Language Research

Yugoslavia ratified the Convention against Discrimination in Education under a 1964 decree. The Convention specifically emphasizes that members of national minorities shall enjoy the right to use their own language and to carry out instruction in it. Such rights should be exercised in a way that does not prevent national minorities from understanding the culture and language of the community at large and from participating in its life, and in a way which does not endanger national sovereignty. The level of instruction in such schools should not be below the general level prescribed or approved by the competent authorities. Attendance at such schools should be a matter of free choice. The aforementioned, as well as other provisions of the Convention, have been incorporated in the Yugoslav internal legal system.

The International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination 1967

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid

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Updated (March 2003)

Yugoslavia signed the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities on May 11, 2001, as a non-member state of the Council of Europe. The Federal Parliament ratified it and it entered into force on September 1, 2001.

LEGAL

Passage of the federal Act on Protection of the Rights and Liberties of National Minorities (Minorities Protection Act) from February 26, 2002 created a basic structure for implementation of the main principles set out in the Convention.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia came into being in 1992 as a federation of the constituent Republics of Serbia and Montenegro, two of the six Republics creating the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

There is a notable lack of harmony between three Constitutions currently in force (the Federal Constitution of April 1992, the Serbian Constitution of September 1990, and the Montenegrin Constitution of 1992), particularly in respect of the Serbian Constitution, which was promulgated before the Federal Constitution. A large number of republican laws have not been brought into conformity with federal laws and; furthermore, such major pieces of federal legislation as the Criminal Code, the Minorities Protection Act and others have not been applied in Montenegro yet.

Following the federal presidential election of September 24, 2000 and the change of government in October of that year, the federal government established the Ministry for National and Ethnic Communities, which works actively on a project of a new minority policy in Yugoslavia. After ratifying the Framework Convention, the Federal Parliament adopted the Minorities Protection Act, which for the first time comprehensively regulated the rights of minorities.

Article 3 (Freedom to Choose One's Nationality)

1.Every person belonging to a national minority shall have the right freely to choose to be treated or not to be treated as such and no disadvantage shall result from this choice or from the exercise of the rights, which are connected to that choice.

2.Persons belonging to national minorities may exercise the rights and enjoy the freedoms flowing from the principles enshrined in the present framework Convention individually as well as in community with others.

Article 45 (1) of the Federal Constitution guarantees freedom of expression of national sentiments and the use of one's mother tongue, and paragraph 2 states that no one is obliged to declare his nationality. The corresponding articles of the republican constitutions are very similar. These provisions are of major importance for the protection of minority rights.

Article 4 (Equality and Non-Discrimination)

1.The Parties undertake to guarantee to persons belonging to national minorities the right of equality before the law and of equal protection of the law. In this respect, any discrimination based on belonging to a national minority shall be prohibited.

2.The Parties undertake to adopt, where necessary, adequate measures in order to promote, in all areas of economic, social, political and cultural life, full and effective equality between persons belonging to a national minority and those belonging to the majority. In this respect, they shall take due account of the specific conditions of the persons belonging to national minorities.

3.The measures adopted in accordance with paragraph 2 shall not be considered to be an act of discrimination.

The Yugoslav, Serbian, and Montenegrin Constitutions and the Kosovo Constitutional framework guarantee equality before the law and equal protection to all people, including persons belonging to national minorities and ethnic groups.

The Serbian and Montenegrin Parliaments have special bodies dealing with the minority rights (the Committee on Inter-Ethnic Relations in Serbia, and the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms in Montenegro). Representatives of minorities serve in these committees. In addition to the Federal Ministry for National and Ethnic Communities, the Montenegrin government has a Department for National and Ethnic Groups, which is ranked as the Ministry and is headed by a representative of a minority group. There is no Ministry in Serbia charged specifically with the protection of minority rights.

The provincial administration of Vojvodina has also set up a Secretariat for Regulations, Administration and National Minorities, which is headed by a representative of the ethnic Hungarians, the largest minority community in Vojvodina. The Kosovo Assembly has the Committee on the Rights and Interests of Communities made up of two members of each community elected to the Assembly. At the request of any member of the Assembly Presidency, any proposed law is submitted to the Committee, which by the majority of votes decides whether to make some recommendations regarding the law.

