Effective participation and inclusion of national minorities in focus of OSCE meeting in Turkmenistan

Good practices in the field of effective participation of national minorities and consultative mechanisms in the OSCE participating States were in focus of an OSCE-supported roundtable discussion that took place on 15 June 2023.

The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat organized the event in co-operation with the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) to support Turkmenistan’s efforts in the implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2021-2025 in the field of ensuring ethnic minorities’ rights.

Opening the roundtable discussion, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, who was visiting Turkmenistan from 12 to 16 June 2023, stated: “A meaningful level of representation and participation of minorities in all fields of a country’s public life − such as in elected assemblies, executive structures, the courts and advisory and consultative bodies at the national, regional and local level − is vital to foster loyalty to, and trust in, the institutions of the State.”

Experts from the Office of HCNM presented principles of effective participation and inclusion of ethnic communities and elaborated on key HCNM documents, including the 1999 Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life and the 2012 Ljubljana Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies.

Rune Castberg, Programme Co-ordinator of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, stressed the importance of the Memorandum on Co-operation between the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan and the Office of HCNM on Multilingual and Multicultural Development in Turkmenistan, signed in 2021.

“It is important that the event will also address the protection of the rights and cultural heritage of ethnic minorities and in this way will contribute to the implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2021-2025, which envisaged the development of measures to preserve ethnic, cultural and religious diversity and strengthen intercultural dialogue in society,” added Castberg.

International experts from Estonia and Lithuania shared best practices of the OSCE participating States in creating consultative mechanism for ethnic minorities and national minorities, enhancing their integration process and ensuring native language education.

The event brought together representatives of the Mejlis, Ministries of Education and Culture, Ombudsperson’s Office, Institute of State, Law and Democracy and law-enforcement bodies of Turkmenistan as well as city municipality, institutions of higher education and other relevant institutions.