234 / 536
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HARALD CHRISTIAN SCHEU
CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ
In its assessment of the Czech Republic’s initial report the Advisory Committee
noted in 2001 that at that moment a new legislation defining the term national
minority was still under preparation. The Advisory Committee pointed out that
States Parties have a certain margin of discretion when it comes to the recognition
of minorities and that they may take into account the concrete situation in the
country.
39
More specifically the Advisory Committee stated that in the Czech
Republic there were living groups of foreigners which by administrative practice
were not regarded as national minorities, and it urged the Czech government to
consider providing members of those groups certain minority rights under the
Framework Convention, namely according to an article-by-article approach.
40
In its second compliance report under the Framework Convention
41
the Czech
government reflected the new Minorities Act which had been adopted in the
meantime. According to Section 2 paragraph 1 of the Minorities Act a national
minority is a community of Czech citizens living on the territory of the present Czech
Republic, who differ from other citizens by their common ethnic origin, language,
culture and traditions, who represent a minority of the population and at the same
time they show their will to be considered a national minority for the purpose of
common efforts to preserve and develop their own identity, language and culture
and at the same time express and preserve interests of their community which has
been formed during history. Unlike regulations in some other Contracting States the
Czech Minorities Act does not exhaustively enumerate concrete national minorities.
The Czech government, however, added that there was a consensual approach to
draw a distinction between national minorities traditionally living in the Czech
Republic and other non-Czech groups of population, i.e. immigrants arriving
since the 1970’s.
42
At the time of the second periodic report there were altogether
11 national minorities represented in the Council for National Minorities,
43
the
recognition of the Serb minority was underway.
In its second evaluation report the Advisory Committee acknowledged the
adoption of the Minorities Act as a positive step and expressly welcomed the Czech
Republic’s “open approach” to the personal scope of the Framework Convention.
44
The Advisory Committee noted with satisfaction that state support programs
for minorities were accessible to the Jewish minority, despite the fact that most
39
ACFC/INF/OP/I(2002)002, p. 6.
40
Ibid.
41
ACFC/SR/II (2004) 007.
42
Ibid
., para. 53.
43
It was the Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, German, Polish, Roma, Ruthenian, Russian, Greek, Slovak
and Ukrainian national minorities. Compared to the state in 1999, the Council had been extended for
the Bulgarian, Croatian, Ruthenian, Russian and Greek minorities.
44
ACFC/OPII(2005)002. By the time of adoption of the evaluation report the process of integrating the
Serb minority to the Council had been completed.