The new Act on Local Self-government in Serbia (Sluzbeni glasnik RS, No. 9/2002) envisages in Article 63 establishment of the Councils on Inter-Ethnic Relations. These councils are made up of representatives of all national and ethnic communities in ethnically mixed municipalities (municipalities where one national community accounts for over 5 percent of the total population, or in which members of all minority groups make up over 10 percent of the population according to the latest census). Communities where minorities create more than 1 percent of the population can delegate representatives to the councils. Focusing on the exercise of national equality, its protection and promotion, the councils address their opinions and recommendations to the local municipal assemblies. The assemblies are bound to place these on their agendas within 30 days at the latest. Under the law, the councils are local bodies set up to consider the multi-ethnic dimensions of ethnically mixed communities and to promote inter-ethnic cooperation. Their basic role is coordination.

Article 3 of the Minorities Protection Act prohibits any discrimination on national, ethnic, racial or linguistic grounds. Under paragraph 2, government agencies at all levels - federal, republican, provincial and municipal - may not bring discriminatory laws or take any measures of a discriminatory nature.

The Serbian Act on Elementary Schools contains in Article 7 the provision prohibiting any activities in schools which threaten or disparage groups and individuals on the grounds of race, nationality, language, religion or gender, incitement to such activities, and corporal punishment or humiliation of schoolchildren.

The Serbian Labor Act in Article 12 prohibits discrimination and states that both persons seeking employment and those already employed may not be disadvantaged on the basis of their sex, birth, language, race, nationality, religion, etc.

The Serbian Broadcasting Act lays down in Article 3 (6) that regulation of relations in the field of broadcasting is based, inter alia, on “the principle of the prohibition of discrimination.”

Article 5 (Culture, Preservation of Identity, Refraining from Assimilation)

1.The Parties undertake to promote the conditions necessary for persons belonging to national minorities to maintain and develop their culture, and to preserve the essential elements of their identity, namely their religion, language, traditions and cultural heritage.

2.Without prejudice to measures taken in pursuance of their general integration policy, the Parties shall refrain from policies or practices aimed at assimilation of persons belonging to national minorities against their will and shall protect these persons from any action aimed at such assimilation.

Under the Serbian Act on Local Self-Government, municipalities are entitled to set up cultural institutions whose activities they monitor and support (Article 18, par. 14). Although with a long tradition, minority cultural institutions face several difficulties. Despite obligation of the state to maintain and develop culture of the minorities, cultural projects do occasionally receive the state support.

Since Yugoslavia's accession to the Framework Convention, the state has taken no measures specifically designed for maintenance and development of the language and culture of the ethnic Albanians in Serbia. Only some necessary steps have been taken in Presevo, due to the efforts of local authorities.

An increasing proportion of the Bosniac children in Kosovo have to attend Albanian-language elementary schools since education in their own language is not provided. Kosovo high-school graduates have no possibility to obtain a higher education in the Bosniac language.

The Turkish minority is in a better situation because the Turkish government grants scholarships for students to study at schools and universities in Turkey. The majority of Roma children in Kosovo do not go to school at all and those who do attend classes study in a language spoken in a particular area. The Ashkali and Egyptians who speak Albanian are in a slightly better position.

The HLC (Humanitarian Law Center) registered no direct and forcible assimilation in the areas where it conducted its research, although various actions taken by the authorities and the absence of appropriate measures resulted in a loss of national or ethnic identity. In Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo such actions are present mostly in the field of education when an approach to secondary and higher education in the minority languages is unbalanced. The problem with classes providing instruction in minority languages is the most acute in Vojvodina where students who are unable to enroll in a class providing instruction in their language are forced to attend Serbian language classes.

Article 9 (Access to the Media and Use of Own Media)

1.The Parties undertake to recognize that the right to freedom of expression of every person belonging to a national minority includes freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas in the minority language, without interference by public authorities and regardless of frontiers. The Parties shall ensure, within the framework of their legal systems, that persons belonging to a national minority are not discriminated against in their access to the media.

