About

Over one hundred million inhabitants in Europe, around fifty million of them in the EU, are members of an autochthonous national minority, ethnic group, regional or linguistic community. Many of them cannot use their mother tongue in public nor express their culture and identity to the same extent as the majority population in their region. To make these many individual people and collective groups heard and to make their problems, fears and challenges seen by a broad public, we have decided to launch a project called Minority Monitor. Within this project, we aim to highlight the many breaches of minority rights in Europe, in order to come a step closer to our dream of a society in which all languages and communities are equal, respected and valued.

The Minority Monitor was established to provide a common platform for autochthonous national minorities and language communities in Europe to make violations and disregard of their rights visible to the public. In cooperation with stakeholders from different minority sectors, the multi-partner project aims to identify and analyse the different challenges faced by the various minorities in Europe, and to monitor developments in the different areas of minority rights. Eventually, it will contribute to finding effective solutions providing targeted examples of good practices.

The Minority Monitor website comprises a transparent and concise overview of minority rights breaches. Displaying a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the situation of minorities in Europe, it will raise the public awareness of discrimination and disadvantage against several minorities. Especially for the smaller minorities or specific cases that are not widely known to the European public, the website will be an important platform to gain the public attention on their issues and challenges.

However, it is not our aim to provoke certain states or convict them for breaches of the law or disregard for minority rights. Rather, this site is intended to serve as a platform and source of input offering at the same time targeted recommendations for solutions. In doing so, we show how the situation of minorities can be effectively improved by highlighting best practices and solutions.

The Minority Monitor is intended to be a dynamic and constantly developing platform which will present an increasing number of cases of minority rights breaches within the course of its existence. At the same time, it offers exemplary solutions to the problems described in these cases. This way, the project provides considerable added value for the European society and contributes to linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe.

In order to be able to offer a broad and objective platform, we work together with many partners who point out new cases and provide us with best practices. The different actors in research institutions, advocacy groups as well as institutions for monitoring minority rights and, of course, minority organisations themselves, contribute to creating a compact and comprehensible overview and a network that identifies the problematic challenges as well as the diversity and enrichment of national minorities in Europe.

Project Leader

The Federal Union of European Nationalities is the project bearer and administers this page. With this site, the FUEN offers its more than 100 member organisations, partners and members of autochthonous minorities a platform to present and discus misconduct in minority policy. However, the FUEN does not assume any liability for the contents of the presented contents, which are transmitted by partner organisations and third parties.