Social life in the context of European minority rights

This overview summarizes international developments in the area of the socioeconomic rights of individuals belonging to minorities. Taking into consideration the focus of the European Yearbook of Minority Issues on European minorities, this review considers the developments at the level of the United Nations (UN, Human Rights Council, the UN Forum on Minority Issues, Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues), the Council of Europe (CoE, including the developments within the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the European Court of Human Rights, and the European Committee for Social Rights), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (osce, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the High Commissioner on National Minorities), and the European Union (EU, the Agency for Fundamental Rights). The most significant development is a change in the monitoring procedure under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages aimed at strengthening this mechanism and entering into force on 1 July 2019.