2.Paragraph 1 shall not prevent Parties from requiring the licensing, without discrimination and based on objective criteria, of sound radio and television broadcasting, or cinema enterprises.

3.The Parties shall not hinder the creation and the use of printed media by persons belonging to national minorities. In the legal framework of sound radio and television broadcasting, they shall ensure, as far as possible, and taking into account the provisions of paragraph 1, that persons belonging to national minorities are granted the possibility of creating and using their own media.

4.In the framework of their legal systems, the Parties shall adopt adequate measures in order to facilitate access to the media for persons belonging to national minorities and in order to promote tolerance and permit cultural pluralism.

Legislation guarantees an access to the media and public information in minority languages. In July 2002, the Serbian Parliament adopted the Broadcasting Act, the first law dealing with public information since the change of government in October 2000. Under this Act, broadcasting is regulated by an independent Broadcasting Agency. One out of nine members of this agency shall be from an organization focusing primarily on the protection of freedom of speech, the rights of national and ethnic minorities, and the rights of the child.

TV Novi Sad covers the whole territory of Vojvodina and broadcasts daily news in Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian and Ruthenian. Weekly programs in Romani and Croat have been introduced recently. Depending on their size and interests, all minority communities in Vojvodina have their own printed media, and there are no restrictions, formal or otherwise, in this regard.

Sandzak Bosniacs have a large number of printed and electronic media, most of which are based in Novi Pazar. However, there are neither Bosniac language programs, nor programs on Bosniac traditions and culture broadcast with any regularity in the Serbian state television.

Thanks to a cable TV system in Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad, Bulgars in these municipalities can watch three channels from neighboring Bulgaria. Broadcasting of weekly news and an information program in Bulgarian was discontinued in 1999 and has not been resumed yet. Bulgars do not have their own daily newspapers, and Bulgarian newspapers reach Belgrade with several days' delay.

The weekly “Jehona” is the only Albanian language printed media in Serbia. In 2001, it, for the first time, received a financial assistance from the local government in Bujanovac. There were no Albanian language printed or electronic media in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja municipalities before the armed conflict in the region. The situation improved in 2001 when Radio Presevo was launched and a private radio station in Bujanovac started to be supported.

In Montenegro the Parliament is a founder and a publisher of the Albanian language magazine “Koha Javore.” A number of private radio and television stations in Podgorica and Ulcinj municipalities broadcast Albanian language programs, and Ulcinj also receives several radio and TV programs from neighboring Albania. The only Bosniac/Muslim printed media in Montenegro is the “Almanah” magazine dealing with the cultural and historical heritage of Bosniacs/Muslims in Montenegro.

A large number of minority communities in Kosovo have applied for the licenses to establish a private radio station. Brief news programs in the Bosniac and Serb language are broadcast for members of these communities by local stations and Kosovo Radio and Television.

Roma have only one periodical on cultural topics. There is no longer any radio and television program in this language. Publication of the only Turkish language newspaper “Tan,” which came out for 30 years, has been discontinued.

Article 10 (Official Use of Minority Languages)

1.The Parties undertake to recognize that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to use freely and without interference his or her minority language, in private and in public, orally and in writing.

2.In areas inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities traditionally or in substantial numbers, if those persons so request and where such a request corresponds to a real need, the Parties shall endeavor to ensure, as far as possible, the conditions which would make it possible to use the minority language in relations between those persons and the administrative authorities.

3.The Parties undertake to guarantee the right of every person belonging to a national minority to be informed promptly, in a language which he or she understands, of the reasons for his or her arrest, of the nature and cause of any accusation against him or her, and to defend himself or herself in this language, if necessary with the free assistance of an interpreter.

Article 49 of the Yugoslav Constitution guarantees everyone the right to use his own language in proceedings before a court or other authorities and organizations and in the course of those proceedings to be informed in his own language. Under the Act on Official Use of Languages and Scripts, local communities decide whether a minority language will be officially used alongside Serbian in their territory.

