TNAG-2321-FCO40-3365-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 210

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The participating States are convinced that the preservation of the

values and of the cultural heritage of national minorities requires the involvement of persons belonging to such minorities and that tolerance and respect for different cultures are of paramount importance in this regard. Accordingly, they confirm the importance of refraining from hindering the production of cultural materials concerning national minorities, including by persons belonging to them.

The participating States affirm that persons belonging to a national minority will enjoy the same rights and have the same duties of citizenship as the rest of the population.

The participating States reconfirm the importance of adopting, where necessary, special measures for the purpose of ensuring to persons belonging to national minorities full equality with the other citizens in the exercise

and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. They further recall

the need to take the necessary measures to protect the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of national minorities on their territory and create conditions for the promotion of that identity; any such measures will be in conformity with the principles of equality and non-discrimination

with respect to the other citizens of the participating State concerned.

They recognize that such measures, which take into account, inter alia,

historical and territorial circumstances of national minorities, are

particularly important in areas where democratic institutions are being consolidated and national minorities issues are of special concern.

Aware of the diversity and varying constitutional systems among them, which make no single approach necessarily generally applicable, the

participating States note with interest that positive results have been obtained by some of them in an appropriate democratic manner by, inter alia:

advisory and decision-making bodies in which minorities are represented,

in particular with regard to education, culture and religion;

elected bodies and assemblies of national minority affairs;

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