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Aware that national minorities form an integral part of the society of
the States in which they live and that they are a factor of enrichment of each
respective State and society,
Confirming the need to respect and implement fully and fairly their
undertakings in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms as set forth in the international instruments by which they may be bound,
Reaffirming their strong determination to respect and apply, to their full extent, all their commitments relating to national minorities and persons
belonging to them in the Helsinki Final Act, the Madrid Concluding Document
and the Vienna Concluding Document, the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of
the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE, the Document of the Cracow
Symposium on the Cultural Heritage as well as the Charter of Paris for a New
Europe, the participating States present below the summary of their
conclusions.
The representatives of the participating States took as the fundamental basis of their work the commitments undertaken by them with respect to
national minorities as contained in the relevant adopted CSCE documents, in
particular those in the Charter of Paris for a New Europe and the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE,
which they fully reaffirmed.
II.
The participating States stress the continued importance of a thorough review of implementation of their CSCE commitments relating to persons belonging to national minorities.
They emphasize that human rights and fundamental freedoms are the basis for the protection and promotion of rights of persons belonging to national minorities. They further recognize that questions relating to national
minorities can only be satisfactorily resolved in a democratic political framework based on the rule of law, with a functioning independent judiciary.
This framework guarantees full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, equal rights and status for all citizens, including persons