High Commissioner on National Minorities

Created on July 8, 1992 by the Helsinki Summit Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now known as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) is charged with identifying and seeking early resolution of ethnic tension that might endanger peace, stability or friendly relations between participating states of the OSCE. The HCNM focuses on the OSCE area and will alert the Organisation where a situation has the potential to develop into a conflict. The Organisation consists of 57 participating States across North America, Europe and Asia. The establishment of the HCNM is generally considered to be a “success story” and a useful instrument of conflict prevention.

The creation of the office of HCNM was directly related to the political circumstances at the beginning of the 1990s. The Yugoslav Wars were ethnic conflicts that broke out after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and of Communism, and which eventually resulted in the break up of the country. Efforts of the CSCE, European Union and United Nations failed to bring peace. The frustration at being unable to prevent such a devastating human tragedy led to the Netherlands government proposing the post of the HCNM. This office would aim to prevent conflicts based on tensions with ethnic minorities. In regards to the Yugoslav tragedy, international efforts were deemed to have failed because of the limited knowledge of the international mediators of the ethnic situation. This often meant that tensions escalated because the international community did not fully understand the issues at play. Further, any international aid that was provided came too late. It was recognised that such tensions should be identified and addressed as early as possible in order to prevent escalation into endless conflict. The Yugoslav conflict also made clear that many conflicts around the world were rooted in tensions involving national minorities. It was against this background that the proposal for the office of the HCNM was presented.

Many concerns were raised in regards to the model put forward by the Netherlands. As a result, several major restrictions to the HCNM’s role were implemented into the mandate.

States disagreed on whether the rights of national minorities were individual or group rights. Ultimately, there was a clear exclusion of individual cases through paragraph 5(c) of the HCNM mandate. This prohibits the High Commissioner from considering “violations of CSCE commitments with regard to an individual person belonging to a national minority”. Many states feared that the HCNM would become a sort of "ombudsman" for national minorities. The aim of the office was not to create a new human rights instrument, but to create a conflict prevention tool. This was emphasised in the title of the office: the High Commissioner on National Minorities, not for National Minorities.

...
Wikipedia