YEN President speaks at OSCE Meeting

Creating more awareness for the positive potential of national minorities for societies and states – that was the main subject of the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting in Vienna on 10-11 November 2016. The meeting focused on one of the priorities within the framework of the German 2016 OSCE Chairmanship, namely the role of national minorities as bridge builders. German Ambassador Eberhard Pohl opened the meeting: “Where rights of national minorities are respected, where national minorities are an integral part of the society, diverse societies can serve to build bridges across states and cultures”, he said. 

Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) President and FUEN Presidium member Britta Tästensen was one of the three introducers on the topic: “Empowering civil society to build bridges on the grassroots level.” Britta spoke about the importance of minorities as bridge builders and how the work of YEN and the network of minority organisations are important components to bridge building development. She stated, that: “Minorities can show that well-established integration is possible without assimilation. Minorities need to preserve their culture, traditions, language and values as they are important to the European societies. Minorities need to be strengthened as they can build bridges between states, societies and cultures, and strengthen civil society and thus contribute to a peaceful society.”

The Director and Officer-in-Charge of the High Commissioner on National Minorities, Henrik Villadsen, said: “The concept of using minority-majority relations as “bridge-builders” takes its point of departure in the opportunities which lie in the variety of connections that can be built upon within diverse societies. Such connections can be – and are being – used positively to promote peace, security and economic development both within and between States.”

Rainer Hofmann, former President of the Advisory Committee to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main said in his keynote speech: “Let us not forget that diversity is an enrichment and not a threat, and that national minorities by their very nature add to such diversity by their inherent role of bridge builders. Diversity is something we should appreciate and not be afraid of.”

Researcher Zora Popova presented the OSCE-wide survey that was coordinated by the office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities and carried out by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) and the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC) on the bridge-building potential of national minorities. Popova and her team had identified 90 good practices of bridge-building examples. She invited participants at the meeting to share further interesting cases.

More information:
OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
Youth of European Nationalities (YEN)
Survey on good practices, highlighting the abilities of minorities as bridge-builders and agents of reconciliation between states

Photo above: OSCE/ German Delegation/Nicolas Fries