In Vojvodina, this matter is regulated by Article 10 (4) of the province's Statute under which the Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Ruthenian and, since recently, also Croatian language is officially used along with Serbian. Use of all minority languages is compulsory in the Vojvodina Executive Council (provincial government). Birth certificates and other official forms are multilingual and are filled out in a minority language upon request. One minority language in addition to Serbian is used in twenty Vojvodina municipalities; two minority languages and Serbian are in use in eleven Vojvodina municipalities, and three minority languages and Serbian are used in five Vojvodina municipalities and in the capital of Novi Sad.

Croats in Montenegro, who live mainly in Kotor and Tivat municipalities, are unable to use their language in relations with the administrative bodies.

Albanian is in use in Presevo municipality together with Serbian. Following the change of a local government, the same decision was taken in Bujanovac. The Serbian language and Cyrillic script are in official use in Medvedja municipality where Albanians make up approximately 30 percent of the population.

Serbian is the only official language in Montenegrin municipality of Bar in which Albanians constitute 12.5 percent of the population although the municipal assembly's statute envisages the possibility to use also the Albanian language.

Election legislation lays down the compulsory use of minority languages in the election process (the Act on Election of Parliamentary Deputies and the Act on Local Elections). This provision creates practical problems and considerably increases costs (e.g. Backa Topola municipality).

Federal legislation and regulations significant for the implementation of the rights and liberties of persons belonging to national minorities are required to be published in the minority languages.

Since Bulgars constitute a majority in Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad municipalities, Bulgarian should be the official language along with Serbian. This, however, is not the case; when all forms and documents issued by the local administration and republican agencies, including birth, marriage and death certificates, are only in Serbian.

In contrast, the situation is different in the ethnically mixed municipalities of Vojvodina. In Alibunar municipality, the Romanian and Slovakian language is used along with Serbian, enabling persons belonging to these minorities to communicate with the administrative authorities in their own languages.

Bosniac is in the official use in Novi Pazar, Sjenica and Tutin where this minority lives in substantial numbers. In Prijepolje municipality where Bosniacs account for some 45 percent of the population, only Serbian is used. The Minorities Protection Act envisages in Article 11 (2) that “units of local self-government shall introduce into the equal official use the language and script of a national minority when the national minority constitutes 15 percent of the population of the municipality according to the latest Census.”

Sessions of the Kosovo Assembly and its committees are conducted in Albanian and Serbian, and all official documents are in both these languages. Deputies belonging to other ethnic communities may address the Assembly and its committees orally and in writing in their own languages. The situation is identical for the Kosovo government and its agencies. Turkish, however, is no longer the official language in Kosovo. Persons belonging to minorities can use their languages in judicial proceedings, with the assistance of an interpreter.

Article 11 (Use of Names in Minority Languages)

1.The Parties undertake to recognize that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to use his or her surname (patronym) and first names in the minority language and the right to official recognition of them, according to modalities provided for in their legal system.

2.The Parties undertake to recognize that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to display in his or her minority language signs, inscriptions and other information of a private nature visible to the public.

3.In areas traditionally inhabited by substantial numbers of persons belonging to a national minority, the Parties shall endeavor, in the framework of their legal system, including, where appropriate, agreements with other States, and taking into account their specific conditions, to display traditional local names, street names and other topographical indications intended for the public also in the minority language when there is a sufficient demand for such indications.

The use of personal names in the minority languages has not been accepted by the domestic law. All personal and public documents are in the Serbian language and Cyrillic script, and the first and last name cannot be spelled in a minority language. This occasionally has inappropriate and even derogatory outcomes, causing dissatisfaction among persons belonging to minorities. When parents insisted on a name in a minority language, registrars refused to write it to the Register of Births (case in Bosilegrad).

Displaying of inscriptions with traditional local names, street names and other topographical indications in minority languages depends on the official use of minority languages at local level. Under the Act on Official Use of Languages and Scripts, inscriptions intended for the public are both in Serbian and in a minority language used in a particular area. Such inscriptions are commonly to be found in municipalities where a minority constitutes the majority of the population (Subotica, Coka, Presevo, Ulcinj, Novi Pazar), and are regulated by the statutes of local assemblies. Inscriptions on the buildings of republican agencies in multi-ethnic communities are in Serbian alone.

