third compliance report of the Czech Republic under the Framework Convention, 46 which was submitted in 2010, did not contain a detailed explanation of which national minorities were represented in the Council. Attached to the report, however, there was an overview of various subsidy programs for the promotion of national minority cultures and languages in the period from 1999 to 2008. These statistics showed that, in addition to support provided for national minorities represented in the Council, also the Vietnamese minority, which in 2010 was not represented in the Council, was among the beneficiaries,. The amount of 814 500 CZK, which was spent on the support of Vietnamese culture in the Czech Republic, even exceeded e.g. the financial support granted to the recognized Croatian, Serbian or Ruthenian minorities. In its third evaluation report, 47 the Advisory Committee very positively noted the inclusion of non-citizens who identified themselves with national minorities in the Czech Republic. The Advisory Committee also welcomed that persons of Croatian and Serb origin, who had immigrated to the Czech Republic in the previous two decades, could, regardless of their citizenship, participate in cultural minority activities and thus indirectly benefit from protection under the Framework Convention. At the same time, however, the Advisory Committee insisted that the citizenship criterion cannot be considered as the only condition for the granting of minority rights under the Framework Convention. According to the Advisory Committee the citizenship requirement was not in full accordance with the spirit of the Framework Convention. The Advisory Committee recalled that minority rights are human rights and, therefore, they shall not be restricted to citizens. In this context, the Advisory Committee pointed at current efforts at the European level “to develop a more nuanced, i.e. flexible and contextualized approach to the application of the citizenship criterion within the protection of national minorities”. 48

45 Ibid. , para. 27-28. 46 ACFC/SR/III(2010)008. 47 ACFC/OP/III(2011)008. 48 Ibid ., para. 29-30.

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