Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM)

FCNM Newsletter| Minority rights in Europe - November 2025

The ACFC holds three plenary meetings in 2025

The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (ACFC) held its 85th, 86th and 87th plenary meetings in Strasbourg in February, July and October, respectively.

Most recently, at its 87th meeting (14-17 October), the ACFC adopted the final 5th Opinion on Portugal and 6th Opinion on Hungary. Besides, members of the Advisory Committee exchanged views with Christophe Kamp, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, and Ambassador Berta Mrak, President of the Rapporteur Group on Human Rights of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

During the 86th meeting (30 June-3 July), the ACFC adopted the final 6th Opinions on Cyprus, Czechia, Malta and Spain, amongst other items.

During the 85th meeting (24-28 February), the ACFC adopted the final 5th Opinion on Serbia and 6th Opinion on Finland. It further held discussions with the then President of the European Court of Human Rights, Marko Bošnjak, and representatives of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI).

The next plenary meeting is scheduled for February 2026 in Strasbourg.

ACFC President meets with Council of Europe’s Secretary-General

On 16 September, the Council of Europe’s Secretary-General, Alain Berset, gathered with the Chairs of the Council of Europe’s monitoring bodies.

Petra Roter represented the Advisory Committee, and met with her counterparts from the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (COMEX), as well as other bodies such as the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), the Group of Experts on the Convention on action against trafficking in human beings (GRETA) and the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO).

The Chairs exchanged with the Secretary-General, sharing their views about monitoring bodies’ role in a changing geopolitical context, as well as their potential collaboration with other regional and global mechanisms. The participants also provided inputs on the Secretary General’s New Democratic Pact for Europe.

Factsheet on minority women and girls, and other gender equality-related activities

The Secretariat of the Framework Convention published a factsheet on the

challenges faced by women and girls belonging to national minorities. The publication highlights the ACFC’s findings and recommendations to combat gender-related discriminations. In particular, the Advisory Committee calls for: more gender disaggregated data collection; preventing and combatting violence against women and girls, including domestic violence; ensuring equal access to education, employment, healthcare and justice; and tackling women and girl’s underrepresentation in political and public life.

In addition, on 15 October, the ACFC participated in a side-event focusing on minority women’s role in peacebuilding, which took place in the margins of the 2025 Geneva Peace Week. Earlier this year, the ACFC also attended a hearing on addressing discrimination against minority women and girls organised by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In both meetings, members presented how gender is mainstreamed in the Advisory Committee’s work, including through meeting minority women representatives during monitoring visits.

Factsheet on environmental challenges and national minorities now available

The Secretariat of the Framework Convention has published a factsheet on

environmental challenges and national minorities. The publication draws on the ACFC’s findings, and brings out a number of recommended actions, notably:

Providing support to certain national minorities and indigenous peoples to adapt their economic activity to new situations, such as climate change, to keep their community life, culture and language,
Ensuring that persons belonging to national minorities can effectively participate in all decisions affecting them, and that such decisions do not adversely affect their ability to preserve and develop their cultures, languages and identities, including their traditional ways of life,
Address the economic, social, cultural and other consequences of climate change and its potential negative impacts on national minorities.

Read other publications concerning the Framework Convention ›

Latest and forthcoming Opinions

The Advisory Committee published its:

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers subsequently adopted its resolutions on the implementation of the Framework Convention in Finland, Ireland, Lithuania and Serbia.

The Advisory Committee’s opinion on Spain will soon be published.

Find out more about the ACFC’s country-specific monitoring ›

Latest and forthcoming visits

Delegations of the Advisory Committee visited the Slovak Republic (20 -24 October), Poland (29 September-3 October), Ukraine (18-19 September), Croatia (9-13 June), Italy (7-11 April), and Portugal (24-28 March). They met with representatives of the state parties’ governments, local authorities, national minorities, as well as civil society in order to evaluate progress made in the implementation of the Framework Convention.

Several states parties submitted their reports on measures taken to implement the Advisory Committee and the Committee of Ministers’ recommendations – the Republic of Moldova, North Macedonia, Norway and Romania.

The ACFC follows up on its country-specific recommendations

A delegation of the Advisory Committee travelled to Ireland on 6 November to hold a follow-up dialogue with authorities, national minorities representatives and civil society, discussing the implementation of the recommendations made in the last monitoring cycle. Participants in particular addressed issues relating to discrimination affecting Traveller and Roma communities, education, housing, health and employment.

Similarly, the Advisory Committee co-organised a follow-up meeting in Switzerland in March, placing emphasis on protecting the Yenish and Sinti/Manoush’s itinerant way of life, preventing and combating hate speech and intolerance, and promoting the Italian and Romansh languages.

The Secretariat of the Framework Convention also attended an event marking the 25th anniversary of Sweden’s ratification of the international treaty. The gathering was an occasion to highlight the country’s significant progress in the field of national minorities’ protection, while also recalling the ACFC’s recommendations to tackle discriminations which Jews, Roma, Sami, Swedish Finns and Tornedalians still face.

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