Article 12 (Right to Education of Persons Belonging to Minorities)

1.The Parties shall, where appropriate, take measures in the fields of education and research to foster knowledge of the culture, history and religion of their national minorities and of the majority.

2.In this context the Parties shall inter alia provide adequate opportunities for teacher training and access to textbooks, and facilitate contacts among students and teachers of different communities.

3.The Parties undertake to promote equal opportunities for access to education at all levels for persons belonging to national minorities.

Article 13 of the Minorities Protection Act guarantees the right of national minorities to be educated in their languages from pre-school to secondary school level. In practice, however, in case of some minorities, education in their language is ensured only up to a certain level (e.g. from grades 1 to grade 4).

Under the Serbian Act on Secondary Education (Article 4 (1)), classroom instructions are in Serbian, while Article 5 (2) states that instructions are in a minority language or two languages only when requested by at least 15 children in a first-grade class. The new Serbian University Act states that instruction in the institutions of higher education may also be in the minority and foreign languages.

The Hungarian and Slovak communities have the best access to education in their languages from the lowest to the highest level. There are several elementary and secondary schools providing instruction in Romanian (Vrsac, Alibunar, Plandiste,) as well as a class at the Teachers College in Vrsac. Persons belonging to the Romanian community can obtain higher education in their language at the Novi Sad University of Languages, which has a Romanian Studies Department.

In the school year 2002/2003, Subotica educational authorities made it possible for Croatian children to start education in their language. Thus 41 first-graders are receiving instruction in Croatian at three schools in the municipality. The curriculum was drawn up by the Croat Academic Society in Subotica and approved by Vojvodina educational authorities.

Education of Bulgar children is organized in Bosilegrad and Dimitrovgrad municipalities. Besides Serbian, the curriculum offers two Bulgarian language lessons a week. As for secondary education for Bulgarian children, they get instruction in Serbian with two lessons of the Bulgarian language a week since there was not enough interest to study in all-Bulgarian or combined Bulgarian-Serbian schools. Students may take their secondary school final examinations in the Bulgarian language (an option chosen only by two students in 2001).

There are no institutions of higher education in Serbia providing instruction in Albanian. Diplomas obtained in Kosovo were not recognized by the Serbian authorities up to 2001.

Elementary and secondary school textbooks in the Albanian language are almost exclusively translated from Serbian textbooks, are out of date and virtually none of them have anything to say about the culture and traditions of Albanians.

Albanian language elementary education in Montenegro is provided in Ulcinj, Podgorica, Bar, Plav and Rozaje municipalities while the only pre-school institutions are located in Ulcinj and Tuzi near Podgorica. Secondary education in this language is available in Ulcinj, Plav and Tuzi. The Montenegrin government recently decided to establish an Albanian language chair at the Faculty of Humanities in Niksic. Since the government disregarded the request of Albanian political parties to locate the chair in the area where Albanians constitute the majority of the population, not enough students enrolled.

Article 14 (Right to Learn Minority Languages)

1.The Parties undertake to recognize that every person belonging to national minority has the right to learn his or her minority language.

2.In areas inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities traditionally or in substantial numbers, if there is sufficient demand, the Parties shall endeavor to ensure, as far as possible and within the framework of their education systems, that persons belonging to those minorities have adequate opportunities for being taught the minority language or for receiving instruction in this language.

3.Paragraph 2 of this article shall be implemented without prejudice to the learning of the official language or the teaching of this language.

As the 1992 Serbian legislation on elementary education was restrictive with regard to the minority rights, it was amended on April 25, 2002. However, the rule that a class receiving instruction in a minority language or in two languages must have at least 15 students continues to apply. For establishment of the class with a smaller number of students the approval of the Minister of Education is required. Students receiving instruction in their own language have an obligation to learn Serbian. Schools with Serbian instruction provide opportunities for students who belong to minorities to learn their own languages. A minority language is an elective subject when two consecutive lessons are taught once a week, mainly on Saturdays, if there is a sufficient demand.

Source: Shadow Report on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo prepared by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), 2002, http://www.minelres.lv/coe/report/FRY_NGO.htm

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