Resource Center on National Minorities

Resource Center for National Minorities was established on 1 February, 2000 and supported by LINKS (London Informational Network on Conflict and State Building) and CLEE (Center of Legal and Economic Education).

We have created two networks of NGOs working in minority field. One in Azerbaijan and one in Caucasus. We publish a Newsletter on national minorities for all Caucasus region. Last month we had negotiations with representatives of Armenian NGOs in Tbilisi and prepared a draft paper for how NGOs can resolve current conflicts.

The aims of RCNM are:

• Protect rights of national minorities at national and international level;
• Increase participation of representatives of national minorities in public life;
• Simplify access to information for members of national minorities and increase their participation in a flow of the information;
• Initiate and support intercultural exchange;
• Promote interethnic tolerance and cooperation at a national and international level;
• Support democratization of schools, police, and local authorities;
• Distribute information about national minority and interethnic relations;

Programs of RCNM:

• Monitor observance of the rights of national minorities;
• Promote legal reform to prevent ethnic and religious discrimination according to the international standards;
• Monitor how the questions connected with the right of national minorities are reflected in mass-media;
• Support ethnic and cultural rights of national minorities;
• Provide legal assistance and protection for the rights of national minorities;
• Support interethnic activity at local cultural centers;
• Promote intercultural dialogue;
• Support education in native languages;
• Support festivals of various cultural and religious communities;
• Distribute documentary films, which raise intercultural understanding;
• Help to prepare the police for work with national minorities; Provide support for women in communities of national minorities.

Our Links:

Caucasus Links (Georgia)
Minelres (Latvia)
Minority Rights Group (MRG) (Great Britain)
European Center On Minority Issues (ECMI)(Germany)
Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) (Great Britain)
Roma Human Rights Project (RHRP) (Hungary)
Colpi (Hungary)
Council Of Europe (Europe)
EAWARN (Russia)
ERCOMER
EURAC
United
USIS (USA)
Emory University (USA)

Last updated:    June 2000

A print version of much of the information contained in this NIS Third Sector Organizations section can be found in the The Post-Soviet Handbook (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1999).

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